Editor, thank you very much for reprimanding us about the excessive and uncontrollable habits on social media. I’ve always been addicted to social media until I realised that it would one day ruin my professional life if I didn’t do anything to put an end to it and simply organise myself.
Editor,
Thank you very much for reprimanding us about the excessive and uncontrollable habits on social media.
I’ve always been addicted to social media until I realised that it would one day ruin my professional life if I didn’t do anything to put an end to it and simply organise myself.
Every time when I got at work during the morning, all I did was checking on Facebook. I started by looking for friends to chat with, photos that they posted and everything that I hadn’t planned. I could spend nearly three hours on Facebook and I was more and more becoming a product of procrastination.
One day my boss called me into his office to ask me whether or not I have finished the tasks that he assigned me. To tell the truth, I haven’t done anything. This happened once, twice and until the third time when he gave me a last warning. I had all the time to do his work, but I spent it on social media. I couldn’t resist Facebook.
I decided to deactivate my account but to later reactivate it after a few days. Facebook was getting irresistible and I didn’t want it that way. What I did is deleting the first account – the one with many people of which I don’t know personally – and open a new account exclusively for my friends in real life. I have also tightened my privacy settings so that I don’t get lured to do unplanned things.
I no longer care that much about Facebook. I haven’t been even lured into installing Facebook Home because I didn’t want the social app to be the front and centre of my smartphone. I’ve also uninstalled Facebook Messenger when it got updated with Chat Heads. I only go to Facebook at the right time when I feel like to.
I don’t check on Facebook during my down time, what I do is instead scan news on Flipboard as well as Google+, my preferred social site. I have followed hundreds of tech blogs and that’s what takes most of my down time. Facebook feels like juvenile to me these days. I can even spend days without checking it. If I’m not on Flipboard, I’m on Twitter and Google+.
I’m no longer sick because of social media but I know many people who are, and that’s why I’m thanking you because of this educative commentary... but I think I’m nomophobic too.
Manzi Mutara, KigaliRwanda
Reaction to Dr Cory Couillard’s commentary, "Are social media sites making us sick?”, (The New Times, July 10)