Obsessing Over The Perfect Social Media Post Is Life Ruining

This article originally appeared on 60 Second Social.

Sounds pretty dramatic right? Well according to a new study, the hunt for as many social media likes you can get and the hunt for attention can in fact ‘ruin your life.’

The study has been unveiled by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield who are the co-authors of NYT best sellers such as Crucial Conversations and it reveals how the need for “likes” and social media praise is having an adverse effect on our daily lives.

The study was carried out on 1,623 people and paint the picture of a social media obsessed society. 58% of those surveyed said that “posting the perfect picture has prevented them from enjoying life experiences.”

Trying to get that perfect shot at a sports event, concert or a beautiful sunset to share with your friends and followers has actually ruined the experience itself. Maxfield had a personal impetus on the study, recently he took his nieces out boogie boarding on his 60th birthday but he spent more time trying to capture the event than he did trying to live it.

“I was kind of ignoring my nieces in order to get a trophy of our time together,” Maxfield told Mashable in an interview.\

91% of people surveyed said that they witnessed tourists missing a great moment because they were trying to capture it to share on social media, most of that 91% admitted to doing the same thing themselves.

Three out of four people admitted to being rude or distant because they had more focus on their phones than people while one in four said they allowed smartphones to disturb “intimate” moments. 14% said they have risked their own safety in order to grab a “like worthy” post.

“‘Likes’ are a low-effort way of producing a feeling of social well-being that takes more effort to get in the real world,” Grenny says in the study.

The study found that constantly hunting for the right social media moment actually correlates to low happiness. We don’t need to abandon social media, we don’t need to take long breaks from it. However it is no longer a small minority who are putting their social media obsession ahead of life itself, it is now a vast number of people who compromise special moments in life in order to be able to post something which will gain a large number of likes or retweets.

Social media is all about using in moderation, and that will be varying quantities depending on who you are and what you do as a career. For myself, social media is a job but I know when to take a step back, I know when to leave my device alone and enjoy moments in life instead of trying to capture it to fulfil a ‘social media reputation need.’ However for a lot of people, they don’t know when to stop, Grenny and Maxfield offer up the solutions for the social media obsessed out there in the form of an infographic below.

About The Author

Mark is the founder of 60 Second Social media where he provides social media news and digital marketing analysis, he is also a proud father of his bearded dragon, Lola. You can follow him on Twitter here. You can also follow 60 Second Social on Twitter here.