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Week 5 [13-19.11.17] A simple way to break a bad habit

Have you ever found yourself checking news feed or friends’ texts instead of doing something important? Maybe you smoke and tried to quit but always started again. It is our brain; in particular;  its rewarding system developed through thousands years of evolution. When you encounter a situation when you know you should not do something but cannot help doing it, that is exactly it. After the presentation you will not only understand why but also how to overcome it. Without further ado, I invite you to watch the TED talk below:



Questions:
Do you have Facebook or any other kind of chat addiction?
What do you consider your worst habit?
Have you tried to get rid of that habit? What were the results?

Comments

I'm using Facebook, but I do not find this as an addiction. I'm checking "main" Facebook app once a day, mostly to stay up to things that are happening at our university. When it comes to Messenger application, I'm using it to talk with friends when I'm having WiFi connection, because it's free and way more popular than FaceTime or Whatsapp (in Poland, ofc).

My biggest weakness is probably eating a ton of sweet junk food. I used to smoke cigarettes, but I've stopped about 3 or 4 years ago. Getting back to eating sweets, I'm trying to replace them by eating bananas, dactyls, figs, peanuts etc. Result are pretty satisfying, I'm eating way less than I used to. Also sports helps me to stay in eating clean - when you fell on your skin how hard and energy consuming it is to burn one KitKat, you will think twice in future before eating junk food.
I’m mostly using Facebook’s messenger but I don’t think of it as an addiction just as a mean of communication. When I’m busy I just don’t check my phone or I satisfy my curiosity by browsing through notifications.
My worst habit, at least according to other people, is fidgeting - moving my legs while sitting. I do it without even noticing it but I usually stop when someone asks me to. :)
Yevhen Shymko said…
Have you experienced mood or health difference after switching from junk food?
Unknown said…
I have Facebook , but once or twice a week I am in online... for get information about test or something like that :)
But... example from my life .
What he said is absolutely true. My uncle was a chain smoker. One day when he was sitting by the pool he gave a thought to himself about this smoking. He noticed that "Smoking is a waste of money, bad for health and overall smells terrible." Then he threw his lighter and the pack of cigarette into the pool and never touched it again.
Unknown said…
I douse facebook, but i wouldn't saythat i'm addicted. I consider it another free way to message people,so i'm onlineoften, but i definitely can live without it.
My worst habit would be moving my legs while sitting. I havenever tried to get ridof it though, as it is pretty harmless.
I used to spend a lot of time on facebook chat a few years ago but now I use it very rarely.
My worst habit is procrastination. I love it because I have more free time right now (such stupid illusion), but I hate it too (most of the time) because later I have to do everything having small amout of time and when I finish dealing with those tasks I always promising myself that it was the last time I did it... And then it happens again... and again.
And I'm fighting with this habit regulary. And getting rid of my procrastination habit becomes another habit, like war between light and darkness. But fortunately there is more light right now in my life than darkness (wow such dramatic :D).
And now I have more free time. I recommend 10/10
Foodocado said…
I do not think I am addicted to Facebook. Usually I check the wall at morning and after the work. I use it mostly to be up to date with things that happen at university.
Whenever it comes to bad habits, I do not recall any. Recently I puchuased a book called "The power of habits" and started working on good habits. One of them is waking up early at the morning - in most cases its 6 o'clock.
Alicja said…
The presenter makes some valid points. I believe that participating in a mindfulness training, especially with a support group, can assist in winning with addiction.

