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Week 1 [06.03-12.03.2017] Digital Anxiety

Read the article at
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170220-cant-unplug-heres-how-to-navigate-your-digital-anxiety
and comment on it. Present your experiences.

Comments

Sylwia Pechcin said…
For me social media addiction is even more stupid than games addiction. I can't understand it at all. To be honest, I can put my phone into my bag for a whole day and check it in the evening and I don't feel anxious during the day. I treat social media as an entertainment not as a sense of my life.
Unknown said…
It seems that I don't have problem with social media or I only think that. When I go on holidays I can stop using the telephone. Of course I use Facebook and I can't imagine the world without it. I noticed that when I'm somewhere and I'm waiting for someone then I take my phone and I read the same 3 times. I know that people have a problem with this. I know people who can spend all time on the phone. When you want to take phone from them they react with aggression. When they don't have it they start to panic.
Unknown said…
I was always telling that I had no problems with social media, leaving my phone etc. But despite that I was always checking Facebook or just new notifications. Similar to Sylwia, I could leave my phone for a whole day, but when I had it in my hand, I wanted to check.

Some time ago, I had to remove Facebook and Messenger apps from my phone. Simple reason - lack of space.
When I did it, it turned out I can do much more during the same time. That's why, I don't install these apps again. It's not comfortable because of news from different places, but my friends know I'm not online all the time so they use other ways to communiate.

Both for them and me, it's not convenient, but I have more time.

Ok, I have to go... to check my Facebook ;)
I think that most of the people spending so much time online just don't want to miss any activities, photos or posts of people they follow. There is endless amounts of content created by your friends/funpages in the social media, which is why you would have to stay online almost all the time to be up-to-date. In fact, it results only in virtual relationships and takes you a lot of time, which otherwise could be dedicated to real-world interactions.

I spend a lot of time online on a normal day, because I need Internet access in order to work. I noticed that when I'm at home and I go on 5-minutes Facebook break, it often takes me longer than half an hour. However, being offline for a day or even two during the weekend is not a problem for me.

For those who consider themselves spending too much time online, as a first step, I would suggest to turn on mobile data on their smartphones only when needed (no background transfer). The second idea which can reduce the amount of time spent online is to disable notifications from some apps (Facebook, Snapchat etc.).
This comment has been removed by the author.
Undoubtedly, social networks are a great technological achievement, which promises many opportunities. But along with these opportunities, woes come... It can not be said that social networks are one continuous harm. With the right, disciplined approach to this miracle of Internet technology, you can get some benefit and make your life easier.
Social networks can bring many benefits: help find an old friend, learn about a new book or music album, organize a meeting and event. But the abuse of public networks can lead to dependence, loss of attention, waste of time, alienation and stupor. Social networks are not a great evil, as many believe. That's both good and bad. Only in our power to take from them only the good and weed out the bad.
For me, social networks are just a small part of my daily life, I will not check updates every hour, but I always try to answer on messages from my friends, if I'm not busy, of course. I also use them to contact my colleagues when I work remotely.
And sometimes use as a music player:)
Unknown said…
Filip, when I have read this article I knew that you will write down your own case ;)

In my opinion social media is just tailor-made for decreasing our productivity because you spend hours looking at everyone else’s life when you could be doing something else. This means that most of your time is spent on viewing photos, liking posts, and writing comments and these activities don’t really require the use of your intellectual abilities. They aren’t intellectual at all and distract you from activities that are such as reading, studying informational articles on the internet, etc. Your brain doesn’t get enough food for development and your intellectual abilities can decline in this way. Your brain will slow down and not be able to respond quickly in various situations. The moment you realize you are dealing with such situation; you should immediately learn how to delete your Facebook account.

