Its very clear that The internet and social media have become a major part of our lives and has changed the way we communicate and receive information. Yes, having access to the internet has given us unlimited access to any information we might want to know and it has also made it very easy to constantly stay in touch with our friends and family. The internet and social media are very beneficial, but I think a lot of us use it excessively and that’s when it becomes a problem in our lives more than it is beneficial to us. A lot of people have become very dependent on social media sites and have even developed an internet addiction without even knowing it. The constant need to always look at your Facebook or Instagram newsfeed is not good. Internet addiction is defined as “uncontrollable use of the Internet that results in excessive time consumption or social dysfunction”.  Using the internet too much or logging into your social media sites so frequently is not normal. It becomes extremely time consuming and it causes for people to become less social. How can that possibly be good when humans need social interaction and social relationships to be happy and function properly.

Internet addiction is similar to any other addiction, in teenagers its been linked to depression, self injurious behaviors, sleep depravation, high alcohol and tobacco use, and obesity. In addition to that, studies have found microstructural changes in adolescent brains that suffer from internet addiction, including alterations in neurotransmitters. I think that internet addiction is a very serious problem not only in teens, but in people from all ages and backgrounds, yet we all just still ignore it. I know for a fact that the internet has taken a bad toll on my sleeping patterns. The more and more I use the internet to check on my social media sites, the more and more my sleeping patterns have gone spiraling out of control. The more I experience sleep disturbances the more I believe that there has to be a correlation between these things. There are times when I know I’m tired and sleepy, but the need to want to know what others are posting will keep me up for hours. Then the next day I’m a hot mess running on a bunch of caffeine, just to repeat the same routine the very next day.

There are many solutions to internet addiction and I will share some of those solutions with you so that you know how to keep your internet usage balanced and healthy for you. The main thing to practice while trying to control your internet usage is to practice self control. I cannot emphasize on this enough. Blocking out distracting websites like Facebook and Instagram is key to controlling your internet usage and preventing internet addiction. practice telling yourself that you will not look at your news feed in those websites for maybe three hours, then after those three hours pass, take a peek then block them out again and stay consistent. If self control doesn’t work you can blacklist the sites that you are obsessed with and only bring them back to your whitelist after you have met your goal for the day to not get on it for a certain period of time. You can also try concentrating or having focus time on a specific task. Maybe while you’re at work you can tell your self that you will focus on work solely until lunch time, then when lunch time is here you can go ahead and check the websites that you want to. For me, self control works best and that’s what I would recommend that people do. Blocking out things and setting standards for yourself is what I think will work best for people getting over internet addiction or just trying to control their internet usage.

If you have any other ways that you manage your internet use please let me know and leave a comment & SUBSCRIBE.

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