Addiction in Social Media

One big question I want to know is how do people get addicted to social media. I know all too well how addiction works for I suffer from certain types of addiction. When you are addicted to something, you normally get a reward out of whatever it is. What is the reward that people get when using social media? I have some possible answers here.

Is it attention?

A big part of social media now a days can be measured in ‘attention’. Attention is what I call things like views on a video or likes on a comment. When someone watches what you do it really gives a sense of accomplishment. It makes you feel good. When someone likes or comments on one of your statuses, it makes you feel appreciated. “Wow, I said something that made people react!” Though that can be a small feeling, it can still be a good one. There’s actually a thing called ‘attention whoring’ which is doing stupid things online just to get views. This could be a reason for addiction.

Is it games on social media?

Social media nowadays like, like Facebook, have a plethora of online games. These games can be shared with friends and you can battle out who has the best score. I know that it can be quite fun for I have been doing that with a few games recently. However, can people like these games so much that it would cause an addiction?

These are just a few things that I have thought of that can cause an addiction but I haven’t seen very many people talk about. I would like to know more about this because addiction has been present all my life in my self and in my family. It’s an interesting thing to know and talk about.