Filip good job. I think I will delete Fb from my phone soon too.
Unknown said…
Social networks are great. You can easily and instantly communicate with your friends , even those who are on the other side of the world. You can see what they share, what they are thinking about, see them at some pictures or short videos. Of course it is a great achievement. But, on the other hand, it is very bad for us if we spend almost all the time connected to it. Staying online and checking what other people are posting. We loose so much time on this! This is unbelievable. Despite that I am usually also connected to the internet all the time, I don't have some anxiety and need to check everything every 5 minutes. I find it useful for me, if someone wants to contact me, I am always available, but as it was said above, I also could throw my phone to my bag for all day and don't care about it. Just to live the moment. This is something that some people just can't even imagine. I think it is some kind of sickness, or addiction for sure.
Unknown said…
The global network is one of the greatest invetion in human history, it makes humanity connected on unprecedented scale. No wonder people cannot un-plug. There's just so much information flowing daily that they have to know about, read, comment, contribute to. Having a smartphone comes with great benefits as well as hidden dangers. A smartphone lets you stay awlays connected, anywhere you go and that is a simple road to create a habit of almost constant checking up your phone. Like with all habits it may be hard to change it or get rid of it. Personally, I do not have a problem with it but I have to conciously choose to keep my attention to the surroundings rather than what's new on reddit or other virtual place.
I'm happy to say that this doesn't really bother me - I visit FB very rarily, and when I do then I always have a fixed purpose for doing so (such as talking with a friend) instead of just casually browsing.

I don't have FB app on the phone either, I do not use other social media - I'm not interested in watching people posting food pics on snapchat ;). However being connected to the internet everywhere is quite nice, as I often read/write e-mails outside of the home, check news that interest me, or simply keep in touch with friends. I wouldn't say that I spend that much time doing that though, it's more like simply keeping a contact.

If somebody wants to stop wasting time browsing FB while still communicating with friends, I strongly suggest any minimalistic FB-capable app, such as Pidgin with a plugin - text messages and nothing else, keeping productivity at maximum instead of distracting with a FB wall :).
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
Nicholas Mirzoeff writes in his book "How to see the world" - "In recent decades, we have witnessed an explosion in the number of visual images we encounter, as our lives have become increasingly saturated with screens." I think it's hard not to agree that nowadays we spend most of our time looking at screens our smart phones, tablets or laptops. Our lives are largely goes online, we discuss by the Internet, exchanging photos, work, create our image on social media - how people perceive us. In my opinion internet it's great invention to learn and exchange data, we could reach a large number of information from the whole world very quickly, but it should be only a tool for a better life but don't direct us.

