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Is it necessary to be on social networks? Are social services necessary? business networks? How to determine if a person is addicted to social networks

I saw this information in a post from the Genius Marketing Facebook Page. I found this list useful and important for those who are just thinking about or have started promoting on social networks.

If you invest in content creation, it would be an incredible shame not to have it show up in search results. Social media is playing an increasingly larger role in how web pages appear in search engines every day—Google has even started including Google+ status updates in search results.

It turns out that search engines use snippets of social media activity (like when someone shares your page on Twitter) to determine the relevance and trustworthiness of your site. That is, the more people on social networks “vote” for your content, the better your site’s display in search results becomes. Give people the opportunity to vote for your content by posting articles, e-books, buying guides, research in your industry, reviews from other consumers, and anything else that might be of interest to your social networks, and then reap the rewards of the search results advantage.

2. You will be able to more carefully control the company’s image on the Internet

When it comes to search engine rankings, maintaining an active presence for your brand on social media can significantly influence your display metrics and improve your company's reputation (or build one, for starters). Let's say that an abstract person found out about the existence of your company and became curious about who you are, what you are like and how pleasant you are in general. If you now type the name of your company into Google search, what will you get in the search results?

Wouldn't it be better for you to increase the influence of your social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn and others to cope with the advantage of third-party review sites over which you have little to no control? On top of that, your appearance on social platforms will once again interest the curious and lead them to your pages in search of great content.

3. User-generated content is more important than ever.

According to eMarketer, 65% of users aged 18-24 trust the information they find online about a brand when purchasing a specific product. And according to eConsultancy, two-thirds of consumers (an incredibly high figure!) use search engines when making purchasing decisions. Agree that the chance that your target audience belongs to one of these groups is extremely high. Social media is a great way to get that desired user-generated content and target it to a group of people who obviously care about it.

4. You will strengthen your influence in the industry.

Okay, let's say that your customers really aren't one of the two-thirds of Internet users who pay a lot of attention to what's written about you on the Internet. And let’s even say that they are not among the 65% of generation Y for whom your presence on the Internet is vitally important.

But they are still your colleagues, opinion leaders, conference organizers, future employees, potential business partners, journalists, marketers and PR professionals who use social media every day. It is these people who expect that they will not only be able to find you on social networks, but also learn more about you and start communicating with you through the same social platforms. And frankly speaking, you should expect the same from them.

Use social networks to make connections that will help grow your business. Study other people, look for opportunities for dialogue, find event sponsors, etc. It is social media that can give you the influence and visible presence needed to be recognized and chosen for special occasions. This is especially important to do if your competitors have not yet established a winning position on social media.

5. Consumers of other companies are present on social media

Let's continue the conversation about finding new opportunities. Clients of other companies use social networks. Consider whether the products or services you offer overlap with what other companies offer. Or maybe their audience opens up a new part of the market for you that you haven't yet reached?

Analyzing the presence of these companies on the Internet and social networks, in particular, will only benefit you. Share content with them, build relationships, interact, create special content for the target audience and the companies themselves - this is how you will win new customers with whom you can build partnerships, get recommendations and discover a whole new circle of people to whom you can sell your products or services.

Let's break down the importance of market outreach for your company, review them, and explain the use of social media in this case.

Reach means that all your fans and readers have their own fans and readers. So, if one of your Twitter followers has over a hundred followers, sending them a Tweet with a link to your blog post will increase your blog and Twitter reach by a hundred of those followers, many of whom haven't even heard of you yet. So even if one of your Twitter followers isn't your target audience, there's still a chance that one in a hundred of their followers is either already a fan or will become one in the future.

But there is another advantage to having a wide reach through social networks - remember at the beginning of this article we talked about the role of social media in search results? So this is the reason why you need incredibly wide reach on the Internet. Even if your readers never become consumers of your services or products, they can still share your content among themselves and increase the number of those who see your content. Don't forget that this serves as a kind of indicator for search engines, determining how important your page is and bringing mentions about you to the top of search results.

