With the advent of newer social media platforms, it's hard to across someone who is not connected to one of them. There's something for everyone in them.

With user-friendly interfaces, the pliability of social media barely keeps you waiting for things that could entertain you instantly. Instead of watching an hour-long YouTube video on a given subject, which is unexciting, you have the option of searching for a shorter video that could summarise the idea in lesser time.

The conundrum of engaging in one task becomes all the more difficult with the ease of multi-tasking flexibility of social media, resulting in impatience. Moreover, the social media algorithm allows unfettered access to a series of videos, keeping its user wandering subconsciously around them.

It's common to see people squandering considerable amounts of time using entertainment apps such as TikTok.

During the lockdown, the number of people using them to kill time had skyrocketed.

While, there is nothing wrong in using TikTok for educational purposes, hovering around such addictive apps for long could cause a spike in dopamine levels, resulting in the temptation to obtain less rewarding but more immediate benefits. In contrast, the rise in creative minds and originality in informative TikTok videos is laudable as the user can obtain tangible benefits from it.

Paradoxically, a generation of social media-friendly people, shackled by the dread of real time socialisation, is the dark side of social media. Furthermore, the ease of changing one's lifestyle with little to no credibility has made the socially inept population to rejoice through such means.

At the pinnacle of globalisation, an unhealthy inclination of the younger generation towards social media could result in social detachment, low self-esteem and reduced concentration level in the long haul.

Although social media platforms have their merits, their infinite connectedness can be detrimental. Platforms such as TikTok and YouTube are helping creators to make good use of their talents and even make a livelihood out of them. However, the social perplexity is a bigger picture to contemplate.

Consequently, it's almost unlikely that the user will refrain from using the social media for the array of benefits it provides to them. But the challenge lies in staying away from the oblivious territory of comparisons, prejudices and shams.

The next time you watch a full-length YouTube video on your mobile, refrain from its recommendations and activities in the background. This necessarily doesn't end the issue at hand, but taking baby steps to foster safe social media habits would be appropriate for using the social media rather than getting used by it.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 21, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.