How to avoid social media overload

“Distracted from distraction by distraction” -  T.S. Eliot. 

Social media has given rise to a whole new level of distraction.

But could social media really be impacting our brains? Yes!

Check this out

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Your Brain On Social - An infographicby the team at TollFreeForwarding.com

Working in media my tolerance for information overload should be relatively high, right? Wrong! I constantly feel the sensation of brain overload setting in after a busy week.

A few years ago this came to a head after I became completely immersed in the frenetic world of twitter. I was first introduced to it at a social media event and proceeded to spin into an obsessed frenzy of hash -tagging, retweeting, following and tweeting. I installed tweet deck on my desktop at work and before long my workdays were a blur of 140 characters flying across my screen.

I felt informed, up to date with the most cutting edge news, stimulated and… utterly exhausted.

So, one morning, I sat down at my desk after a particularly busy week and began deleting.

I deleted my twitter account, my second and third email accounts, my tweet deck, my google plus account and so the list went on. With every deletion I felt as though I was regaining small but essential space in my brain.

But is mass deletion the answer? Where would we be without social media altogether?

Would we be the last people on earth to find out about the latest and greatest current affair, that awesome YouTube clip that went viral in a matter of seconds, that captivating blog or latest friend to get hitched?!

Could you live without it? For me, the answer is no… or perhaps I could but the truth is I wouldn’t want to.

I have a love hate relationship with social media. Its ability to enrich our knowledgebase, connect us with people, issues and movements across the globe and keep us engaged is POWERFUL.

So how do we strike that happy balance between clearing space in our minds for thinking and still keeping our finger on the… hashtag key?

These are few useful tips for managing daily social media brain drain:

1. Have social media ‘no go’ time zonesMake time where you and your partner, your family or your roommates SWITCH OFF. My husband and I have found that after 8:30pm every night is a great time to switch everything off.. Incredible how much we actually have to talk about and share with one another when our eyes aren’t glued to our eye pad
2. Scale back on your platformWork out which platforms serve you – workwise and personally. You’ll find you can get by happily with fewer than you thought. Try removing 1 social media platform from your life today and prepare to feel liberated!
3. Unsubscribe

From a young age Luana wanted to become a teacher. She would line up her teddies in a row and teach them for hours on end. However, she eventually grew tired of their nonchalance and has ended up leading a team of producers instead- which she finds far more fulfilling and stimulating!  

Luana comes from an experienced production and management background. She has produced and topic generated events across Asia and Australia.

Luana enjoys learning about emerging trends and drivers for change and loves the notion of the 'butterfly effect'- that change can start small but grow immeasurably through a ripple effect.