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Trends explain why it is important to maintain information hygiene and how to control your own social networks in times of crisis
When the information field is filled with disturbing news, it is important to keep track of the content you consume.
In order not to experience anxiety from the flow of news, experts recommend following information hygiene. Dose, control, and scrutinize the information you consume and distribute. The more bad news, the greater the anxiety. Hence – an unproductive state, tension, which can result in problems in the family and at work.
Basic principles of information hygiene:
Despite the fact that in times of crisis it is difficult to lead a normal life, it is important not to forget about the routine, duties at home and at work. In addition, you can distract yourself from constantly watching the news by consuming other information. Many media outlets are trying to release entertainment content even in difficult times, because they feel a responsibility to the audience – those who need such escapism in order to avoid anxiety due to the events taking place around them. Even now, YouTube, streaming services and podcast platforms continue to release entertainment content. Fiction will also help you relax.
Disable all notifications
Another way to maintain information hygiene is to turn off notifications on your devices. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University concluded that turning off notifications significantly reduces stress, improves concentration and productivity. Other research and people’s personal experiences also show that turning off notifications helps them be more productive. At the same time, the refusal of notifications, constant viewing of social networks and chats does not affect success at work.
Of course, the feeling of the unknown and not being in context can cause the FOMO effect – the fear of missing out on events taking place in the world. FOMO is especially dangerous when there is a lot of news. But here, too, experts recommend setting aside only a limited amount of time for watching news feeds. Those events that are really important will reach you in any case.
On the contrary, if your notifications are always on, you may experience the reverse effect of FOMO. The feeling that the news and social networks control you. Every like, new media post notification you read forces you to open your feed and waste your time, while disabling notifications will allow you to check the feed only when you want to.
Disable app update
One of the possible scenarios for the development of events in March 2022 is the restriction of the operation of services and social networks in our country. To protect your data and maintain control over social networks, you can turn off app updates.
Many IT experts believe that in the event of tougher sanctions, individual companies (such as Apple) will have the opportunity to disable the device of a Russian user.
The chance that the smartphone manufacturer will turn off the device completely with the new update is small. However, individual applications may restrict access for users from our country.
To avoid this, you can turn off the automatic app updates feature.
On Apple smartphones, you need to go to “Settings”, then to the “App Store” section and turn off the “Software Update” option.
To do the same on Mac computers, you need to open the App Store itself, then go to Settings in the bar at the top of the screen and uncheck the Auto-update box.
To turn off auto-update on Android, you need to open the Google Play store, go to the “Settings” section, then to “Auto-update apps” and check the “never” box.
On Android devices, you can also select the specific app you want to stop updating. This is especially convenient if you know that the program has stopped working in our country and you don’t want to lose access to it.
To do this, go to the “Play Market”, select the “My applications” section and open the “Installed” list. In each application from the list, you can open additional options and uncheck “Auto-update”.
It’s important to remember that app developers also use updates to patch security holes from past versions. Therefore, it is important to keep track of what changes in a particular update and make your own decision. On all devices, this can be done by clicking on “Update Information”.
Why is it important to think about file backup?
To secure your data and maintain control over it, you can use cloud services.
iCloud, DropBox and other storages allow you to backup user files. In this case, documents are stored on numerous separate servers, to which the user has access regardless of location and device. Files can be managed both inside the cloud and downloaded to a new (other) medium. All IT experts recommend doing a backup, since blocking or slowing down services is not the only threat. Cloud storage allows you to keep access to data if they have been damaged, deleted, or the device has been hacked. You can also set up automatic backups in cloud services. For example, all files created on Apple devices can be automatically uploaded to iCloud. Individual services and social networks also allow you to manage your files, regardless of blocking, hacking or loss of devices.
Almost all modern services and applications have the ability to download information, data and correspondence to your computer.
For example, all files related to your Instagram page can be downloaded by going to the menu item “Your activity” – “Download information”. After that, you will need to enter an email where you will receive a link to download a file with all the profile information.
Telegram also has the ability to download data from chats and channels. True, for this you need to download a specific client – Telegram Desktop. This is the official app, but you will need a VPN to download.
To download information from a chat or telegram channel, you need to go to the menu and select “Export chat history”.
To download your own data and all correspondence, you need to go to “Settings”, then to “Advanced settings” – “Export data from Telegram”.
The ability to download data about your accounts is also available from Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other applications.
Services from Google, such as Google Docs, also allow you to download any file to your computer.
To do this, select “File” – “Download”, then specify the format in which you want to download the document.
Other Google services, such as Mail or Calendars, also allow you to download user data for offline access.
Moreover, with the help of the Google Takeout archiver, you can download all the data from the Google ecosystem.