Our society has conditioned itself to constantly need input. Walking around on campus, I have noticed that the large majority of people I pass by are either listening to music, sending a Snapchat, or on a phone call with someone. We feel the need to constantly have something in our face or be talking to someone, instead of just being.
In one of my classes, we started discussing different personality types according to the MBTI test and it was mentioned that extroverts hate being alone or idle, whereas introverts tend to want more personal space.
While I agree with that, it made me realize that to some degree, everyone hates being idle, which leads to an overemphasis on input.
In computer class, we learn that input devices provide data and control signals to an information processing system. Our phones give us data and control how we process things. Social media has a huge impact on how we view the world and that viewpoint affects how we process events in our life, and then respond.
By constantly feeding ourselves input without allowing time to process it or time to reply, we are giving the general public too much power in deciding how we live our lives. Not to mention the strain constant input puts on our mental health.
September is mental health awareness month, and I'm here as a personal testament to the affects of constant input.
This January, I completely avoided social media and I saw the positive differences in my mood, outlook, and actions. I have also realized that when I take the time to truly process what's going on around me, introspect, and respond to everything after giving it proper thought, I become much more intentional and I have much more peace.
Studies are showing that social media is a major contributor to stress this day and age. All of this constant input is literally affecting our mental health.
I am not asking you to radically change your life today, or quit social media cold turkey. And I am also not saying that input is all bad. However, everything in moderation; too much can be a bad thing. I simply ask that you take a look at yourself personally and analyze how all this input is affecting you. What are you going to do about it?
