Yahoo Finance 3 Ways Social Media is Making You Poorer Which You Aren’t Aware Of
Admit it, Facebook is the only reason the average Singaporean knows what’s going on in the world. That’s probably its only useful role in society, though. While Facebook’s time-wasting properties have long been recognised by anyone with half a brain, it has a far more pernicious effect—being a serial Facebook browser could be making you poorer.
Yup, you head that right. Although it’s absolutely “free” to sign up for and maintain a Facebook account and social media accounts can land you jobs and even earn you some cash on the side, recent studies revealed that people who spent lots of time on Facebook had lower credit scores and higher credit card debt levels than those who didn’t. (They were also found to be fatter.)
Here’s why social media makes you poorer.
Facebook is full of ads telling you to buy, buy, buy
In case you haven’t noticed, Facebook gets smarter each year. In the old days, they used to display tiny ads in the sidebars, ads that were easily ignored. These days, you find big ads jammed in between entries on your news feed.
While it’s true that we’re already pretty much inundated with ads in our everyday lives as it is, the difference is that when you watch an ad on TV or look at a poster at the bus stop, those ads aren’t as ruthlessly targeted as Facebook ads are. So you see might see an ad for sanitary napkins while watching a Channel 8 drama serial with your mum and then secretly thank the gods that you weren’t born female. Or you might roll your eyes at the Yun Nam Hair Care ads on the MRT as you toss your luxuriant mane in defiance.
But Facebook ads are targeted at you according to your gender, age and the fact that you’re a diehard Game of Thrones fan. Any information you provide and even your search history can and will be used to sell to you. And the more you use Facebook, the more it knows about you, and the more likely the ads are going to be highly relevant to you. Heck, Facebook is the only reason I know of the existence of Zalora or Hipvan.
Solution: Unfortunately, there’s really no way to completely turn off Facebook ads. However, if certain ads are pissing you off, you can turn them off by going to your general and private settings and restricting the information Facebook uses to target ads at you. You can also click on the “Why am I seeing this?” option when you do see an ad and prevent Facebook from showing certain types of ads.
Everyone’s showing off, so you have to, too
Let’s just be mature adults and admit to the fact that Facebook is basically a huge brag board for most users. Instagram is even worse.
Why do you think people spend hours uploading hundreds of meticulously photoshopped pictures of their exotic holidays to Facebook albums? What is the whole point of outfit-of-the-day Instagram pics? Why did Tin Pei Ling pose with an oversized Kate Spade box?
Sure, some people will insist they mainly use social media to stay in touch with their friends. But as any good politician knows, a large part of the appeal of social media is that it allows you to reimagine yourself. That profile you’ve constructed online isn’t really you—it’s how you want to be seen.
This causes problems, because on social media it looks like everyone’s life is perfect. You’re constantly bombarded by images of all the fun everyone is having as they socialise over champagne brunches in their designer clothes, or go skydiving in the Bahamas before volunteering with orphans in an ancient African tribe.
All this can cause even the most frugal people to crave a better life—one that can be bought with money. It’s hard to stick to hawker meals at lunch when you’re constantly bombarded by photos of the entire world’s $30 cafe brunch. Your annual holidays in Malaysia now look so lame you dare not put them on Instagram; why not try that exclusive 6-star resort in Fiji that what’s-his-face stayed at last year? And obviously you can’t keep wearing the same clothes or else people who see all the pics you’re tagged in will think you never take a shower.
Solution: Use Facebook primarily to keep tabs on organisations, social causes or just to follow joke or informative pages, rather than to stalk other people. Even following those Pro/Anti-PAP websites is better than stalking people, since the chances of your running out to buy an all-white wardrobe are quite low.
Social media lowers productivity
Here on MoneySmart, we often talk about how time is money. If you’re the sort of person who doesn’t have any discipline over how you spend your time, you can expect to be the poorer for it.
This applies not only to those who would take up a second job or freelance on the side if they had more time outside of work, but also to those people who are forced to take cabs to work because they overslept after spending the entire night looking at other people’s Instagram galleries, or those who have to eat out every night because they leave the office late every day (it’s hard to be efficient at work when you’re forced to check your Facebook window every 2 minutes).
When you’re time-poor, you usually end up spending lots of money just to buy yourself time, as working mothers who have to spend a big chunk of their salary to put their kids in infant care and childcare can attest to.
And while there’s no question that working hours in Singapore tend to be longer than what is average or acceptable in many developed countries, cutting out that 2 hour mindless Facebook-browsing session from your life might make turn you into a more productive person—and that’s bound to have some effect on your happiness, if not your income and savings, in the medium- to long-term.
Solution: Identify the times you usually find yourself glued to social media and then deliberately find an activity to replace the mindless browsing. If you spend 1 hour Facebooking on your commute to work each morning, bring a book and read something other than people’s updates on the MRT.
The post 3 Ways Social Media is Making You Poorer Which You Aren't Aware Of appeared first on the MoneySmart blog.
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