Disconnecting to connect

In our modern day society, social media is impacting us in a way which was unimaginable a couple of decades ago. Social networking has taken the world by storm; it allows people to be connected to each other from all over the world.

The difficulty is that not many of us know how to disconnect from social networks, I think it’s partially due to the fact that we feel pressured to stay active in order not miss out in the constant streams of tweets, Facebook status updates and comments.

If used correctly,  social media can be a way to enhance our knowledge by staying informed with the current economics of the world, advancements in science and technology, as well as enabling us to network with professionals on sites like LinkedIn. Although there are many advantages to social networking, most of us disregard the advantages. We are all guilty of getting succumbed to excessive use of social networks at some points in our lives, but in this decade it is more important than ever to constantly stay productive and engage in activities that will increase our knowledge. Thus the consequence of this hyper-connectivity is causing a decline in productivity and an increase in stress.  At some point in the day I believe that we should disconnect from our online lives to live in our real life. Here are a list of ways we can disconnect and the benefits.

Notice our surroundings

During the summer I visited Wasdale located in the Lake District as well as Loch Lomond which is situated in Scotland. These trips allowed me to disconnect from social media as phone service was limited, nevertheless, it made me appreciate the planet that we live on. Many of us are encapsulated by the brick walls of cities rather than the foundations they’re built upon.  Embracing nature can be quite therapeutic and can give you a clear mind-set. I believe that taking time out to be in a nature setting; can help make good decisions as we have no other influence. 

Turn off notifications

When we have a busy schedules or loads of work to be getting on with, notifications constantly lighting up our phones can be a distraction, especially for procrastinators. Turning notifications off can not only save battery but more importantly improve our productivity during the day, success is about keeping up the momentum, and we simply cannot keep this momentum up whilst being distracted by notifications.

Read

Spending 15 to 30 minutes a day reading instead of spending that time browsing social network sites can be beneficial for knowledge creation; it can also help concentration as we’re focusing our minds on one activity rather than multitasking which can cause confusion to the brain.

Take away devices before and after sleep

When we wake up, it has become a habit that people tend to check up on their social network sites like the morning paper, instead, we could spend some time after we wake up to plan our days, planning tends to increase success and productivity. Moreover, not going on social networks at least 30 minutes before sleep can help to relax the mind, we could also spend that time evaluating how our day has gone, how we could have improved it or maybe just meditate. Checking social network straight before bed could end up clouding our minds with irrelevant information, unless we’re intentionally reading informative pages that will bring relevance.

Interact with people

We have become so reliant on social networks to interact with our friends; we forget to actually spend time together outside of a screen. I believe that if you can only interact with someone through Facebook, Twitter etc then your friendship is not that strong, unless it’s due to the fact you live miles away. I've realised that more and more people are spending their time looking through their phones whilst in a room filled with people, rather than getting to know the people around them. If we took the time out from browsing on our phones whilst around people, we could probably create opportunities for ourselves. Imagine sitting in a room using your phone, not knowing you were sat by the CEO of a large company.