I battle with workaholism daily (and I'm not saying it as a badge of honor). I consider it my worse habit by far, because it influences my relationship with my family and friends. I have tried to overcome my addiction by participating in other activities I enjoy like yoga, swimming and bouldering but I had to cancel them because of the pressure of working while studying. Hope I get a chance to come back to them when the pressure drops a bit later on.
Thankfully I stopped using facebook almost 7 years ago, but it wasn't really related to any form of addiction. Probably the worst thing I'm addicted to are cigarettes. I've tried quitting a couple of times, but only one attempt was somewhat successful, because I had a reason to do it. Fortunately or not I found a brand of tobacco that I can smoke freely without any bad feelings about it and I kept on smoking. Other times, when I decided to quit, were mostly just some unplanned decisions that weren't really long term lasting ones. The only feasible way of breaking that habit would be to find a good reason for doing it. Right now I don't see any point in quitting so I'm just going to have a smoke.
Patryk Pohnke said…
I am Facebook user, but definitely not addicted one.
The most annoying habit I have is procrastination. I postpone every single thing I have to do. This leads to massive accumulation of tasks which results in delays.
I'm trying to get rid of it all the time, but I can't. Maybe I will succeed later...
Unknown said…
I think that I am not addicted to FB or other kinds of social media or chat services. However, I tend to use FB or other social media to distract my attention when I am struggling with some boring task at work or at university. This is obviously very counter-productive and I consider it as my worst habit recently.
In order to get rid of that really bad habit I am trying to change my behavior when I got bored or demotivated when working on some dull task. Instead of checking FB or other social media I am trying to switch to another, more interesting task for a while if it is possible or read some interesting article or watch useful tutorial online. I also like to play table tennis with my team mates, as most of the companies do not want their employees to be glued to their desks for the whole day and provide proper equipment for sport activities, which the case of my company as well.
Anonymous said…
Actually Facebook is some kind of entertainment for me. I don't treat it as my habit. I use it in my spare time and it's not any kind of addiction for sure.
As my worst habit I consider spending time at home. Actually everything I need I have at my home. I mean when I want to do workout I can do it at home, when I need something I usually buy it via Internet and I spend a lot of time at home even though I know I should go out sometime.
Actually I have never tried to get rid of this habit, because I don't care about it.
I'm felling much better now. Also I've lost a lot of weight.
I like spending time at Facebook, but I don't find it as a addiction.
Actually i didn't ever consider my worst habit but when i though about it for a while, I deduced that i may spend too much time in front of my monitor.
No i never tried to get rid of my habit, i think that this habit may be advantage at IT market.
Unknown said…
The way I understood it is that whenever you find yourself doing something you shouldn't, don't try to force yourself out of doing it via discipline, but think about the negative consequences of doing so and try to learn and understand these consequences. To be honest I thought this is obvious enough - anybody wants to refuse from the habits because of the negative consequences, and there is nothing special about it.
Marcin Górski said…
I'm using Facebook but I don't think that is addiction. I usually check wall a few times a day and that's all.
My worst habit would be talking while eating but I'm trying to improve that.
Unknown said…
I am checking facebook every time i have a notifications from it even tho i dont like facebook and i have no need to read it. But somehow it forces me to do so... horrible modern addictions. I think i should just get rid of it and i will be fine.
Vladlen Kyselov said…
I have absolutely no social media addiction. I don`t understand it, how can a human be addicted from chats. My worst habit is when I am relaxing too much for a while I may start missing good opportunities moments because at that moment I was too lazy. I am really trying to fix this bad habit.
Unknown said…

Yes Facebook is evil. I think that I must get away from bad habits which are checking Instargram and Facebook very often. I do this ussually when I wait for things and when I have lot of free time. But when I see my girlfriend I think that ut isn't so bad with me. Last time I saw that she has maximium 5 min break when she doesn't have phone on her hand.
I think that everyone can quit bad habits. I know this because I quit smoking and in the past I was fat but now I'm not. Everything is in you head.
Unknown said…
I like sharing some stuff that I've found on Internet with my friends, not in Facebook though, and it might be annoying sometimes for them. Still, can't do anything with it and some of the stuff is realy worth it.

