How To Concentrate & Avoid Social Media Distractions, FOMO (Fear OF Missing Out)

For any student, spending too much time on social media means less studies done and more stress before the exams. Social media helps to get some useful information but if we waste too much time on it, it can harm our studies and health. We discuss the fear of missing out (FOMO) here, and what t0 do in order to strike a perfect balance of studies and social media.

#FOMO is a very famous trend these days. Ironical is that it's trending on the Internet, which, is the reason for the happening of it. If you don't know about FOMO, it means Fear Of Missing Out.

In the social media context, it is the fear of not being able to know important events happening online, not seeing the latest information updates from other people/celebrities we know and most importantly, we tend to revisit social media sites repeatedly. In the worst case, we may even keep refreshing the page/feed more than once in a half minute, just to see if there's something new posted now. This makes a person anxious and person loses concentration on studies. 

While being able to know what's happening is important, doing the task at hand in real life is also important. Perhaps that's why some workplaces, schools and colleges ban the mobiles altogether or make people turn them off or deposit in the personal lockers till the end of the day. However, with many businesses becoming digital, schools/colleges taking up e-learning route, reliance on mobile phones, tablets and the Internet has increased. So, self-control gets more importance now.

Here are a few ways to help you concentrate and avoid Social media FOMO :-

Schedule your visits: 
One of our professors told us that during super busy days, we should visit social media 2 times of the day and that's morning and 1 hour before you go to sleep (No TV, mobile, Computer etc. immediately before sleeping!)

Place a timer:
It's important to not spend too much time on social media. So, it's always the best practice to place a timer by setting a reminder for 15 minutes so that you get a reminder to look away, take a walk or wash your eyes. This helps to avoid staring at the screens for too long, which is detrimental to the health of the eyes (Dry eyes and weak eyesight)

Reduce the clutter of many notifications:
Disable unnecessary notifications on your mobile phone, especially when at working or at school/college. Enable it during your scheduled social media visits!

Meditate, think about social media and increase willpower:
In the morning, close your eyes and think about what's important to do during the day. Then, whenever you think of checking social media, try to ask yourself, is this really important now? Prioritize things according to the situation. Checking social media before going to work/school/college, at end of the day or during the lunch break is alright but trying to check it just to have small boosts of happiness isn't healthy and much more distracting. The world can wait but your work/studies cannot!

Reward yourself:
To avoid distractions during the work, you should tell yourself that once you complete this work/study topic, you'll get to check the social media during your scheduled visit (Lunch/end of the day).

The Internet and social media is the need of the hour but that shouldn't make you delay your work or distract you from work/studies. In fact, social media should make you more productive and motivate you to perform better in life (work or studies). With some self-care in the form of self-discipline, you can balance the joy and work perfectly! 

Thank you for reading!

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