In my opinion social media it's excellent way of exchanging information and way of communicating with people from all over the world, but it shouldn't fill the whole of our lives; when we have the opportunity to talk to people in real, we should put the phone down. Notifications on our phones are forcing us to constantly check what is happening online, but we shouldn't totally give up our lives to devices and internet.
Unknown said…
I think its all about balance. Use fb visely, just for contacting with friends and organizing meetings and you will not need digital detox. I use fb only to keep up with my friends, usually not even logging on computer, so i don't think that i am distracted by my online life.
Unknown said…
I don't know people who are addicted to social media. Nowadays it's normal think to browse the internet with your smartphone while returning to home, it's comfortable way to spend that several minutes. It's also give us opportunity to keep in touch with people, organize meeting or watch some funny videos.
Michał Pycek said…
Thankfully, I have never experienced having troubles with social media addiction. When I spend time online on my PC or smartphone, I do it with a purpose, not to follow my friends' lives, some gossip stories or anthing like this. Personally, I stopped using FB because I got to a point I found it useless and too much time-consuming, so I switched to Twitter but only to be updated with the politics and social subjects being spoken about. In my opinion it is better to use social media and staying online just on purpose and wisely, otherwise we can loose a great deal of our freetime which we will never get back.
In my humble opinion it is very sad that in our time, political news, or the feeling fact that you can skip any "trend" became an increasingly to replace live communication. I think that , for example, to scroll through the news feed in FB while you drive to work or another location is acceptable , but this should not fully replace the interactions with family or friends.
Maciej Główka said…
I think social sites addiction is big problem, it's easy to notice for example in underground during rush hours. Almost everybody is watching something in his phone, you can count on your hand people, who talk each other. I don't say, that social sites are pure evil, you can keep in touch with many friends, with whom would be very hard to stay connected without it. However, I think more people should remember, that it is good sometimes to go out with friends rather than stay at home and like their posts on facebook.
Vyvyan said…
Personally, I like social media stuff. I mean, with cautious.
Social Media helps with staying in touch with my friends even with family. But it doesn't mean I can't turn off the phone and don't look at it whole day.
The sad fact is, that now, young people are so addicted with Social Media that they doesn't see the difference between reality and "Crazy Social Media World" in which they are live.
On the other hand, Social Media can help us to follow the world's meaningful events and news.
Unknown said…
I suspect that many people are addicted to social media. They don't even know. I spend a lot of time on Facebook. Social media is basically cool thing only need to have moderation. The worst thing is when he goes to a meeting with a group of friends and some of them they use the phone to Facebook
Fortunately, I don't have a problem with "digital anxiety". As to social media, I only use Facebook to communicate with friends and to check important news which are attributable to my studies. If somebody sends me a friend invitation, after accepting it, I immediately click the "unfollow" button to not watch what he or she posts on his/her wall. I'm not interested in other people's lives so my news feed is free from photos of food or their pets ;) To be honest, I only have FB account, because of my studies. If I deleted my FB account I would be more happy, because I don't like FB's privacy policy.
Unknown said…
I don't understand a trend to make profiles on all of the social media stuff and document whole life, every step you take. I have got an account on Facebook, but I don't know what is pleasnt in posting pictures of every meal or every activity.
I noticed that I'm using facebook mostly when I'm bored or when I have to find some information (posts on groups). When I'm having fun I'm not thinking of phone or anything like that and I don't understand my freinds when they have to make photo and post it, so everyone will see it.
It's not social media thing - this is just a tool. It should be used widely and users should remember that thing posted once will exist in Interner forever.
Social media can be very addictive. Personally I don't have problem with it, because I can put away my phone for whole day and don't check it, but there was time when scrolling through FB wall was an activity on which I was wasting so much time and because of that I realize that I must change something in my life. Of course FB or Twitter is a very good method for spending time in public transport and I'm doing it still. Even now when I'm not wasting so much time on social media, I know that they're very distracting and I experienced it, I haven't had internet for like one week, because my internet cable break down and I saw how much my productivity increased in that time.
Unknown said…
In my opinion, social media sites are very helpful on a daily basis - studies, work, events, checking restaurant reviews etc.
After reading the article, I can honestly say that I'm not addicted and just feel sorry for people who spends few hours a day on facebook.
Everything used in limited and healthy matter is good. When it is overtaking our life the way we cannot control it - it is very bad.
I love traveling and then my phone is mostly off - I am using it just to download offline navigation to travel to places I do not know. I am sometimes catching myself using a computer or mobile too much for just watching junk movies like "fail compilations", "car crash compilations etc" - pure time-wasters.
I like what few cinemas or trains managed to make - place that there is no wireless range or no phone use allowed at all. Something is changing because lately I saw on a few trains that there are few wagons on which talking via phone, playing on laptop is prohibited - that is a good change, people started to talk again normally like in an old days. That is way better than staring at the phone all the time.
Magdalena Popek said…
Social media have created the mini-reality, their mini-world, where you can be anyone hidden behind your computer screen. You belong to groups containing maybe some funny content, sometimes useful information. You comment on things posted by other users, get "likes", feel appreciated. Social life has become much more exciting than real life (can you imagine anyone irl excited by your photo of two sandwitches?). What is more all social media are now all-in-one sites - you don't have to leave Facebook or Twitter to be up to date with what's happening around the world, newest events, your schoolmate's life or even information on "losing your weight in JUST TWO WEEKS".
I was thinking if I would be able to turn off the Internet on my phone for a few days. Last year - probably yes. But this year - definitely no. As a person writing the Engineering Thesis I have to be in a most-of-the-time contact with my friends. We are doing a group project (the group of 10) and I am the leader. The faster I respond to my friend questions, the better. With no answer they can't move one with their work so it may be much harder for them to meet the deadline.
But there is one thing for which Facebook is way better than regular communication. I have many friends who went abroad to study. If it wasn't for Facebook it would be much more difficult to keep in touch with them.