This is why HubSpot encourages employees to be active on social media to increase their reach. They congratulate their employees on social media, many of them include links to HubSpot content in their tweets, and thousands of people who are not fans of the company learn about it and gain access to its content. That is, each individual employee of the company can present you with his personal customer database, even if the employee is not involved in sales or marketing.

One way to measure the effectiveness of a marketing strategy is to calculate the ratio of the cost of attracting potential customers to the value of those customers and clients to your business. This method may not be suitable for some types of companies, but it is very important to remember the development scenario described below.

Let's say that investing in social media brings you one new client per month. Compare these costs to other methods you use to attract the same customer. For example, the cost of attracting one client through email is much higher than the cost of attracting new people through social networks. Email marketing requires specialized software, staff to operate it, and a lot of man-hours to create the content. At the same time, for a marketing strategy using social platforms, you do not need special equipment or costs for it, and the work takes only a few man-hours per week.

Yes, mailing lists can bring you more clients than social networks, but you need to use both tools in appropriate amounts, because... Both of these strategies are key components in growing your business. Social media use is sometimes seen as a waste of time, but this is because marketers often get caught up in the various metrics of likes and comments, rather than focusing on the ultimate goal of the marketing mix - attracting new customers.

Even if you don't rely heavily on social media to be effective in attracting new clients and consumers, using it will still improve the effectiveness of your other marketing efforts. Social networks and their active use help in all areas: they improve your position in search results, increase the influence of email newsletters, blog posts, and various events online and offline.

9. By the time you are ready, it may already be too late.

Okay, maybe you're not ready to embrace the power of social media just yet. However, it would be unwise to assume that your potential audience does not use them or will not use them in the future. And in the future, you yourself will probably appreciate all the advantages of social platforms and become their active users.

But don't forget the predicament you could get into if you don't hurry up. Therefore, it would be better to protect yourself today and take up suitable accounts on social networks, before competitors with a similar name or general field of activity do it for you.

People change over time. The audience on social networks also goes through changes in their lives: a change of job, type of activity, the emergence of new hobbies and hobbies, new acquaintances, changing religious or political views, the appearance of children, marriage, divorce, retirement - in general, you get the idea train of thought.

Moreover, you yourself can change. Your company may begin to offer new services or expand its product line, find new opportunities in your niche, or you become so successful at using social media that you grow a new generation of audiences who want your products or services.

In any case, if any of these changes happen, wouldn't it be better to already have a defined audience online rather than start the whole process from scratch?

Communicating in the blogosphere, I noticed that many bloggers are quite dismissive of social networks and, accordingly, of communication on them. Others, on the contrary, actively post their photographs there, links to posts, remarks and do not bother with these issues. And I wanted to figure out what social networks are for and how effective they are for promoting an offline blog.

As far as I remember, the first blogs in RuNet appeared on the basis of blog hosting sites. The most successful project turned out to be LiveJournal, popularly known as LJ, zhezheshechka, “cozy.” It successfully combined (and continues to combine) the functions of an autonomous blog and a social network. Yes, a third-level domain, some truncated functions (dependence on the LiveJournal administration, truncated journal settings, monetization restrictions, etc.). And the “friends feed” unites different blogs into a single stream, which allows you to keep abreast of what your friends have written.

Google Blogspot has taken an intermediate position between blog hosting and stand-alone blogs. You can attach a second-level domain to your blog and monetize it more freely. The friends feed has disappeared, leaving only the option to go to the next blog on the console. There is also a certain dependence on the blog hosting administration, which can close the blog at its discretion.

Offline blogs provide maximum freedom of expression. Design it the way you want, monetize it as much as you can. But the price for freedom was dependence on search engines and difficulties in attracting readers.

In recent years, social networks have burst into the Internet space. Twitter, VKontakte, Facebook, Google+, Instagram... In many ways, they became the very “feed of friends” that autonomous vehicles were so lacking. But at the same time, they took over some of the blogging functions. Let's try to figure out what exactly.

