10 Signs That You’re Addicted To Social Networks

Social media has become a part of our daily lives to the extent that it has even become part of a daily routine. However people have taken it a step further by becoming obsessed with it. This obsession comes across as normal for people who have it because half the time they don’t even realise that they have fallen into a habit that is now an addiction. It could happen to anyone with enough time on their hands, but if you’re not sure yet, here’s a list that should shed some light.

1. You feel incomplete without your phone in hand

You have FOMO and if you know FOMO means you probably are addicted to social media. The fear of missing out is what causes people to constantly feel the need to check their news feed to make sure they aren’t missing out on the latest trending topic on twitter or are the read a blog post like a pic.

2. If your photo, post, or tweet doesn’t have at least 10 likes within 30 minutes of posting it, you feel pretty bad about yourself.

This is entirely dependent on what you use social media for. Whereas there are some people who use social media for business purposes others use it to boast about their lives or show how smart they are by the quotes and controversial topics they post. The success of their posts are d=therefore dependant on how many likes and retweets they get. The less the likes the more depressed they get. Sadly there is more to life though.

3. The hardest days of your life include days when you lost your phone.

There are worse things that happen every day. Not that losing a phone is a pleasant thing but it shouldn’t resemble the end of your happiness. If it can be replaced, then it’s not the end of the world, sure you’ll miss a few calls and messages but life does go on.

4. You sometimes wake up in the middle of the night to check your notifications.

Unless you’re waiting for a notification confirming a major event in your life resembling life or death, you should not lose any sleep over it. We also use social media for communication purposes but a reasonable person should know that people sleep at night and conversations are held during the day.

5. Your phone sleeps with you like a teddy or in place of a partner.

The fact that you phone sleeps next to you is another sign FOMO. This is caused by the need to have it close to you so that you feel it vibrate. Normal people put their phone on their bedside or even switch it off because nothing important happens on social networks in the wee hours of the morning worthy of keeping them up.

6. You speak in hash tags

You know you’re social media obsessed when you no longer speak like a normal person. If every sentence you say is followed by a verbal hash tag, you need to re-evaluate your life and re-evaluate your English as well. Imagine what your Matric English teacher would feel like if she heard you speak like that.

7. Your day is ruined if you don’t have enough data for the day

Phones were initially invented to make and receive calls, everything else is an extra. Therefore, the fact that you don’t have data, wifi or BIS should not signal the end of the world. Trust me, you won’t miss much.

8. It’s the first thing you do in the morning

We grew up being taught that the first thing you do in the morning is pray or brush your teeth. This has however changed over time as the trend is that the first thing you do after you open your eyes is to find your phone and scroll through your social networks to see what you missed out on while the world was sleeping, but then again, if the world was sleeping, what’s to miss out on?!

9. You feel the need to check-in everywhere you go

This is another function for people who use social networks for bragging purposes. Such people feel the need to constantly check-in every single place they go. Even in bed. The function was created so people can know where you are and what you’re doing but most people have gone too far with it by checking into 5 places in a day. It might be informative the first two times but after that, it gets annoying because we don’t care.

10. You believe social media is more realer than life

As much as social media is informative, not everything a person posts is true. Addicts would rather believe a person’s posts rather than making real conversation. Or you occasionally get the people who think they know you all based on the fact that they’ve been your friend on Facebook or following you on twitter for a year.