Beyond the Screen: Finding Balance in the Age of Social Media

Social media has become the crux of how humans function and interact with each other in the 21st century. Due to its prevalence, it’s important that we weigh the effects social media may have on our daily lives and how we can better manage it.

The Time Crunch

First I would like to challenge you to think about how many hours you use social media in a day. Things like Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok, and Youtube are all applicable. Every minute spent can detach a person from their thoughts, their schedule, and their responsibilities. That’s what social media is meant to do. It’s made to be addicting. For example, when scrolling, there are about three to five different actions you may take. The first is scrolling. The next is liking a post with a double click. The third is sharing a post to another person. The fourth is opening the comments section. The fifth action is following a creator if you enjoyed enough of their videos. Out of these five actions, three take conscious thought. These three actions are sharing a post, opening the comments section, and following a creator. These actions happen to be a lot less commonly performed than the unconscious actions which are scrolling and liking a post. That is how social media is designed. It is meant to hold us in an unconscious state of mind. This is how people start becoming addicted. Decisions are being made in this unconscious state while achieving high brain stimulation. In 2025, it was reported that people on average scrolled for about 141 minutes or 2 hours and 21 minutes per day. In that amount of time, you could have driven out to a sit down restaurant, eaten all of your food, and driven back. Despite spending a movie’s length of time scrolling, we are not even thinking about the fact that we are using our phones. Even though we’re using our phones, our brains are silent. The trap involved in this is that each time we scroll, there will most likely be a new video that we have never seen before waiting to be watched. It feels refreshing and when something feels refreshing, we want more of it. This refreshment is what lures us into an addictive lifestyle.

The Addiction

Scrolling on social media has quickly risen to be one of the most common addictions in human beings. A Study Called Modern Day High: The Neurocognitive Impact of Social Media Usage (Barodia et. al, 2025) looks into this exact problem. In this study, the researchers tracked the EEG recordings of participants while they scrolled through social media. It showed that the calming brainwave had declined in effectiveness while the brainwaves that cause excitation had spiked in usage. After a long period of scrolling, the brain waves that appear when in deep sleep slightly activate, indicating that extended scrolling on social media causes mental exhaustion. The brainwave readings that the researchers observed matched the brainwave readings of someone who has an addicted brain. Because of how social media has rewired our brain, it has become our first instinct to open up the app and start scrolling. 

With this study in mind, think about your own social media usage. Why do you use social media? Is it a way of passing the time? Do you use it to connect with friends? Or is it something completely different? When and how often do you use social media? Personally, my biggest time of vulnerability comes in moments of quiet. These are the moments when a commercial comes on while I’m watching TV or when I finish getting ready for the day and I only have 5 to 10 minutes before I need to leave. Instead of being able to simply exist in the presence of nothing, we seek something to always give our brain company.

Social media has its positives

As dangerous as social media has proven to be at times, it has also shown to be useful. The two things social media was originally designed and advertised for was to connect with friends and express creativity. To this day, social media has remained a strong outlet for both of these things. In terms of connecting with friends, social media exceeds at bridging the gap between long-distance bonds. When a person moves away, it can become easy to lose touch with that individual. I, for one, moved 1400 miles away from some of my closest friends, and because of social media, I have been able to remain connected and close to these people. As for creativity, social media websites like YouTube were inherently designed as an avenue for creativity. Even with monetization causing some creators to shift their content to what will make them more money, people have still found avenues in which their creativity can flourish. Because of social media, people have found new ways of discovering talent. One of the most prominent examples of this is through music discovery. Before YouTube existed, the main way people were “discovered” was through auditioning at record labels for a shot at being signed. Once Youtube was made public, it changed how the entire music industry functioned. Some of the biggest music artists of today were discovered on Youtube: Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, Charlie Puth, and The Weeknd. What do all of these people have in common? The video that got them discovered wasn't designed to make them famous. It was made to express something to the public that they felt passionate about. The drive to post about people’s passions has even led to increased access to information and education. Since the internet was invented, people have had access to all information at the touch of a button. With the introduction of social media, a shift started in how people consumed news information, sports information, and educational information. This is largely due to social media becoming an outlet for creativity and expression of the things people are passionate about. YouTube channels like Crash Course, Ted Talk, and Maya Higa all cover topics that are designed to help people learn and grow. Crash Course gives a quick 10-minute lesson in all subjects like science and history. Ted Talk brings in a large number of guest speakers to teach and inspire people to be a better version of themselves. Maya Higa is a streamer who brings awareness to and helps with endangered wildlife. There are so many more internet content creators whose goal is to educate others and enable people to be better informed. However, as consumers, it’s important that we trust the people we watch to deliver quality information.