Social networks - quickly and conveniently

Social networks have proven their efficiency. Information spreads across them instantly. Let's remember where we got the main information from during high-profile social events: opposition protests on Bolotnaya Square, the Pussy Wright case, the Kyiv Maidan, the war in Donbass, and other incidents. Precisely from social networks. Thanks to #hashtags any high-profile event instantly rises to the top; Internet users sometimes find out about it earlier than the official media. This kind of “word of mouth” turned out to be extremely effective. The intelligence services of different countries did not fail to take advantage of this. The “Arab Spring” and other “color revolutions” are direct confirmation of this.

Social networks also make it easy to repost - with the click of a button. Thanks to them and likes, your friends will also see the post you liked in their feed. It's easy to write on social networks. They are installed on any smartphone as separate programs. Writing a post or sending a photo from the scene of an event takes just a few minutes. The main thing is to have the Internet.

Blogs are a different matter - even with a mobile version, you can’t write on them so quickly. For example, I’ve been writing this post for the second day, thinking about it, making edits, adding. Then I will have to write a title, keywords, add a meta description, select a picture and design it accordingly. And when the post comes out, how can you make sure that readers know about it quickly? Not everyone reads the newsletter. And again, social networks come to the rescue - either a personal account or a group. And the more it is promoted, the more people will follow the link.

Several times my blogs experienced an avalanche-like increase in visitors, their number reaching several tens of thousands per day. It turned out that someone gave a link in promoted groups. A few days later the numbers returned, of course, to their previous level.

Social media accounts - blogs? Yes!

Let's remember what a blog is. This is an abbreviation for English web log- an online event log, online diary, online diary, where posts are structured chronologically, from new to old (see Wikipedia). And it depends only on its author what and how he will fill it. Someone writes about the events of their lives, travels and experiences. Some people talk about more abstract topics. Others generally publish only photographs, without text. The main function of a blog is (self)presentation and communication. Otherwise, the blog turns into an information site.

And for that matter It doesn’t matter at all where the blog will be located - on an offline platform, blog hosting or on a social network. Efficiency and capabilities are decisive.

Nowadays, many social media accounts have turned into full-fledged blogs. I will name just a few names: Anatoly Shariy, Arsen Avakov, Vitaly Tretyakov, Anatoly El-Murid... Their Facebook profiles have a huge number of subscribers. And the ease of reposting allows you to convey information to others. Other politicians and public figures use other social networks. Dmitry Rogozin often responds to his opponents on Twitter, and Ramzan Kadyrov on Instagram. But it doesn’t matter where - the main thing is that a large number of people instantly learn about it, and the media publish them.

Of course, if we are talking about a long post with a lot of photos, a classic blog would be optimal. But if you want to publish a photo taken “on the fly” or short travel notes, again, “on the fly”? Or are you offended by some situation or phrase and want to discuss it with friends? There is nothing better than a social network - fast, efficient, convenient. But all this: a photo, a remark, a note - also falls under the definition of a blog.

Autonomous blog - how to attract readers?

Autonomous blogs, as I wrote above, provide the greatest opportunities in terms of design and monetization. It is also important that you are its full-fledged owner and are little dependent on third parties (unless, of course, you break the law and are at least a little concerned about safety). On the other hand, a serious problem with autonomous films is attracting readers. As a rule, the main flow comes from search engines. And that means you have to please them.

More than 80% of visitors to this blog come from search engines, and more than 90% to “Moscow Region”.

How to please search engines? Write a post with at least 300 words (Google’s recommendation), write a title, keywords, meta-description, properly design pictures, etc. Then take care of indexing the post, ideally pump it up with links... But that’s not all.

We all know that the “gold of a blog” is its readers, and active ones at that. Those who subscribe to updates will comment on posts. Bloggers use the most sophisticated methods to attract new people: relay races, competitions, gifts for subscription, mutual commenting, etc. If only a person subscribes to the blog.

Are social networks killing blogs?