My worst habit is procrastination. Why do you think I am commenting presentations during the last day possible? I've try to get rid of it, but I still has a lot of work to do. Wish me luck, I am going to need it a lot.
Unknown said…
I have a bad habit of rolling my eyes every time I see a ted talk on this course. I hate these because they can all be presented by a person without any experience and they usually are not informative at all. Let's be real - the only reason people post ted talks here is because they are easy to find and prepare for. Boooring.
Going back to the topic - I have a facebook addiction. I've tried to fight it but it gets rather difficult when you're the administrator of a few huge groups on the website. I manage though - it doesn't affect my life as badly as some addictions can.
Whenever I hear the word "meditation" in the same sentence as something like "and bring it back to the breath" or "try not to think about anything other than the breath" or something along those lines then I know it's not done correctly. You can't really control your thoughts, but you can control the attention you give the thoughts. A wondering thought pattern is inevitable whether you're meditating or not. Use those wondering thoughts as your object and observe them. They'll naturally go away once they've been observed and then you'll naturally go back to the breath. Trying not to think of something is a thought within itself.
Unknown said…
It sad but true. I don't know if it's addiction but facebook I visit several times a day. Once it was "Nasza Klasa". Earlier "Gadu-Gadu", now it's Facebook. My bad habit? After dinner I have to smoke a cigarette but I not smoke cigarette every day. No, I didn't try to get rid of this habit, because I don't want to, I'm too lazy
Unknown said…
I can relate to this problem, as I at some point found spending too much time in multiple apps on my smartphone (Facebook was one of them). This in turn relates to the habit of always using the phone, especially while commuting - to kill time. At some point it became a kind of addiction, even if I unlocked my phone to check a notification, after seeing it's not important I'd open Facebook instead of locking the phone immediately. This was also triggered by the fact, that I had many of the apps on my homescreen. The first half of the solution to this was to put the most used apps (time wasting) in folders on my second page of apps. The second half was getting a watch connected to my phone. This way, if a notification is not important, I do not reach for my phone, thus not waste time on apps (this is very useful during lectures!). Now, according to the statistics on my phone, I spend about 80% less times in unnecessary apps. Also, I now usually come back home with 70-80% battery left on my phone, instead od 40-50%, which also shows how the use has decreased.
Yevhen Shymko said…
Every addict think they can drop it any time
Yevhen Shymko said…
Wow! Also read that book but unfortunately couldn't make my self to follow it constantly... Do you feel thet you have more time or even more productive during a day?
Yevhen Shymko said…
It seems to me like reading book about time management would be of great profit to you. I generally believe that you can find time for all activities you really want. I you don't just means you don't want them hard enough.
Yevhen Shymko said…
I understand you for sure. For me it's like when you have planty of time you just can't focus. On the other hand if you know that it is last night before the deadline it just drives you... What helps me - plan something like meeting with friends so that you don't have time before deadline and have to do it in advance.
Tomasz Morawski said…
I don't think I have any chat addiction. I'm able not to use Facebook at all but it's quite helpful from time to time and a lot of people tend to complain if I'm not responding to their messages :)
Besides nose-picking, the worst habit of mine is probably playing online games, mostly League of Legends. I tried to get rid of it but usually I go back to it after few months, sometimes even a year. It's quite difficult to quit it since a lot of my friends play it and it's sometimes fun.
Yevhen Shymko said…
Do you have some plan on how to do it?
Yevhen Shymko said…
What's wrong with talking while eating? For me its totally normal practice like business lunches
Unknown said…
1. I’m using Facebook and Instagram and well… I think it’s kinda addiction. Sometimes I’m checking main pages, notifications, messages etc. few times in 10 minutes. Of course I’m not doing it while I’m sitting with my friends or something.
2. My worst habit is cheek/lip biting.
3. Yea, of course. I started to chew gum a lot and it really helps, but sometimes I forget about it, what makes me do that again.
Wojtek Protasik said…
I believe I have screen addiction. I do spend a lot of time in front of computer screen, mobile screen or whatever. I tried to decrease the overall time I spend screening myself but it's pretty hard, especially when you study IT and work in IT.

This video provides a very interesting approach to overcome you own habits. It's really helpful and it seems to me there is in fact one rule to behave when you know you are about to enter your habit loop. I thought it takes more time and energy to overcome the habit but it appears you can do it every day with every habit using a simple mind trick.
I use Facebook messenger to talk with friends, I don't think it is an addiction. It's just easy to use and all of my friends have it, so I don't need to use other chat apps. My worst habit is eating sweets, sometimes I eat to mutch. I'm limiting eating, but I don't want to totally drop it.
Unknown said…
I may have got some problem with addiction to facebook, due to the fact that I stopped typing my comment to check my facebook. There is actually nothing, no interesting posts, no messages but still I'm checking it - I think taht it's time to stop. Thank you for this article!
Unknown said…
I like to spend time on Facebook. I think it can be addiction because when I have nothing to do I check facebook app and scroll down my wall. One week ago there was article about habbits and I said that my worst habbit was caffeine. It is because i drink coffee and a lot of energy drinks. I tried to stop it but I feel tired. The thing is, they dont give me energy anymore, I am drinking because i like the taste of it.

