Top 10 Most Common Bad Habits

Photo of author

Updated On

Habits are what define you. Some are hard to stop, some are hard to start. But habits stay. And habits make you the person you are, and help in shaping the person you will be. Good habits make you a better person on the whole, and bad habits make yourself feel bad and do harm to you. And most habits are so automatic in their occurrence that you don’t even know you’re doing it, and lo! you’ve already done it. These things that we do again and again get so firmly embedded in our neural pathways that doing them again requires little or no thought. Some of the most compulsive habits stay because doing them causes positive feedback in your brain. Sitting lazily feels good. Watching TV all day feels good. Don’t change them and you live a miserable life.

Sure everyone wishes not ever to follow a bad habit but we can’t get rid of human nature. And habits are human nature. You get used to things you do repeatedly. Come to think of it, it should be this way, because it would be way difficult if you had to think of and concentrate on each and everything you do. And bad habits are not so bad after all. Because they teach you about yourself, they don’t go without making you learn something about yourself. They tell you what you shouldn’t be like.

Here’s a list of 10 of the most common bad habits. Some of them affect most of us, and some trouble us a lot. These are what you should recognize in yourself and try to remove altogether.

10. Too Much Social Networking

too much social networking- most common bad habits

The Internet, and the social network with it, have pervaded our lives in ways people couldn’t imaging just 20 years ago. You love social networking because you wouldn’t want to miss all the exciting stuff that are happening with your friends and your network, the interesting things that they are sharing. And even more than that, the attachment towards social media and social networks arises from the wish to broadcast yourself, from the desire to have an audience for your opinions (or your selfies!) People invariably feel good talking about themselves. Studies have shown that self-disclosure activates the reward regions in the brain like other pleasurable activities do.

But why is too much social networking and social media a bad habit? Because when given incessant attention, it harms you. Too much social networking drives you away from actual human contact and real relationships. You find it easier to message someone on facebook than to actually talk to them. And in the world of hyper-connected but lonely people, direct human relationships are all the more valuable.

9. Incessant Gaming

incessant gaming- most common bad habits

Gaming is good for you, actually. Multiple researches have shown that playing games improves neuro-motor coordination, enhance cognitive abilities, and benefit you in a lot of other ways. Video games are actually recommended for people with specific mental disorders like dyslexia and schizophrenia. So when does it become a bad habit? Yes, when it goes out of control. We are well past the age when gaming was just for powerful consoles and performance PCs. Social gaming and mobile gaming has become ubiquitous, and every few months a new mobile game goes viral. There was angry birds, there was candy crush and now there is flappy bird. And there are more people hooked to them. [sam id=”5″ codes=”true”]

Gaming becomes a bad habit when it borders on addiction. We all have heard of people forgetting to eat when gaming non-stop. While most of us may not take things to these extremes, we do play games on our phones at wrong places and times. And when we do that, we are harming our social relationships and social behavior. So, think before you game!

8. Worrying on things beyond your control

Tinnitus- side effect of lexapro

Worrying, maybe, is one of the most common human emotions. Since prehistoric times life has been full of things we humans can’t predict, unpleasant surprises and the uncontrollable environment. Since then humans have been trying to bring order on things and make them predictable, but to no avail. That’s why we worry. We worry that things might not be well tomorrow like they are today, we worry that we’ll die soon, we worry that we’ll lose what we have with us now.

But worry is never useful. Someone said that ‘worry is a misuse of imagination’, which is somewhat true. When your worry is intense and without solid ground, it becomes anxiety. And this anxious, uncalm state of mind is not good for you. If you worry too much that it borders on anxiety, or worry frequently over small things, its a bad habit. Things beyond your control are things beyond your control, and the problem is not solved by worrying. In most cases you worsen things by worrying. And its difficult for you not to worry because your mind justifies and makes excuses. Sometimes worriers even feel the need to worry because they think they’re doing good by expecting and trying to prevent danger for themselves and others. But that’s not so simple. So for your own good, ditch the worrying habit and live a happy life you deserve.

Spread the love

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.