In my opinion, social networks can be compared to a newspaper, and blogs can be compared to an illustrated magazine or book. It is useless to argue which is better - everyone has their own capabilities and tasks. The news feed on a social network is quickly updated; information that was recently relevant gradually slides down and is eventually lost somewhere in the archives. A classic blog is easier to navigate. For example, on my blog it’s easy to find posts that were written 6 years ago.

Sometimes I find it difficult to separate my offline blog from my social media account. This is how I do it. Usually what requires a detailed narrative, a lot of photographs, I publish on the blog. More immediate - on social networks. But this doesn’t mean that I look at my social media profiles as a dump where I can throw everything. This is also my story, my little blog, which serves as a support for this.

People are lazy by nature and do not always click on an external link. Now they note that clicking has given way to scrolling - this is due to the widespread use of mobile devices. I noticed that, for example, Anatoly El-Murid, the author of a very popular political blog on LiveJournal, completely duplicates his posts on Facebook. They comment on it both here and there. So it's justified.

Blogs, social networks and business

Businessmen have long understood the effectiveness of social networks. A beautiful picture on Instagram can attract more customers than a blog article. By googling, you can find many posts devoted to this issue. Any self-respecting company or publication is represented on the Internet in all its diversity: an autonomous website, regularly updated profiles on social networks.

So I wouldn't treat social media as just a chat room. Of course, for most users, that's exactly what they are. But at the same time, they are a very effective tool for promoting your brand and shaping public opinion.

My blogs and social networks

My readers are probably wondering how many transitions from social networks there are to my blogs. I will be disappointed - a little, on normal days about 1-2%. Links to posts get few likes, while a successful photo or remark posted on Facebook will get several dozen likes and a dozen shares - this despite the fact that I don’t promote my profile and add as friends not everyone who knocks .

Very often, interesting discussions unfold under my posts on social networks. And I sometimes regret that they cannot be moved here. Of course, I would prefer to somehow combine all my accounts - Autonomous, Facebook, VKontakte, Instagram into a single conglomerate. I still can’t imagine how this is technically possible.

Editor's response

Anna, 45 years old, manager

Unfortunately, social networks cannot replace real communication. But people waste time on them that they could spend with family or friends. It’s as if a person is moving away from real life into some kind of fictional world. And teenagers suffer the most from this scourge. After all, when you make contacts on a social network, it is not at all necessary to tell the truth about yourself. There is always an opportunity to embellish reality a little, to show yourself as more beautiful, successful, cool. In real life, all these tricks very soon become noticeable and the invented aura of the hero disappears. And on a social network you can maintain a given image almost indefinitely. There’s just one problem - you can’t make real friends online. The teenager doesn’t even know who he’s communicating with. Maybe all his friends are also pretending to be someone they really aren't. But it’s impossible to go online forever! You still have to communicate with real people. But the teenager does not have the appropriate skills. After all, communication also needs to be learned. This requires practice, not “virtual training” online. It seems to me that people who are accustomed to communicating via the Internet are very lonely in life. Friendships with real people are very different from email correspondence. And if a person does not learn to truly be friends, he will forever remain alone.

Oleg, 29 years old, economist

A social network is like seeds. I'm already tired of gnawing, but it's impossible to quit. I myself fell for this bait. First I registered in one of the networks, just out of curiosity. You know, it's very addictive. I am an adult, I began to catch myself that I couldn’t wait until I had the opportunity to look at my page on the Internet. I was drawn to the computer much more than to my wife and son! I stopped getting things done at work. I came in the morning, went online, and lo and behold, it was already evening. It’s unclear what he did all day. In general, I made a strong-willed decision - I deleted my page from the network. Now I won't go there. A waste of time, nothing more. I am aware that all this online communication has not enriched me in any way. I haven't gotten smarter, I haven't gotten better. I was just wasting my life on some stupid things. But, in essence, what do I care what complete strangers think of me? Why should I care what they look like or what they say? Why did I refuse to communicate with my loved ones and friends in order to talk about nothing with people whose names I don’t know, only some pseudonyms. I understand perfectly well that many people need social networks to make money. The more visitors to your page, the more opportunities for earning money from the same advertising, for example. But for those who are looking for communication on the Internet not to earn money, it is better not to go there. You won’t find warmth there, you’ll just waste your time.

