Facebook and Social Media Addiction

Addiction doesn’t only come from drugs and cigarettes, but also social media. When teens start using social media too much it can get as addictive as drugs and cigarettes.This is disturbing because of past studies drugs and cigarettes are one of the hardest things to give up, once you start. “Teens who get hooked on such forms of social media find it hard to spend too much time away from them.Their schoolwork can suffer as a result. So can their personal relationships and their moods,” states Source 1. One can see from this that social media has caused stress among teens by getting them to attach to their social media profiles that they lose touch with reality.

Social media has become deeply embedded as a part of today’s American culture and lifestyles, changing the way people interact and communicate with one another. Americans use social media every day; to not only communicate, but to express themselves. These online media sites and blogs serve as entertainment for its users and give them a sense of a social life if they do not already have one. Some users become so obsessed with their online lives that they lose the ability to successfully communicate with people in real life. Their craving for the use of social media becomes an addiction to where they can spend countless hours on their social sites. Facebook, a popular social media cite, has been proven to cause Facebook Depression, a sickness in which a person is emotionally depressed and in self denial. Studies have shown that sites such as Facebook, are a direct link to an individual’s physical and emotional well being.

When thinking about a drug, most people think to substances like heroin and cannabis; however, there is new substance that has been sweeping nations. A drug is a substance that has a phycological effect when introduced to the body. Though people don’t think of social media as a drug, it has the same addictive side effects. Upon reading article “Addicted to Distraction” by Tony Schwartz, which talks about the addiction society has to social media and its effects, I realized what a drug social media is. This generation has experienced technology like never before, and it has led to advantages and disadvantages. Although social media can be fun, there is a developing addiction that has causes, effects, and solutions.

First, social media, especially Facebook, are very addicted. People would say drug or alcohol is more addicted than social media or social media addiction is not big problems, but it is not true. There is a report of the social media addiction by University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. A team from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business recently conducted an experiment involving 205 people in Wurtzburg, Germany to analyze the addictive properties of social media and other devices. Participants in the week-long study were polled via BlackBerry smartphones seven times per day and asked to report when they experienced a desire within the past 30

Andreassen, Pallesen, Griffiths (2015) argues the implications of social media on a person(s), being addictive habits which affect self-esteem and moods. They did a study proving over 23,500 participants (Andreassen et al. 2015) showed addictive behaviour; of which it was most associated with

Addictions may seem like simple pleasures at first. Unfortunately, that's the trap with any addiction. It starts out at a pleasurable interest. Gradually, it can turn into something that's life-altering and all-consuming. Not only can it alter your own life, it can ruin your family life. When it comes to addiction, most people think about the most popular ones like drug and alcohol addictions. However, there are many addictions that fly under the radar.

Irena Ceranic, the author of the web article Social Media Addiction a Growing Concern, has utilised quotes, anecdotes and statistics to convey the author’s argument that social media is becoming an addiction. “… If a teenager spends long periods of time on the computer… that’s going to interfere with things like their real-time social life, they get fat… and it can interfere with their relationship with their parents, it becomes a source of conflict,” mentioned Perth psychologist Tony White. By bringing up the negative impacts for both the addict and their family, Ceranic has heightened concern for the parents with adolescent children who are obsessed with technology. To reach out to the adolescents who may fear they are becoming addicted to

Facebook is one of website which facilities communication. By facebook, people become easy to communicate with their friend. Moreover, facebook can be accessed for all ages. For example, using facebook becomes a lifestyle for teenagers. Almost everyday they access their facebook account to chat with their friends or just to update their status. If they don’t have facebook, their other friends will say you are old-fashion people. Facebook also has advantages and disavantages. In this article, let’s try to disscuss the disavantages of using facebook. Some disavantages that we can mention here : making weak eyesight, wasting time and money, cyber crime and conflict rising.

