Late last year, I visited Oslo, Norway to represent Pakistan at the inaugural of Telenor Youth Summit. I observed something highly peculiar about me and my fellow participant – we both were spending more time sharing moments from our trip on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, than enjoying these moments as they happened.

If I recall the exact moment of this realisation, it was when my mate and I were standing at the edge of a fjord. Instead of enjoying the spectacular view of the winter sunset over hills, we took lots of photographs of each other. Yes, we did manage to get nice, memorable photographs out of it, but it was at the cost of fully experiencing the moment undeterred by the compulsion to “share” it with the rest of the world.

Why we do this

When it comes down to it, I believe the need to stay and keep others up to date is due to the fact that we as humans like the instant gratification, and self-esteem boost we get when our friends 'like' our shared photos and comment on our status updates. Over time people have started tailoring the things they share to ensure they get more and more attention on social networks. It is becoming an addiction with time.

Larry Rosen, a professor of Psychology at California State University conducted a survey back in 2011. He revealed his conclusions in the form of a terribly titled presentation 'Poke Me: How Social Networks Can Both Help and Harm Our Kids'. Here is what he discovered:

• Teenagers who regularly consume and create social media content develop anxiety, depression, and other psychological disorders.
• They show more narcissistic tendencies, and other behaviours that can only be described as 'anti-social'.
• Some teenagers reported checking Facebook as much as once every fifteen minutes. Such regular Facebook use negatively affects learning at school.

A break from social media

Few years back when I was doing FSc, my father disconnected the home wireless router for a couple of weeks as I was spending too much time online (most of which was dedicated to Facebook). The first two-three days I exhibited pretty much the same anti-social, and psychological disorders mentioned by Rosen; it was only in the second week when I realised that it was good for me.

Without 24/7 internet access, I felt like getting extra 'bonus' hours every day to complete the daily tasks. I felt more focused towards the task at hand and spent more time with my own family, instead of using communication mediums – SMS, Facebook, Twitter etcetera. It was an enlightening experience!

Solving the problem

The question is, if keeping away was such a great experience, why did I return to Facebook? This is partially due to the fact that Facebook has gone beyond a simple 'fun' social tool, and has become truly useful for work (at least for me), and also because I just cannot disconnect Facebook now.

While I can't stay away from Facebook for a long time, at least I can limit my time on social media. With that in mind, I have made a handful of rules that I follow:

1. Checking Facebook no more than three times a day: once in the morning, afternoon, and at night. Using Facebook for project-related work does not count.

2. Turn off all Facebook push notifications on my phone, except for private messages.

3. Unfollow – but not unfriend – people and pages who share information I do not find useful.

I regularly violate rule #1. As a matter of fact, I checked Facebook at least five times during the three or so hours it took me to write down this article.

Hey, it's a start!

Ironically, Awais Imran will share his progress on reduced Facebook usage on his Facebook profile (facebook.com/waisybabu). He is a Software Engineering student at NUST, Google Student Ambassador and a professional technology blogger.