Alla, 52 years old, housewife

For many, social networks are their only outlet. How many lonely people there are in our country - millions! They have no family, no close friends, even few good acquaintances. Who should they communicate with? I think that for such people, social networks can really become a source of spiritual warmth. And there is no need to deprive them of this. Just imagine how good it would be if, for example, pensioners learned to use the Internet and had the opportunity to access social networks! I think there would immediately be fewer lonely and unhappy people among them. After all, for an elderly person, traveling three bus stops to meet a friend is like going to another city. Maybe virtual friendship will not replace real one, but such communication is better than no communication. And it’s easier to find someone close in spirit and interests through the Internet - the number of users there is much greater than the regulars of the shop at the entrance. So don't resist progress. On the contrary, you need to take advantage of the opportunities it provides.

Mikhail, 33 years old, bank employee

It is not at all necessary to use social networks only for idle chatter. For example, my wife loves to embroider. Agree, these days this hobby is quite rare. So, through the network she found those who were also interested in embroidery. They exchange some schemes via the Internet and give each other advice. I don't see anything wrong with this! And another advantage of social networks is a certain impersonality in communication. On the Internet, as a rule, your circle is completely different from that in real life. Maybe, having met these people, you won’t even want to talk to them - they will irritate you. And on the network - that’s it. And you will exchange information, and you will not spoil each other’s mood with all sorts of unpleasant little things.

Nikolay, 43 years old, entrepreneur

It seems to me that there is nothing wrong with social networks. This is just another opportunity for communication. For some reason, people always contrast the Internet with real gatherings with friends. I am registered on several social networks, and at the same time I have no fewer friends. I travel abroad quite often, meet people there, and if it weren’t for social networks, I would have lost contact with them long ago. Calling is expensive, visiting each other takes time and money. And the time difference often interferes with live communication. Social networks give me the opportunity not to lose touch with people from other cities. What's bad about it? It’s just that people are not yet fully accustomed to the Internet, so they are wary of it. Remember, the same thing happened with mobile phones when they first appeared. My mother, I remember, was perplexed why a mobile phone was needed if you could talk on a regular phone. And now she can’t live without a cell phone. If she doesn't have the opportunity to contact me or her grandchildren at any time, she starts to get nervous. I think the same thing will soon happen with the Internet.

Nina, 30 years old, secretary

I don't understand people who are seriously into social networks. In my opinion they are just stupid. They post their photos on the Internet, and then they are surprised by the angry comments. Why be surprised? Half of those who visit your page really find you unattractive, and the other half say nasty things because otherwise they won’t be able to sleep peacefully. People simply assert themselves in this way - if you tell someone that their legs are crooked, their own limbs will immediately seem straighter. So it turns out that people post their photos and comments only to receive a stream of dirt in response. Then they get upset and start writing all sorts of rubbish to the offenders. What is all this for? Damage your self-esteem? I am not registered in any network. I don’t want the people I went to school with to find me and spend a long time talking about how I’ve aged, gotten fat, and become stupid. It will just be unpleasant for me to read this.

Researchers believe that social networks are the main reason why today the amount of people's time spent in virtual routine is increasing. Their main advantages are the opportunity for people to talk about their interests and share them with others, to declare themselves. This gives us reason to assert that in addition to the communication function, social networks also have the function of a potential marketing tool. Moreover, experts say that they will soon begin to be a necessary mechanism for any activity.

Social networks serve us as a platform for informal conversations. They help in creating new music and serve as a capital tool for finding new employees and partners. Social networks have long been an excellent platform for advertisers. Social Media Marketing is one of the most effective tools for attracting target audiences today. Such results can be achieved thanks to the amazing accuracy of determining the target audience of the advertised product.