Even our positives have negatives

Social media has opened the door for anyone to become an educator. With this has also come an increased amount of inappropriate discourse about certain news topics or news. Especially in the past decade, any news that may spark debate or polarizing pieces of history has completely divided people and forced them to pick a side. Once people have picked a side, they choose to no longer engage with anyone that believes something different. Instead, they only associate with like-minded people. This feels comfortable, but when doing this, people are entering a bubble that keeps them stagnant. A famous quote by Tony Robbins states, “All growth starts at the end of your comfort zone.” By disengaging with people who think differently than us, we are inherently stunting the opportunity for personal growth. This division is fueled by the fact that the opinions people hold are no longer just their opinions. They have become people’s whole identity. In a normal argument, the goal of each person is to resolve the existing tension and understand the other person’s perspective. Social media has completely removed the ability to empathetically communicate with another person. Instead of witnessing how a person reacts to a comment, we are forced to discern how they feel through what they type. It has also created an environment where the algorithm is designed to push negative, sometimes hateful things that cause people to constantly communicate in a defensive manner. This environment combined with the inability to express empathy has caused social media arguments to become a popularity contest instead of a quest to understand one another.

How to manage

Now, when all these problems exist within the positives, it can be easy to dismiss social media and say that it shouldn’t exist. I think it’s important to take a step back and look at two ideas. These are the ideas of free will and self control. Let’s start with free will. Free will in relation to social media is the idea that we have the power to choose the content we consume, the things we say to others online, and whether to even join the platforms. As for self control, if someone does become addicted to social media, it can be hard to have the willpower to stop using social media or even keep the app closed. The first thing someone can do to help with their self control is put time limiters on social media apps. These limiters can be set up directly through a device’s settings. When someone reaches the time limit on the app that they use, they can no longer use that app for the day. This is a great way of taking back control from an addiction like using social media. Limiting social media use can be taken a step further. One of the most challenging things to do is creating a “no phone zone.” This means having a room where we can disconnect from our phones and focus more on our surroundings. Rooms like your bedroom, a meditation room, or family room would all fit this category. Consider even choosing a room where you feel you are on your phone too much. As I mentioned earlier, I find myself scrolling most when it feels like my reality has slowed. Now of course, this is okay when this is done in small moments, but it is important to stay healthily busy. What I mean by healthy busyness is participating in activities that are immersive, interesting, and engaging for the mind and body. This can be as simple as going for a walk or as grand as going to a concert to see a band that you may like. 

Social media by design is polarizing. It can take up all of your time and hook you to the point of addiction. It also provides an abundance of information and educational opportunities filled with passionate creators. If you are still deciding whether to download social media or not, make sure to weigh all the pros and cons before making a decision. If you do decide to use social media, I implore you to use the suggestions I have made to limit the amount of social media you use. If you are already addicted or have had a few bad days scrolling, know that there is never a missed opportunity to take back control of how you use social media. Thank you for reading my blog.

References

Satani, A., Satani, K. K., Barodia, P., & Joshi, H. (2025). Modern day high: The neurocognitive impact of social media usage. Cureus, 17(7), e87496. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.87496

Statista. (n.d.). Daily social media usage worldwide. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide/

Tanil, C. T., & Yong, M. H. (2020). Mobile phones: The effect of its presence on learning and memory. PLOS ONE, 15(8), e0219233. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219233