Change of behavior is a tricky thing to manage especially when one is under addiction. I chose to make a change in the time that I spend online because it wastes more time. I sometimes miss sleeping for at least eight hours because I spend most of my time on social media pages chatting and commenting on posts. No matter how much I have been trying to refrain from online chatting, I still get dragged back to continue with the same behavior, probably because of addiction. The pulling back to that behavior may be because of not wanting to break my friendship with online friends in the name of change. One needs to develop a strategy that will enable one to change their behavior (Okano et al., 2019). Such may involve; avoiding things that will remind your usual behavior, busying yourself with some house chores, spending time with your family, and even reading novels. This context focuses on my experience of sending most of my time on online platforms and some of the reasons why I majorly made it a point of concern that required a change.
Contextually, I emphasized changing the time spent online, especially on social media platforms. I had an aim of dedicating the time to taking positive practices. The main reason that drove me to the change decision is my family. I found out that I was giving social media more time than I had oriented to my family. To some extent, I failed to pick up some family calls because I was chatting on social media platforms. Additionally, I intensely wanted a change because the online platforms consumed a lot of my time, and as a result, I limited my sleeping hours. Occasionally, I slept for five hours which implies that I did not get enough sleep as recommended. Similarly, I chose to minimize the time I dedicated to online activities due to the maintenance of my health. The rays from laptops and phones were affecting my eyes because I spent much time interacting with them. The move of reducing online time saved me from the beams and maintained good health for my body.
Reducing the time spent online will have both positive and negative impacts on my health. Positively, I will get enough time to interact with my family members as individuals will divert my attention back to them. Online engagement has always created a gap between family members as most of the time; individuals are engaged in their preferable online activities (Okano et al., 2019). Spending time with the family strengthens connections between family members, which helps relieve too many thoughts. Therefore I would most likely spend more time with my family and communicate with them face-to-face for proper understanding. Additionally, individuals will improve my confidence and future parenting skills because I will have face-to-face interaction with people. I will have strong emotional support because I will have enough time to sleep. However, I may miss important international news because I overly on online platforms for information.
The whole procedure of changing from my addiction issue was difficult. Firstly, I avoided the regular use of phones and laptops to ensure that am individuals failed to lure me all the time to chat. The experience was challenging because my laptop and phone were the prominent gadgets that I spent half of my 24 hours of the day using. Since they were the essential devices that pushed me into overstaying on online platforms, I only used them whenever needed. It was not easy since I was addicted to using them, but I had promised myself to try as much as possible to avoid them only to ensure that I reduced my stay on online platforms. I decided to give them to my parents to be with them and only used them on priority aspects like when I wanted to make calls only after which I would return them. I took priority to avoiding friends who were also addicted to the behavior. However, I found it so difficult because some friends considered me to be a betrayer or a pretender, and these are titles that I would not prefer to be called.
Additionally, I dedicated my leisure to reading books such as captivating novels. The books were good because they had compelling stories that always drew my attention from online chatting (Okano et al., 2019). Stories in novels inspired me so much that I desired to be just like the characters in the books. Through reading the novels, I found some answers to my problems since I read the same things that I was going through and based on how the characters solved them, I also found a way of solving mine. Therefore, reading novels will be part of spending my leisure. However, the experience with reading stories became challenging because most of the time that I spent online; I would prefer reading online, which diverted my attention to other things rather than reading.
The best of all the practices, as per my experience, was to ensure that I got enough sleep strictly. A person is required to rest for at least eight hours. I fixed everything with the necessary time in my schedule and ensured I at least had nine hours of sleep. Due to engaging in online activities, I always found myself sleeping very late and, at some point, not sleeping at all, even though I have always desired to have time to sleep. Getting enough time to sleep helps solve some problems and refreshes one’s memory and brain (Okano et al., 2019). Finally, I managed to get enough sleep as I converted my attention from online interactions and dedicated it to my family, chores, and reading novels. I could visit online platforms during the day to ensure that I read about the international news and get back to my daily chores.
From the experience I had with changing the time I wasted on online interaction on social media platforms, I learned that I was the essential subject to changing my behavior. Unless I decided by myself, nothing else could have changed my conduct in my life. My health improved effectively because I was giving my body enough time to rest, which was different from before. Similarly, I learned that the addiction to online interaction is hazardous because it draws one full attention from what is expected of them to chatting and commenting.
Conclusively, spending time with family, engaging in daily activities like house chores, and making inquiries from people who have experienced the challenge to be changed can help one succeed in change. Additionally, getting enough sleep is the best way to eliminate online addiction, thus influencing the evolution of the behavior of an individual. However, it is not possible, but it is always good if a person chooses to live a fulfilling healthier life.
Reference
Okano, K., Kaczmarzyk, J. R., Dave, N., Gabrieli, J. D., & Grossman, J. C. (2019). Sleep quality, duration, and consistency are associated with better academic performance in college students. NPJ science of learning, 4(16), 1-5.