One of the small disadvantages of social networks- the likelihood of missing certain details that are important for business reputation. Looking from a technical point of view, a social network is interactive multi-user a website whose members fill it with content.

Why do we need social networks? Sitting all day on VKontakte or Facebook is Fine or Badly?

I am a supporter progress, many people are fans of everything modern and newly minted. Sometimes some I even have the thought that when the moment comes when it will be possible to sew a TV remote control into themselves, they will definitely do it first.

But there is one thing: Social networks are driving some people into a bit of a blues. They spend hours on these websites when they could instead be doing sports, riding a bike or calling their friends and chatting with them in real life, but for some reason they continue to torment the mouse by opening new windows in the browser.

Has the Internet replaced normal communication? Answer - Yes. Phone calls, wonderful meetings, handwritten letters, emails - they all disappear. I wouldn't be surprised if the future generation will call it the stone age. Is it possible that all previous forms of communication have become obsolete like a two-year-old vegetable?

Many people already really like writing by hand; the keyboard and sensor have replaced the usual paper and pencil for people. But you know, it’s so nice to take a sharpened pencil, a blank sheet of paper that rustles so much, delighting your ear, and compose something, be it a letter or an essay.

Of course, social networks have important advantages. We can communicate with relatives from other countries, find amazing music compositions, and exchange photos. A musical postcard received from a friend is an excellent gift (though this has also already become part of the “we don’t live in the Middle Ages”).

Nobody encourages anyone to abandon their profiles on websites, simply call your loved ones as often as possible, listen to their voice, contact in reality, feel human warmth, and not visually through a keyboard and mouse.

KazanWeek

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Manifested by an uncontrollable attraction to something. Today I want to dwell on its variety - psychological addiction to social networks.

Modern life is such that few people do not have a profile on one or more social networks. Twitter, Facebook, Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, Instagram. There are also narrower social networks - for doctors, programmers, webmasters, lawyers, and educators.

Do you need social networks?

Here are just a few examples of the positive influence of social networks in our lives:

social networks help us exchange information, experiences, communicate with friends, like-minded people who are hundreds of kilometers away from us, and always be aware of everything that is happening in their lives;
they allow you to quickly find out about new vacancies, since many companies post them on their pages, and even get a job if you strive for this;
thanks to social networks, many people have found new friends, and some have found their soulmate;
they help you travel, saving on travel and accommodation;
it is social networks that help many talented young people gain popularity, receive support, recognition from complete strangers;
For some, classmates or VKontakte have become a source of income, they also help those in need raise money for treatment;
Social networks nowadays provide assistance to law enforcement officers: very often I see notes in the press that the police managed to find some underage girl who ran away to a gentleman, and the presence of the gentleman himself and his identity were established through correspondence on social networks.

This list of merits can be continued for a long time. But there is one huge disadvantage - the problem of addiction to social networks.

What is so attractive about social networks?

People involved in developing the functionality of social networks do everything to make them better, more interesting, and more colorful every day. So that when a person goes to the site, he spends as much time there as possible, and preferably also forks out money and buys something.

Communicating on social networks is much easier; there is a certain facelessness. After all, you can register not only under your own name, but also under a fictitious pseudonym, and instead of a photo, place an avatar (picture) or someone else’s photo. You can write whatever you want, insult, “troll”, but you won’t have to really answer for your statements!

Some people view social networks not only as a source of obtaining necessary information, communication, and self-realization. They can go in and wander aimlessly through profiles, add acquaintances and other people as friends, participate in discussions, read statuses, news, look at photos, play games. Of course, there are many discussions in which people share their experiences, where they are helped to get an answer to an important question. But there is also a lot of communication about nothing, monosyllabic comments, emoticons, and sometimes banal rudeness.

Portrait of a person prone to network addiction

People who are insecure and have a limited circle of friends are predisposed to becoming dependent on social networks. Those who would like to communicate, but their opinion in real life is not valued by others.

