Social Media Addiction

We live in a world where the new way to communicate is via Internet. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media networks have taught us ways to connect with one another and have become our new way of entertainment. As reported by influencer marketing agency Mediakix in David Cohen article, “How Much Time Will the Average Person Spend on Social Media During Their Life?” confirms that the average person will spend more than five years of their life on social media according to Mediakix study. But, people may not see the subliminal effect that social media is having on us, with the concern of sexting and cyberbullying slowly wearing down latest problems are occurring because of this evolving medium; it is affecting people happiness without them even realizing it. Social media has become the foundation for people to showcase their lives 24/7 keeping their followers up-to-date with their “extravagant” lifestyle. With young adults’ use of social media, they are obsessed with the idea of appearing happy even if they aren’t happy and this is having an impact on their mental-wellbeing.

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

Though it started out as a way to keep in touch with friends and family members, social media has become an addiction for so many people. In fact, many people make it a point to detox from social media at least once or twice a year. Many people check their social media apps before

Social media is used by everyone. 71% of high schoolers say they utilize more than one of these social networking sites: Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Vine and Tumblr (Lenhart). These sites can benefit people, but can also hurt them. The creators of these sites did not intend for people to abuse them. They were made for everyone 's enjoyment. They can also be very informative and relaxing. Unfortunately, when people continue to misuse social media there can be serious consequences.

Social media is described, by the Merriam-Webster dictionary (2015), as “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)”. As few as 10 years ago the term social media was yet to be coined, but within that decade the use of these blogs, websites and sharing platforms has increased exponentially with no plateau in sight. From creating Instagram accounts for household pets, to sharing Halloween themed baking ideas over Pinterest, people today have access to social media outlets for almost everything. Today about 74% of people ages 18-65 use some form of a social networking site (Pew, 2014). Facebook takes the lead in social media usage with about 71% of those adults. LinkedIn and Pinterest are tied for second at 28% of users, 26% use Instagram, and Twitter falls last in the top 5 most used social medias with 23% of users (Pew, 2014). In September of 2013 the Pew Research Center measured that 90% of adults ages 18-29 used these social media outlets on a daily basis, which is an astonishing increase from the 9% that was measured in February 2005 (Pew, 2014). Due to the fact that young adults are increasingly involving themselves in these online platforms, it is very important to understand the long term and psychological effects (such as depression, social anxiety,

73% of teenagers use what seems to be harmless, social media. Although it’s main function is to provide online communities for friends to interact on the internet, social media is a direct link to developing mental illnesses. Mental health is a very important issue, especially in the millennial generation, because it can impact a life drastically. Mental well-being is at risk when using social media because it flaunts what society considers “perfection” to be, can become easily addictive and social net workings can be a hostile environment. All of these issues that are promoted by social media or that exists there can seriously deteriorate mental health and drive illnesses forward.

In the modern society of internet and technological advancement, there are plenty of very sophisticated devices that make addiction to social media even more relatable in the daily events of life. The study has revealed that the majority of network users and addicts are the young people in the society more specifically between the ages of 14 and 19 years old. Further, research has also revealed that up to 54% of the social network subscribers are already addicts to the same. Some of the way I do not think so that TV shows, video games and internet increase violence in our society because these thinks teach us how to learn technology but it is all depend on people’s mentality how they are using the technology. The social network platform hosts a variety of services to choose from each a bit different from the other. The addiction is more accurate to the services that the addict has subscribed to on their devices.

Social media is one of the most common ways for people to communicate anywhere and at any time in modern society. Some people think that it is beneficial to have in society. Although, many people are starting to see negative effects arise from the use of social media as well. These negative effects are increasing and becoming more problematic every day. The disadvantages of social media far outweigh the advantages. Social media effects everyone in society, especially teenagers by negatively impacting their lives, face-to-face interactions, and mental health.

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.

Although many people are addicted to the internet and social media, one girl experienced it in a rather harsh way. The now fifteen-year-old girl started “acting out” when she was just thirteen in the year of 2015. Her parents then turned off the service to her phone and took it away; but she would just buy a old or used phone from her friends, any phone she could get her hands on. In addition, she would stay up until 4:30 in the morning just looking at her feed, she also had multiple accounts for each app and would block her parents so they couldn’t see what she was doing or posting. Also, her social media addiction lead to the use of drugs and alcohol. At one point, when she was 13, the police showed up at her house in California, to inform her family that she was involved in a blackmail attempt, which included her nude pictures. Along with that she wrote a suicide note which she posted on her social media, had ended up on her parents phones, but she received treatment for “excessive social media use, substance abuse, and mental health,” (“ np).

