Whenever Facebook and Instagram experience a global outage, many netizens are on the verge of collapse and constantly send out distress messages online. This may make us stop and think about whether we are addicted to the Internet or social media. If so, it is recommended to do a “social detox”.

In the past five years, more and more studies have assessed that excessive use of social networking sites may have negative effects on health. Dr. Kuss said that the use of social networking sites by a small number of people may be related to certain psychological conditions. These include anxiety, depression, loneliness, ADHD and addiction. In addition, almost everyone now has a smartphone and can browse social networking sites at any time. If you find that you are too accustomed to participating in social groups, or are worried about what information you have overlooked, you may be exhibiting the “Fear Of Missing” (Fear Of Missing) How did this phenomenon of Out, FOMO arise?

What if, starting now, community completely disappeared from your life, would you feel depressed, uncomfortable, or lose the focus of your life? We can simply observe whether we have become a high-risk person for Internet or social addiction based on the following living habits. However, the actual mental health condition should still be diagnosed by a professional psychologist.

6-point self-examination for Internet addiction

1. I think about the community from time to time and spend a lot of time using it.
   
2. There is a growing desire to use community.
   
3. I want to escape from disturbing things through the community.
   
4. I have always wanted to reduce the time I spend using social media, but I have never succeeded.
   
5. If you don’t use social media, you will feel anxious.
   
6. Using social media too frequently has a negative impact on work or studies.

If the above six points are met, you may be a person at high risk of Internet addiction. Of course, any precise consultation and diagnosis require the assistance of a professional psychologist. The above questions are for simple reference only. If you only meet the above criteria, maybe you are just too accustomed to using social networking sites. You may wish to follow the following 4 simple methods of “social detoxification” to use social networking sites in a healthier manner.
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1. Turn off social message reminders:
   Many people hear the temptation of the “ding” sound of social message notifications and can’t help but touch their mobile phones and click on the screen. They often cannot concentrate during work meetings, so they quickly turn off the magic sound. Well, keep your head clear at all times.
   
2. Standardize the use time of social networking sites:
   Don’t stare at the content of social networking sites all the time. Now you are stipulated that you can only click on social networking sites once every 30 minutes to an hour, and the viewing time at a time should not exceed 3 minutes to avoid accidentally getting addicted to it again.
   
3. Don’t scroll through social media when dining:
   Are you still swiping on your phone while dining and don’t even know who is sitting across from you? From now on, make it a rule to eat by yourself without social interaction, so that you can enjoy the food to your heart’s content and be able to concentrate on talking to your partner.
   
4. Stay away from mobile phones while sleeping:
   Social networking sites tend to make people unable to restrain themselves from swiping again and again. Even if you think before going to bed: Just watch it for 5 minutes and go to bed before 12 o’clock, the actual time to fall asleep is often past 1 am, so Before going to bed, please be brave enough to put your phone out of reach of your bed, and turn off the lights and go to bed as soon as possible!

It all depends on the chemical dopamine. The dopamine system in our brains is linked to anticipation and motivation. Dopamine makes you feel what you want and turns it into a reward-seeking mindset. Unfortunately, certain features of social networking sites can abuse our dopamine system, so social networking site addiction is a psychological addiction. Like online game addiction, it is easy to start detoxing, but the hard part is to stick to it. How long does it take to detox? Most experts think about 3 months or more, depending on the age and extent of your addiction
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