If a person has a serious hobby to which he wants to devote all his free time, then he is unlikely to look through 20 albums, but if there are no hobbies, and there is a lot of free time, then this is the right path to the formation of such an addiction.

Another category of people at increased risk are people who have one negative quality - envy. How are others doing? Worse? Better? And if you carefully look at all the photographs, and also at friends, relatives, classmates, employees... Gradually spying on someone else’s life becomes a habit, and then it’s not far from addiction.

Addiction creeps up unnoticed

This addiction does not develop immediately. I tried this drug once, twice, three times - and that’s it, the substance became indispensable for metabolism. Social media addiction can take months and sometimes years to form. At first, a person logs into his account once a day, after a week - several times a day, you see, and after a few months he updates his page several times an hour to the detriment of his main job. And even if now the time spent on VKontakte or Odnoklassniki activity is insignificant, it is not a fact that in the near future a person will not become addicted.

Many people whose work is directly related to the computer do not even leave their social network profiles at work (of course, if management allows it).

I remember a joke on this topic:

Boss to secretary:
— Gather all employees for a meeting urgently!
- By intercom?
- No, through Odnoklassniki, it will be faster!!!

But do we need to look through 100 photographs from the life of a friend whom we haven’t seen for 5 years and, having his phone number, haven’t called each other? Maybe it would be better to devote this time to learning a foreign language, communicating with parents, a loved one or children? Or simply get some sleep (we so often deny ourselves this, giving time to classmates or VK). Social networks consume an incredible amount of time, which could be directed in a completely different, useful direction.

There's even a joke like this:

He lived a calm life and managed to do everything. No, well, you should have registered on VKontakte!

How to determine that a person is addicted to social networks?

Do you have an addiction to social networks? The answer to this question will be positive if you have at least half of the listed signs. If there are several, you also need to think about whether it’s worth spending so much time on social networks.

an obsessive, irresistible desire to go to your page on a social network, view the latest news, look through photos, show some kind of activity;
complaints from family members, cohabitants, and employees that a person spends too much time on social networks;
significant financial expenses, unnecessary purchases “via the Internet”;
the inability to say in advance how much time a given person will devote to a social network, loss of temporal control during a computer session;
a feeling of irritation if at the moment it is not possible to log into your profile (there is no Wi-Fi in this area, you need to urgently complete some task);
As addiction progresses, problems may arise with school, in the family, at work, when the addicted person stops paying due attention to them and spends more and more time online;
he can eat in front of a computer monitor, spend less time sleeping, just so as not to miss anything new.

Features in children and adolescents

The dependence of young people and adolescents on social networks is more pronounced than among middle-aged and elderly people. Firstly, this is due to the fact that most teenagers do not yet have the same burden of responsibility and life experience as older people; they do not need to devote a lot of time to family, cooking, or financial security.

Secondly, social networks are a popular trend, and therefore many boys and girls, in order to keep up with fashion and keep abreast of all the news, try to spend a lot of time on social networks, which, in turn, draws them in. It’s not for nothing that they’re called “networks.”

Teenagers and young adults who have not yet formed their own individuality are overly dependent on the opinions of other people. They post photos of themselves to attract attention and approval. They get used to living “for show,” and there is not much good in this.

How to get rid of addiction?

Only a few manage to get rid of this addiction simply and painlessly. Only those who can boast of fortitude, those who have realized how much of their invaluable time they are wasting instead of devoting this time to loved ones, achieving their dreams, and self-education.

But if you are determined to change your life, try to regulate the time you spend on a social network in advance, do not go to your page “just like that.” Write a list of things that you absolutely must do. And only after you have done everything, you can go to your favorite social network as a “bonus”.

Another effective method is communicating with friends in the real world, not the virtual one. Agree on some kind of joint excursion, an outing into nature, or just a get-together in a cafe (only one where there is no free Wi-Fi network). And try to devote this time to relaxation, communication with friends, and never look at your phone!