What are the health concerns of social media addiction to adolescents?
What is Addiction?
Many think it is a simple concept, something that does not require much knowledge or thought. However, addiction is a brain disease and it is exhibited by compulsiveness despite the harmful consequences. Usually, when people think of addiction, they think of substance abuse, but there are many different things someone can be addicted to, and social media is one of them. Being addicted to social media is a form of addiction that can be detrimental to your mental health (Griffiths and Kuss 2011). In earlier years, there were not as many people afflicted with addiction for social media but that has changed since social networking sites. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to name a few, have become the basis for modern communication and connection (Griffiths 2018). These sites allow you to become connected to people all over the world with just a click of a button at any time. There are still positive aspects to social media though and one is that it has also become a way to network as well.
Back in 2011, it was suggested that there are health concerns for the wellbeing of young users that used these social media sites in excess. These effects had an impact on many aspects of their lives, including real-life relationships and academic achievement, which was argued are signs of addiction (Griffiths 2018). Over the past five years, there have been continuations of studies showing the negative impacts of social media on health. Dr. Kuss and Dr. Griffiths together discovered that for a minority of individuals there were psychological problems associated with social media such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and addiction (Griffiths 2018). These people most affected are younger individuals and one would say that the reason being they have constant access to their social media through smartphones and laptops.
Adolescence is such an important stage in development. This is the time where teenagers learn about themselves and create meaningful relationships, but social media can have an effect on their development physically, mentally, and socially. There is the issue of cyberbullying where the child cannot get away from their bullies because every time they open Facebook or Twitter they are right there to continue the torment. Cyberbullying is not the only detrimental effect social media has on the youth, but how every aspect of their time is spent on the phone disconnected from reality.
Works Cited
Barnhart, Brent. “20 Social Media Ideas to Keep Your Brand’s Fee Fresh”. Sproutsocial. 20 Apr. 2018, https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-ideas/. Accessed 25 Feb. 2019.
Bryant, Aaron. “The Effect of Social Media on the Physical, Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Development of Adolescents”. Merrimack College. Merrimack ScholarWorks. Spring 2018.
https://scholarworks.merrimack.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=honors_capstones. Accessed 24 Feb. 2019.
Griffiths, Mark. “Addicted to Social Media?: What can we do about it problematic, excessive use?”. Psychology Today. 7 May 2018.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201805/addicted-social-media. Accessed 24 Feb. 2019.
Griffiths and Kuss. “Online Social Networking and Addiction — A Review of the Psychological Literature”. Environmental Research and Public Health. 29 Aug. 2011. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3194102/. Accessed 24 Feb. 2019.