By the way, was the "To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, head over to our Facebook page, message us onTwitter or find us on LinkedIn." part below the article written on purpose?
Unknown said…
Very interesting article that picks up on so important topic. Nowadays "smartphone addiction" can be seen everywhere- in a bus, at school, even during meetings with friends. More and more people put Facebook or Instagram above real talk. It might be as dangerous as smoking, because this addiction isolates us from real world. Even though some people may say, that smoking and smartphone addictions are unrelated, in my opinion they show many similarities. For instance, both of them are incredibly difficult to quit. Moreover, people lose themselves in their addiction and don't realise that they spend so much time checking their phone, or constantly smoking. The only way to get over addiction is to realise the problem, see yourself from different perspective and change their habits step by step.
Unknown said…
I noticed that I spend too much time on checking my phone and sometimes I waste a lot of time on the Internet. I know about this and I try to change my habits. I don't want to say that social media are bad, but I want to have specific time dedicated for this. If I will check twitter/instagram/facebook/youtube on the public transport, in the bath, before I go to sleep, while walking the dog, then I will waste time that I could use to read books or be alone with my thoughts.
I observed that sometimes I can't rest or focus on my tasks. We are less creative if we scroll something all the time - we don't spend enough time alone with ourselves. I used to read a book for a few hours, but now after 20 minutes of reading I reach for my phone. Why? I don't know, it's something like a terrible habit.
At least I'm glad that I see the problem and maybe soon I can beat this addiction.
Unknown said…
When I left my hometown and moved to Poland, social media were the main connection between me and my friends. We are getting older, our life is changing, we can't chat on the phone every day and discuss every single thing that happens during the day/week. Sometimes thanks to Facebook or Instagram I just see what is going on in the places where I don't belong anymore - it sounds quite tragic, but it's not:)) I am just excited to get to know that everything goes fine there.
I don't watch tv - but I have Facebook, and I follow the groups, where I could find all the useful and interesting information for me. So, I don't waste my time, surfing through the useless stuff. I can say, that it is a sort of addiction, but it is not such a big deal, I could survive the day without my phone or laptop. I just see no problem here.
It's an interesting topic. Reading it I had in my mind that I'm not addicted, and my only social media account is on FB, where I use it mostly to communicate with friends and to keep abreast with the information about studies. But even if I'm not the kind of user that constantly puts updates about his status, I enjoy to look ahead how is my friend dooing on his trip to London, or how does the party went, that I was to sick to go on. It's funny that I created account only for my studies, and now I'm finding my self browsing the info. about my friends. Nevertheless I think, that I will never cross the line of an active user, and I won't cry about deleting my account.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
I agree - it seems to be a fear of missing some important information, and it totally depends on the kind of information. If you're scrolling the Instagram feed all day long then you're consuming useless information and it's an issue, but if you're reading something improving your skills it doesn't seem to harm you in any way.

I use Facebook for tracking IT news and events, and I think that in this case it's ok to feel anxiety about missing something important. For me it's impossible to go offline for a week because I'll lose my job - I guess a lot of IT workers can relate.
It’s really fascinating topic. I check my social media accounts about 4 or 5 times a day, for some people it’s a lot and for others it’s close to not checking it at all.
I think that it’s relatively a small number.
I don’t feel the anxious when I don’t check my social media accounts, but to be completely honest I feel a little anxious when I see that my battery is charged in less than 30 %. Suddenly I feel like I just have to find a way to charge it and check my Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.
It’s really messed up.
Adam Paśniczek said…
From my point of view i can see now how much time i spent on my phone. It was always something to checkout or just to fill my free time. I had never before thought deeply about this until now. On the other hand I don't feel that it could be something wrong for me. I'm aware of the problem and thanks to this i have control over my habits. I agree with the statement in this articule that if we dont have good reason to put down our smartphones theres is no enough willpower to stop it. In my opinion there is a social problem associated with addiction to sellphones. I think it is connected with "new needs" which we have in these days. Each of us use smartphone for different reasons. To check out facebook, read some news or just to call. Do not forget that is only a tool and everything depends on us how we use it.
Unknown said…
Fortunately or unfortunately we are the generation of a digital anxiety. I believe it's a good quality that we pursue to constant digital development, however, it's a worrying trait if talking about constant checking our phones and the need to be online all the time. Not so long ago I had not very healthy habbit of checking all my notification just after turning off my alarm clock in the morning. That way I was always 10/20 minutes, even half an hour out of schedule. Now that I'm done with it, I feel much better and free. I try to do it mostly when commuting or having a short rest between daily duties.
I can also confess that from more than one and a half year I have my phone put on "only priorities" mode - that means I receive no notifications but phone calls. Even then 98% of time I have the voice on my phone turned off (there is a vibration only). I always have it nearby so I could see the incoming phone call, but I succesfully get rid of annoying sounds of notifications, thereby free myself of checking it.
Unknown said…
Social media is very good thing to talk with stranger people with your problem without any commitment. Also social media can help you to forget about your problem and to equate with some people with the same interests.
Bartosz Łyżwa said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bartosz Łyżwa said…
I've never had a problem with addictions like this. I'm aware I'm spending some time "online" but this is the time when I'm going to work or travelling somewhere. It's only one of many ways to have easy contact with friends. Now, I've thought that it's better to call someone rather than text on facebook but I always have no time because of work or any other things that I have to do in short day. Maybe this is the main factor of being addicted to e-life?

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