My One-Month Challenge Off Social Media

Yes, yes, yes…. I know social media is essential to life. It’s a great source to staying in contact with family and friends while you are away at college. But what is it that makes this technological world of communication so addictive?  Is it that it gives individuals a chance to advertise and express themselves to the general public?

There have been a countless number of times when I have been with people at an event or even in the classroom and all they are doing is checking their social media apps for any updates, I have been guilty of this as well. It’s not to say that social media is bad for you, it’s just the question as to what else can you be using that time for?

I decided to give myself a one-month challenge to stay off all social media platforms from Dec 10, 2014 – Jan 10, 2015.  By the way it might have been one of the best decisions of my life.

The first week of my challenge was during finals week. I truly felt more efficient in my studying habits as I no longer was summoned by my phone to check my social media. Facebook was deactivated, Instagram was logged out of, and I deleted Snapchat, and Twitter. Believe it or not I actually did experience some withdrawal from not knowing what was going on in the social world. Even my friends weren’t able to contact me regarding events and updates. This was really a time to capitalize and study effectively in order to do well on my finals as I seized the moment!

Once winter break started I kept the challenge going, Even though I didn’t have schoolwork, I kind of liked the idea of being independent and not relying on other people’s lives to entertain me on my electronics. After all, why should we constantly track what other people are up to? If you are genuinely interested in someone’s well being, give them a call, take them out for coffee; be actively social instead of technologically social.

Through my toxic cleansing of social media, I went to alternative forms of entertainment. I read three incredible novels, worked on summer internship opportunities, and felt more conversational with family and friends since I wasn’t on my phone too much. Since their wasn't to many reasons to check my phone, at one point I went four days without charging it, which is a personal record.

I would like to challenge everyone to take some time off social media, especially college students, as you will definitely begin to appreciate other things besides your tablet/iPhone. Once you are finished with your one-month challenge you will learn to only use social media in moderation and not let it distract you from life. Below is an interesting blog post written by Neil Patel that can be useful to undergrads on how to save time on social media.

http://themetapicture.com/if-this-video-doesnt-convince-you/

https://blog.bufferapp.com/how-to-save-time-on-social-media  

Post II - Annotated Bibliography

The amount of stress that college students face can sometimes be unbearable to a point of anxiety, exhaustion, or even depression. College is a time to have fun but also get your priorities straight and mature into a young adult. A basic lesson that most college students must learn within their first semester at school is how to cope with stress. In order to truly enjoy your time at a University, you can’t let stress take over your life and ruin your time, because you can never live these four years over again.

I found an interesting study about enhancing stress coping skills amongst undergrads that can make a great contribution to this blog.

Kadhiravan, S., & Kumar, K. (2012). ENHANCING STRESS COPING SKILLS AMONG    COLLEGE STUDENTS. Researchers World,3(4), 49-55. Retrieved from          http://search.proquest.com/docview/1285124811?accountid=14749

In this experiment, Kadhiravan and Kumar took 88 undergrads majoring in computer science and divided them in half for a control group and experimental group.  The researchers then created a training program for these undergrads to test them in the following categories’: proactive coping and general self-efficacy. Proactive coping is efforts taken in advance to deal with potential stressful situations, while general self-efficacy is using motivation to overcome stress to a point of achieving your goals.

The data from each training program was collected on three different scales.  Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Proactive Coping Inventory (PCI) and General Self-efficacy Scale (GSE). The training program dealt with several different topics dealing with improvement of individual coping, communication skills, coping skills, problem-solving skills. The finding showed that students who participated in the coping skills training greatly differed from the control group in proactive coping, reflective coping, and preventive coping and perceived self-efficacy. Essentially, people who deal with proactive coping are better able to deal with future stressors.

This study will be useful when assessing the techniques to counteract stress amongst college students. Even though the experiment only used computer science students, I bet these results would be accurate amongst most of the student body. Basically procrastination can lead to the most stressful situations once it comes down to grind time. If you plan accordingly to when your assignments are due, that can be less stressful. Most students think that studying earlier would use up more of their time but does it’s benefits outweigh staying in as few more nights to study?

I look forward to exploring more ways to achieve a healthy college balance in the coming weeks. 

Hello World

Arguably the most challenging aspect of a college life is maintaining a proper balance between school, sleep, and a social life. Most students tend to lean towards one corner of the spectrum, however, that can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle. This blog will teach its readers how to maintain a healthy college balance.

This topic is extremely important to me as I suffered from an unhealthy college balance in previous semesters. At one point, I was tied up in 18 units, working 20-30 hours a week, sleeping four hours a night and struggling to stay in contact with friends. I wasn’t happy with my college experience, as I never had time to appreciate and enjoy USC, but I had to maintain my GPA. Even though it was a tough semester, I eventually found a way to maintain good grades and ultimately enjoy my college experience with a healthy lifestyle.

A common phrase amongst college students is that there are sometimes “not enough hours in one day.” This blog will work on time management and show how unproductive college students can really be with their social media, Netflix, etc. The goal is not to eliminate recreational activities, but rather relegate these recreational activities to a more fitting time.

Another important aspect to everyday life is exercise. Living in sunny Los Angeles, we are in the perfect conditions to maintain fitness but schoolwork can get in the way of our busy days.  Some people become Weekend Warriors and some students don’t even exercise. My blog will explain all the healthy benefits to exercising that can transcend the reader’s social, mental and physical well being.

Everyone has their own situation when it comes to college. Some students have to work, other students have to train if they are committed to a sport. Therefore it will be important to talk about common situations that all students face regardless of if they are an athlete, worker, nerd, or sleeper.  Great topics for this blog can be about eating habits, exercise optimization, proper sleep during busy week, studying, and finding time for your social life.

When it comes down to weeks of midterms or finals, students tend to crack down on studying to a point of dehumanization. They can become zombies pulling all-nighters, highly caffeinated with their brains scrambling to retain the lecture notes before the big exam. We are all guilty of this practice but is there really another way to study effectively without disassociating yourself from the world? Can you still hang out with your friends the weekend before the big exam?

These are just some of the few things I will explore over the next few weeks. The ultimate worst enemy to achieving this balance is procrastination. Procrastination is a student’s kryptonite and really strikes the source of the problem when it comes to school struggles. These will be interesting topics to cover in the coming weeks, as there is certainly a right formula for everyone to achieve a perfect college balance.