What is a Social Media Addiction? What may be the symptoms?
Symptoms may include..
- A compulsion to check Social Media
2. Spending long periods on Social Pages
3. Changes in mood when not looking at Social Media
4. Spending less time outside
5. Withdrawal Symptoms
Why Is Social Media So Addictive?
A short answer is to get our minds off specific things and distract us when we are feeling down.
Dopamine is one thing, but the algorithm is another. The difference between the two is Dopamine is a hormone. This gives you a feeling of pleasure, satisfactions, and motivation. On the other hand, the Algorithm is worse, this is because it dictates the order of the posts users see when they’re scrolling through their feed.
Pros: Why is social media good?
Social media and technology offer us greater convenience and connectivity:
- Staying connected with family and friends worldwide via email, text, FaceTime, and more.
- Quick access to information and research.
- Banking and bill pay at our fingertips.
- Online learning, job skills, content discovery.
- Involvement in civic engagement.
- Great marketing tools.
- Opportunities for remote employment.
Social media can be a good thing, but if teens ever feel uncomfortable about something they see or read on social, they should trust their own feelings and talk to a trusted adult.
The Cons Of Social Media ADDICTION
Along with the good comes the bad. With all of its benefits, the nature of social media presents a range of potential issues.
- Increased isolation: Professors from different universities in Lebanon, led by Lara Youssef, emphasized the direct link between social media use and loneliness and isolation. Higher levels of social media consumption and use were associated with higher levels of loneliness among social media users. Additionally, spending less time interacting face to face can cause negative mood states like social isolation.
- Low self-esteem: Loss of self-esteem can stem from comparing oneself with seemingly perfect images of people posted online. Individuals may compare their life and appearance against the idealized representations of social media users.
- Poor work or school performance: One of the most significant signs that social media use is becoming a problem is when it starts negatively affecting a person’s life. Social media addiction can distract students from academic work, while working professionals may lose focus on work-related responsibilities and miss deadlines for important projects.
- Becoming an introvert, online vs. reality, increased usage, fear of missing out, self image issues, not achieving personal time activities and saying you’ll do it later, achieving laziness.