Did you know the average person will spend five years and four months of their life devoted to using social media? This is more than the time we spend eating throughout our lives, which clocks in at about three years and five months, according to Mediakix, an influencer marketing service. The unstoppable march that is the advancement of technology is so quick that it’s only a matter of time before it consumes every aspect of the average life. Some might argue that social media usage is at an appropriate level and doesn’t need to be limited, but I disagree. For example, think about how many people are unable to put down their smartphone for ten minutes because, in a very literal sense, electronics have become an addiction. With this information in mind, there should be a policy enforced to limit the use of social media day by day. The government needs to enforce a law that permits only two hours of social media usage each day. This regulation is necessary because social media use is taking over the lives of modern humans, which could be put to use doing more useful activities to improve the world. This excessively large amount of time devoted to the usage of social media can, believe it or not, affect daily behavior and cause addictions. This limitation will allow us to become more effective and productive in the currently hindered work we are doing in our daily lives. The government should limit the amount of time people can use social media because it will result in

Informal community clients can share diverse bits of individual data with others; in any case, these subtle elements might be abused by companions. Net and Acuity’s review (2005) of Facebook clients' protection concerns found that 91 percent of clients uploaded their photos, 88 percent shared their date of birth, 40 percent demonstrated their telephone number, and 51 percent composed their present address. Sharing individual data, for example, this can lead to abuse of information, regardless of whether purposeful or not. For instance, a few people share profile subtle elements such as their full name, sexual orientation and telephone number with their companions (Wills & Zeljkovic., 2011). On the off chance that the informal community account of one of the client's companions is hacked, the spammer or the programmer can abuse these points of interest to blackmail the client (Rosenblum 2007). The capacity to control protection alternatives is basic to expanding the clients' trust in their interpersonal organization suppliers. Since Internet clients speak to a scope of various societies and ages, protection alternatives ought to be clear, basic and simple to utilize. Clients must be able to control their protection choices whenever. These protection alternatives enable clients to acknowledge or dismiss the scattering of their data to others. For instance, a few clients would

The book investigates the relationship between teens and social media in many aspects. These aspects include identity, privacy, and addiction. By the time I read the third chapter, which was based on teens’ “addiction” to social media, my perspective on it had changed completely. One of Boyd’s most critical points in that chapter is that attributing the term “addiction” to social media is a misnomer, and she specifically mentions that “addiction rhetoric positions new technologies as devilish and teenagers as constitutionally incapable of having agency in response to the temptations that surround them” (Boyd 83). In other words, using the term “addiction” to describe excessive social media usage gives a negative connotation towards social media and usage of it in general. In addition, the term also implies that teens cannot control their social media usage at levels of not being able to control alcohol and/or drug usage. This particular point grabbed my attention. Could teens really become “addicted” to social media on that level? Thinking about most of my high school friends, it seemed like that was the case for some of them. Even for those who weren’t “addicted” to social media, they still use it a lot. What are the factors behind a person’s usage of social media? Is there something special about Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram that I was missing out on or overlooked? There was only one way to find out, and that was to interview someone about their social media usage and

“In 2015, a research team from UCLA published a paper in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, showing that when the human brain is not actively engaged in something, it tends to start focusing on other people to “see the world through a social lens,” – a process called “mentalizing” (Ramasubbu). Social media is a growing addiction day by day, and generation by generation. I think the impact of social media addiction affects everyone more negatively, than having any positive outcomes from it. Social media addiction causes people to pay more attention about other people, a risk to mental health, and judgmental thoughts.

Second of all, using social media is not a good way to make people release their stress, but it actually isolates people. According to the article, “Addiction, Social Media,” “Social media addiction is an increasingly popular term used to represent heavy use of social networks that interferes with daily life. Many studies have shown that social media possess addictive qualities similar to drug, alcohol, or chemical addictions.” This quote explains that social media is not something that just about fun, it is addictive. Just like an alcoholic, all he or she wants is alcohol. When people are addicted to social media, they will more likely isolate themselves from the real world. They will not have the real relationship with others because everything they do is just texting through their social network sites. In addition, when people who are addicted to social media hangout with their friends, they will always check their phone for the news, statuses, and pictures that their friends on the virtual whole post. Moreover, these people will not have too much real communication with the person that they think is “friend” through the Internet. So, when someone is addicted to social media, all he or she do is living with social media, not the real world.