When the clock strikes midnight, we all hope and wish that the New Year will bring us another chance to start fresh, but how many of us cave on our crash diet by the end of the first week? Or cut-out the cardio workouts by day three? Well, it’s now time to forget all those traditional resolutions and try a new one that works out those naughty social networking habits, that we all deny, but know we have!
How many times a day do you check you social networks? If you actually counted, then I think you would be a little surprised to say the least. The average person spends around 30 minutes a day on Facebook and everyday, Twitter averages at 190 million Tweets being posted. Those are some pretty extensive figures; so let’s make a change.
- Don’t stay signed in – I find that if I keep my social networks signed in on my laptop, tablet, etc. then I am more likely to just open them up the split-second my mind starts to wander away from the task in front of me. If you log out during your working time, you may find that when you open up the window, you don’t feel you have the effort to log in just to check your tedious newsfeed. To make this even more effective, change your password to something long, but of course, memorable. A longer password may mean you are even more less likely to bother logging in.
- Only post when necessary – You may think that your friends love to know about the fact you made your third cup of tea today, but in truth, they probably don’t. Try not to waste time finding insignificant things to take pictures of and Instagram, or using up five precious minutes of your lunch hour just trying to ‘check-in’ to the right location. The time you are spending posting irrelevant content to your timeline is most likely wasting, what adds up to, countless minutes better used catching up with work or something more important.
- If you’re using social networking, then use it wisely – By this I don’t mean stay away from the ‘catfish’ type characters, but I mean use it in ways that may benefit you in the future. Get social on LinkedIn and make sure to stay connected with people in powerful places. Make the most of free blogging sites and start a blog about something that really interests you. If you get enough footfall, it could mean potential help in bagging that dream job as it can show a dedication and passion for a particular subject.
- Don’t forget to keep in touch – Social media is called ‘social’ for a reason. Most people have forgotten why social media was created in the first place. It wasn’t a platform for celebrities to tweet and promote their next album, or for you to send requests to your mates for help to unlock the next level on Candy Crush. Maybe we could all spend a bit more time this year to contact the people we have forgotten to keep in touch with. Send a message to old school friends, arrange a gathering and catch up on some gossip, but don’t forget that a phone call can go a lot further then a lazy instant message; that’s right, smartphones aren’t just for texting, tweeting and tagging.
- There’s a whole world out there! – A short film entitled I Forgot my Phone, featured on YouTube back in August, shows how people are spending too much text refreshing feeds, checking emails and flicking through apps to notice the more important things happening around us. Despite only being 2 minutes 11 seconds long, the video speaks volumes, so maybe this new year you should spend less time snapping selfies and take more time to spend with friends and family. Just remember that social media will come and goes, things will trend, news is never ‘new’ for long, whereas the real world may pass you by in a split second if you aren’t paying attention.
