A common experience felt by many is the stress and anxiety technology causes. For me, there have been a few too many times that technology has overwhelmed me, especially during quarantine. I remember that I had spent three days completely focused on studying for an exam, and after I had taken it, I had an anxiety attack. Social media also has taken a toll on my mental health. At one point, I was completely focused on how many likes my post got or what people were commenting. I let social media control my life. I spent hours obsessing over it because I wanted people to like me, or what social media perceived as being well-liked. This obsession with social media popularity caused me to distance myself from being authentic and doing things I liked. I ended up becoming a puppeting for other instead of being myself.
Although social media and technology can be great resources for people, it drained me. There was a time when I deleted all of my social media, which benefitted me because it allowed me to focus on what was going on around me rather than what was happening online. Although doing a clean sweep worked for me, it may not have the same impact for everyone. I think moderation is also a great way to reduce stress that still allows them be on the internet but induces them to shorten their time on it. Technology has also improved immensely in the past two decades. With the improvement, there have been a plethora of parental control features. Apps like time out and screen time allow parents to monitor and control their child’s usage. Those looking to moderate their time can pay attention to their how long they’re on their phone for. I utilize the screen time feature to help monitor my usage and also the bedtime reminder to help me to get stay off my phone during the night. Although I still check in on my phone every so often, it does keep me from getting distracted.
