the consequences of doing the‘social media’ drugs
The abuse of social media has consequences in several areas. In this report I want to address a few of them. First of all, social media is addictive. Lots of people log on to Facebook multiple times each day. They usually do in order to get some distraction or to relief from boredom. As “Likes” and comments are most of the time positive feedback, it gets difficult for a person to stop. This addiction can lead to emotional and physical symptoms. The emotional symptoms include feelings of guilt, anxiety, depression, dishonesty, euphoric feelings when in front of the computer, unable to keep schedules, no sense of time, isolation, defensiveness, avoiding doing work and agitation. The physical symptoms of an online addiction can be backache, headaches, weight gain or loss, disturbances in sleep, the carpal tunnel syndrome, and a blurred or strained vision.
Moreover, social media makes us compare our lives with others’. Often the posts on social media present an idealized version of the life of others. This can make people to constantly compare themselves with others and to consider their lives as less worth than the lives of others. All this might lead to a decline in confidence due to comparisons to others.
Besides this, social media makes people restless. The constant demand of being up to date and to check what is happening in the online world, permits people to relax when they are unable to check their accounts. Therefore, social media can make people sad as people get the fear of missing out. This is a phenomenon which occurs when people feel pressure to attend every event in order to make sure not to miss something. This might lead to anxiety as well as it might cause people to question “why everyone has fun without them”. People feel excluded and cannot enjoy their life. Although they could have had fun on another event, people are asking themselves if the others are on an even better event. This is often intensified when the others upload “cool” photos. These photos are arranged carefully in order to seem natural. Everyone pretends to have fun and puts on their super-natural-laughing-Facebook-face. Therefore, people using Facebook a lot might feel like they are not cool or successful enough. Additionally, people using Pinterest a lot, might feel insecure as they think they are not creative enough.
However, social media is not at all a bad thing which destroys our lives. When social media is used reasonable, it can enhance our connectivity with people all over the world. But how to use social media reasonable, if it is addictive?