A digital footprint is everything you do online. It is what you post, search, watch, and read online. This footprint is permanent. A digital footprint can be searched, copied, shared, and broadcasted. Your digital footprint could keep you from going to the college you want to go to, and it might keep you from getting a job. According to a Kaplan Test Prep 2012 survey 27% admission officers search Google,

The addiction to social media use destroys our mental health just as much as it does to only avoiding the urge to look at it. Social media addiction is a classified mental health issue that can require professional treatment. Researchers at Nottingham Trent University in 2011 concluded that this issue leads to an assortment of problems such as relationship dilemmas, academic decline, and less participation in physical interactions in which our social media will replace our ties in real life (Brown 6). In the article “Smartphones: Uniting the World’s Children for Better, or Worse?”, an addictive behavior is defined as when one compulsively repeats the same behavior that subjects things in his or her life to. The addictive behavior social media can bring upon a person is as detrimental as drug or alcohol addictions (Smartphones: Uniting the World’s 2). Being addicted to this will impair your mental state and your sole desire will be to log back onto your feed. Your mind will become bogged down with social interactions 24/7 and your mental health will deteriorate from social media

The most genuine complication of social media is addiction. A reporter on Salem health characterized that text messaging is no longer the biggest teenage obsession, and enormous phone bills from lengthy phone calls are no longer the biggest doubts for parents. These teenage addictions still remain, but in our generation and in analogy to the Facebook mania, it’s quite insignificant. Facebook addiction is advised to be a disorder driven by a craving. Not being able to access Facebook creates anxiety among fanatics. It is one of the most prominent social networking sites and has over one billion users without exception. People detach themselves from family and friends. Further symptoms of Facebook addiction have been related with needy sleep patterns. Researchers have also attempted to evaluate certain personality traits to the obsession. Being in touch with friends and family might clarify the logic why people are unreasonably obsessed.

In today’s society almost every individual has some type of social media, whether it is Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, or Twitter, People have accustomed to utilizing these types of social media and it has become part of their life and daily use. According to the essay “Students Addicted to Social Media” by the International Center for Media and Public Agenda, the study from the University of Maryland claims “American college students today are addicted to media” (Signs of Life in the USA 403). The university discovered that when these students are restricted from using media it is similar in terms of drug and alcohol addictions. During the study that the university conducted, students discuss how boring it is without media and how it gives them anxiety about not receiving information through social media. Other students claimed that texting and IM'ing gives them comfort and if they do not have these items then they feel alone and isolated from the world ( Signs of Life in the USA 404). Students are not the only ones who have an addiction of media but also parents and non-students. However, the International Center is accurate in some aspects and the responses students gave are very relatable which some people can agree with.

In modern life, social media is developing fast. It is used by many people all over the world. Social media is especially very popular among the young. However, there are many young people who cannot control themselves and are addicted to social media. Addiction to social media has many serious effects, including poor study habits, living away from reality and bad health.

There is not a clear stated definition of digital addiction however Shaw and Black (2008) characterize Internet addiction by excessive or poorly preoccupations, urges or behaviours regarding computer use and internet access that lead to impairment or distress. However as the term addict is a strong description DA is seen as a general misuse of the internet in various forms, as no formal definition exists the author sees the disorder as problematic computer usage resulting in negative consequences. According to Young et al DA is a broad term covering a wide variety of behaviours and impulse control problems. K.Young (1999) also categorised DA into five subtypes of DA, they are cybersexual addiction, cyberrelationship addiction; net compulsion (e.g. gambling or shopping on the internet); information overload (e.g. compulsive database searching); and computer addiction (excessive game-playing). This project highlights social network addiction which falls into the category of cyberrelationship addiction but also contemplates all other types.

Today’s youth generation, has a strong attachment to the online world. Many adolescents spend most of their time online versus offline. Therefore, one can consider these adolescents as a social network addict, a person who spends a fair amount of time on one or many social platforms. Throughout the three articles, “Social Networking Addiction: An Overview of Preliminary Findings” by Mark Griffiths, “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship” by Nicole B. Ellison and “Taking Risky Opportunities in Youthful Content Creation: Teenagers’ use of Social Networking Sites for Intimacy, Privacy, and Self-expression” by Sonia Livingstone, show how this addiction has changed people’s communication among people. While there are