Does our Society have a “Technology Addiction”?

“Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master” — Christian Lous Lange.

With our readings for Pressed for Time this week, I decided to look further into how technology is a balancing act and how it changes how we view freedom and time. Specifically, I explored the article “The Truth about Teen Social Media Addiction”. It refers to the statistic that teens check their social media over 100 times a day. The article brings up a treatment available to help with this addiction. Some interesting phenomenons that were discussed in the article that affect our brain chemistry and perception includes “Click Bait”. According to the article, that click bait can cause a dopamine spike similar to the addiction experience of drugs. When they are deprived, withdrawal symptoms can also occur. It urges for treatment which consists of managing the amount of time own spends with social media, online gaming, etc. and mental therapy.

I agree with the article in that social media and technology consume a lot of our time, but the need for treatment can seem little bit far-fetched. In Pressed for Time, Wajcman exposes how we feel less busy if we have the freedom for what we want to do with that time. In this context, teens have a great amount of freedom when it comes to deciding to spend their time on social media. I think that we have more time to be on social media because technology has made it easier to multitask and participate in multiple contexts at once. Regardless, we must be aware of the amount of time we spend on social media technology.

Sources:

https://www.thefix.com/truth-about-teen-social-media-addiction