There is simply no way that anyone can deny the fact that this generation is immensely blessed because of the advancements made by technology. However, this gift from tech has equally brought with it some cons that are not just disturbing but equally on the rise. These days, it is common to observe that a lot of people have bad digital habits. And it is not just restricted to children and the youth. These bad digital habits are also being displayed by adults, many of whom are employees and bosses in different establishments.
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What are the causes of some bad digital habits?
The natural question would be – what is the cause of these bad digital habits? Well, popular opinion is that our generation is one that lacks of manners. And the cause of this is that it has been created by a massive increase in tablets, laptops, smartphones, and other devices.
But, let me ask you this: is technology to be blamed for the rise of rudeness and the display of several bad digital habits? Well, the brand new technology definitely permits individuals to display their lack of manners in ways that are new. The fact is that the display of rude manners through bad digital habits is not just annoying; it can equally cost you something of value. For instance, have you or someone you know been denied of a promotion or a raise at work simply because your boss dislikes your bad email habits? Or maybe your family is disrespecting you because of their annoyance with your addiction to the smartphone? Now you can see the disadvantages of displaying bad digital habits.
So how do we get rid of these bad digital habits? When it has to do with getting rid of these bad digital habits to avoid, a lot of it would have to do with being courteous, empathic, and observing the golden rule: doing unto other people as you would want them to do unto you.
The bad digital habits to avoid
There is every likelihood that gadgets are soon going to outnumber people on earth. Therefore, if we all treated other people the way that we desire to be treated the world should be a much better place to dwell in. And how do we make earth a much better place to dwell in is by curtailing and tackling these bad digital habits.
In the article below, I am going to list some of the bad digital habits to avoid and how they can be tackled. I am sure that when you go through the list you would notice some that you might be guilty of. When you do, do not be too hard on yourself. We are all culprits, including my humble self. All you need to do is to follow the advice I give and you would soon be free from these bad digital habits.
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Failure to have your data backed up
Do you know that your most reliable and efficient devices and computers are not bulletproof but actually very vulnerable to attacks and intrusions? Yes, they are all susceptible to being attacked and affected by natural disasters, hardware failures, power surges, and malware which can all make you lose your precious documents, data, and files. It can also lead you to being a victim of hacking.
Do you know that from available data, only about half of businesses which suffer a catastrophic loss begin to back up their data? And only about a quarter of small companies back up their data every day? These numbers are definitely not good. The best way to stop this bad digital habit is to immediately start creating physical backups to a hard disk for all your pictures, documents, videos, and music. The alternative option would be to use an online cloud storage to backup your devices.
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Addiction to Pornography
This is another bad digital habit to avoid. Relationship problems, anxiety, depression, and secrecy are just some of the issues that such an addiction can create. Statistics on its damages are quite alarming. It is said that almost 70 percent of young men watch porn during the week while less than 10 percent of viewers of porn have been successful at stopping it.Some ways to curtail this bad digital habit is to make use of internet filters which act as a deterrent from your search for porn. In the alternative, join the NoFap Reddit Community which is an online get-together for individuals who are keeping away from porn.
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Social media websites
Do not get me wrong. Social media websites can actually add value to our lives. But when used in the wrong ways, they can turn out to be very much a complete waste of time and resources. Some statistics would better explain my point. In July of 2012, 121 billion minutes were wasted by Americans on social media websites. Every day, the average time that an American stayed in Facebook is 40 minutes. This translates to over 243 hours every year.
And on Twitter, the 271 million active users send out 500 million tweets every single day. The best way to stop this bad digital habit would be download StayFocused a Chrome app which denies you access to websites which waste your time. Another option would be to have your accounts deactivated, deleted, or just post less often on them and they would fade away into obscurity.
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Playing games obsessively
Obsessive online gaming can be massively addictive in ways that are similar to other types of stimulants. Did you know that MMORPGS (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) are most popular online gaming experience simply because it is played by almost 50 percent of online gamers? Also, did you know that about 10 percent of children are in one way or another addicted to gaming? These statistics are bad.
But these bad digital habits can be curtailed. You can achieve this by having time limits set. A lot of modern gaming consoles have controls to limit gaming time which are password-protected. Another option would be to attempt to discover cheats or a walkthrough for the game by going online. By this method, you would quickly complete it rather than waste time on the game.
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Staying focused on your phone
Depression and sleep disorders are said to be caused by excessively using your phone. What about texting and driving? That is now a major cause of accidents among motorists. Sometime in 2012, a research study by CNN concluded that more than 20 percent of Americans were of the belief that their marital conflicts were caused by their usage of mobile phones.
The same study also stated that a similar number of people checked their phone during a meal, regardless of who is in their company. And law enforcement agents are citing a rising number of people caught texting while driving their cars or even riding their cycles. There are ways that this bad digital habit to avoid can be controlled. You can simply choose to have it turned off.
If you find that it is difficult then try to stop making use of your phone or any other gadgets while you are in bed or just before you go to bed. In the alternative, have custom alert profiles set up. This feature of most phones would vet your notification to prevent you from being needlessly distracted.
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Bad etiquette in email
If you work in a company you can unknowingly frustrate your colleagues by displaying the bad digital habit of email etiquette that is bad. Some of these can be by completely ignoring or disregarding emails, requesting read receipts, or responding to emails at the wrong times, and so on. This has the potential of making an employee look unfocused and unserious.Some of these bad digital habits can be curtailed by getting to the point fast; for multiple requests make use of separate emails. You can also sync the content of your emails with the subject line. This would make searching for them later much easier.
From the above, we can see that a lot of these bad digital habits are actually the cause of our having unpleasant and frosty relationships with our friends, colleagues, co-workers, bosses, and families. Once you can identify any bad digital habit the next thing to do is to curtail them. By so doing, we would have better relationships with people around us.
