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Are you currently checking the likes that your recent Instagram post has received? Or are you counting the views on your Snapchat story? Or is Facebook the one that is keeping you up at night?

We are currently living in a world that is constantly changing. After the smartphone revolution, we have come closer to one another and our lives have been connected to each other’s to an extent that was once unimaginable. Our society revolves around a pivot. The pivot being social media. Going for a wedding? Don’t forget to upload photos on Facebook huh! Going on a Vacation? Keep your feed updated! Going to Starbucks? Put a story on Instagram! Why did you break the streaks?! Comment on my post na! Why haven’t you liked my picture yet? Try this new filter na! It’s so cool!!

 Our generation instead of being addicted to drugs or alcohol, is addicted to screens. They might survive a day without food and water but an hour without their phones makes them uneasy. 

But this addiction does not only pertain to the millennials. It is something that is very common amongst ppl belonging to 30-60 age group and maybe even beyond. I’m very sure all of us have heard our parents saying “Beta one photo for my new DP”.

Nowadays everyone around us seeks social media validation. Social media validation refers to that boost in one’s confidence that a person receives when he/she is on social media. This validation is received from the number of likes one’s photo gets or the number of followers that they have or the number of comments that they receive. This makes them feel relevant and increases their confidence. People who have a high level of self confidence are seldom in need of being relevant on social media. While it can do wonders for a person with low self confidence, it can also completely ruin a person psychologically. It can be also considered parallel to attention seeking. People who are hungry for attention often tend to rely on social media for approval and appreciation. As humans, we all crave validation from those around us. However, with the wide reach of social media, this desire for validation extends beyond limits. A hundred likes on your posts are just not enough. Even a thousand will not be able to satisfy your ever increasing thirst for validation. This causes us to constantly compare ourselves with others, measuring our self worth in terms of the number of likes we get. After a point, this obsession ceases to bring us happiness, but consumes us instead.

If you are currently reading this and denying it, telling yourself it isn't you, ask yourself this: if facebook removed the like button, if instagram deleted the double tap feature or if twitter removed the retweet option, would we really be using them as much as we do now? If you had no way of knowing that someone, somewhere appreciated your photograph, would you even post it? Is there any point at all of being on social media other than to seek validation from society? And how do we overcome our relentless pursuit of approval? The key to controlling your social media addiction is to know how to disconnect every once in a while and not let social media control your life. So the next time you are glued to your screen, panicking about how your picture does not have enough likes, look up for a moment and realise that there is a whole real world out there that you should go out and celebrate!

Rtr. Manasi Aithal & Rtr. Richa Parekh