Nowadays facebook allows for much more than just chatting with your friends. It also allows personalized shopping, as well as logging in to your Fb account on multiple domains. I'm not hooked on FB chat, and I do not need to use other chat apps. My worst habit is watching tv series. If I start, I have to watch at least a few episodes until I fall asleep while watching.
sasha | s14611 said…
My worst habit is to spend all my free time on work or study. I'm often forget about everything around me, about people around me and just dive into new knowledge completely forgetting about real life. I tried to get rid of this habit, but when I did that I started to thing that I'm lazy and not do anything useful. So all my attempts finished failure.
Wouldn't say that i have any kind of bad habits regarding Facebook or other chat/messaging apps alike unless a bad habit is not actually checking them often enough. I find myself actually missing many conversations and messages from other people as i tend to instantly close Facebook or other apps after im done sending message or reading it, which brings a lot of problems for me especially considering group works that im a part of. I would say i have 2 really bad habits one of which is not replying to messages if i feel like i dont have to ( even tho its necessary for the other side) and loudly listening to music disregarding other people around me. I tried to get rid of my music habit but the results were awful not only i felt worse by not enjoying my music enough but i started noticing that no people around me had more problem with me listening to music than to how loudly i listen to it. I abandoned that idea and kept doing what i did before.
KamilG said…
I use Messenger from Facebook just to chat with my friends. Occasionally I look at group posts connected with school matters, my hobbies and nothing more. I believe that using Facebook only to see various posts of other people is waste of time.
If we are on the subject of bad habits - this what I would like to change is eating a lot of unhealthy food. I once took care of my diet and used to be careful about consuming various meals, but as the new obligations appeared, I neglected this habit. Maybe after finishing this school I will start to eat healthy again :)
I don't have a Facebook addiction I'm mostly using Messenger to connect with friends. If it comes for fighting with bad habits we made a funny thing this week in a bar. We had a meeting of few friends from the group in the restaurant and we made a little Eiffel Tower from our phones by putting them on the table. After that I said whoever touches their phone first pays the total bill of all of us. I must say it was working. Sometimes people are getting way addicted of just checking a phone every 5 minutes. This is a good way to check if this really affects our lives or not.
Magdalena Popek said…
I wouldn't say I'm addicted to Facebook or any social media. The problem is I have so many things I'm interested in "liked" on Facebook I will always find some interesting information there. And all the communication with my friends happens through Facebook Messenger. So I'm not addicted to it like with regular addiction, but I'm "forced" to use it and can't stop because all of my friends are using it. If I want to keep in touch with them easily I have to use social media.
I would say my worst habit is procrastination. I can't get rid of it. I've tried doing my work much earlier before deadline but eventually I always end up finishing most of it just before the deadline.
Unknown said…
I think that maybe I was a bit addicted to Facebook when I was younger but when i grow up I change my system of values and now I am not looking for acceptance by internet friends. I think that my worst habit is checking three-four times if doors are locked or not when I am leaving. It is related with my phobia that I scare that somebody could break in my flat. I was trying to don't do it but I can't control it. When I leave my car on the street I turn my head a few times to check if I locked doors or not.
Unknown said…
I'm totally addicted from Messenger. I know about it but really i don't think that it have terrybly effect in my live. It help me to keep in touch with more people.
In my opinion my worst habit it's going to bed lately. I love lay in bed and do stupi things like watching series or playing games. It only take my time instead go sleep. I tried to start sleep more but then i had a feeling that i don't have a time in my live to "do nothing". Maybe one day i will change it.
Marta Kowalczyk said…
Facebook and some other similar apps takes more of my time than I would wish for. From time to time I would uninstall the app from my phone, but it makes communication much more complicated, since I can contact some of my friends on Facebook only, where we talk on chat or groups. It is really hard for me to find a balance and not spend hours glued to my phone.
Another bad habbit I had for years was nails biting. I know, gross. I started doing a manicure reguarly and stopped biting the nails not to ruin something that I had spent quite a lot of time on ant this was I was able to brak the bad habbit.
Unknown said…
Unfortunately yes. I'm addicted to Facebook and several other types of social media, for example instagram. I spend a lot of time scrolling through FB. I can easily find many informations that interest me. However, there are so many useless information, which appear between those which are interested for us. It causes hours of time spend with this or the another application.

Basically, I have a lot of habits. Some of them are worse and some are funny. It seems to me, that my the worst habit is biting my nails. This is a terrible habit that I can not get rid of. Sometimes I do not do it for a few days but then it comes back again - usually in stressful situations. Maybe I should invest in a spider fidget. I guess I'll have to invest in a fidget spinner in the near future. Maybe I'll be able to stop doing it. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Unknown said…
I've got a lots of habits and still have that are bad. But my worst habits are people. Once I lost a very close friend. The worst thing is not when this person is dead, but when you just are pushed away. As for me the only one way to brake habit is to decide to give up. That's it.

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