Happy New Year from Digital Tattoo!
We hope your new year, new me resolutions are still going strong. While you’re working on those, here’s an interesting post to think about.
This post is part of a series of guest posts developed in collaboration with Digital Tattoo and Faculty at the University of Toronto’s iSchool as part of a class.
“I Have a Problem” – #socialmediaaddiction
By Naomi-Nicole Bramer
I need it. I crave it. I restlessly shift in my chair as I try to ignore temptation. I crack my knuckles to keep my hands busy, my concentration melting away with every passing second…
Sitting in the silent zone of my university library, I attempt to focus on the academic journals in front of me and ignore the overwhelming presence to the left of my keyboard. Even as I write this very moment, the need to check my phone makes me restless. In a moment of weakness, I grab my phone and scroll mindlessly through Instagram for twenty seconds before I lecture myself into setting it aside again to work on my paper. This cycle repeats itself more often than it should during my evening in the library. I count myself amoung a rapidly growing population; estimates of over 210 million people worldwide suffer from internet and social media addictions, found by Mediakix, an influencer marketing agency.
The influx of social media marks a unique time in human history. For the first time, we are connected and accessible worldwide. Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher and a linchpin in early media studies, proclaimed the benefits of electronic media. For him, this new media allowed for a global village, a term he coined. But for all his technological optimism, could McLuhan have predicted the magnitude to which new social media would addict people?
As soon as I wake up in the morning, I check my phone for WhatsApp messages and Instagram notifications. Checking my social media has become ingrained in my daily routine: wake up, check phone, go to bathroom, wash face, brush teeth, get dressed, run out door. In her book Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun says “Habit is the root of reason. Habit allows the mind to transcend experience, to reason about experience…” (Chun, 2016). But when does habit, an action that can be either positive, negative or neutral, move to addiction?
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Many studies on social media and internet addiction have been done and it “is a serious issue that can have a negative effect on the person’s thoughts, behavior, tendencies, feelings, and sense of well-being” (Alhassan et al. 2018). The term “problematic social media use” even has its own Wikipedia page, with a list of thirty-six references, most of which are academic journals. The common expression “too much of a good thing” came to mind when trying to evaluate my own use of social media. I love the convenience it provides for keeping in contact with my friends and family around the world, but why then, am I still checking it even when I am with some in real life?
So what is social media addiction? Is it just too much time spent on social networking sites? Addiction usually refers to behaviours that lead to negative consequences. Social media addiction can be “expressed as a psychological problem which causes problems such as occupation, emotion modification, relapse and conflict in many areas of daily life” (Afacan & Ozbek, 2019). Some research has found that addiction to social media is stronger than addiction to cigarettes or alcohol. Social media itself is a fantastic tool for many reasons, but in moderation. Once it starts consuming other aspects of life, like taking away concentration from work or school, inhibiting sleep, or destroying relationships, then it becomes a very real medium of addiction.
Psychology Today has published a list of questions to help people check whether you may be at risk to social media addiction:
- Do you spend a lot of time thinking about social media or planning to use social media?
- Do you feel urges to use social media more and more?
- Do you use social media to forget about personal problems?
- Do you often try to reduce your use of social media without success?
- Do you become restless or troubled if you are unable to use social media?
- Do you use social media so much that it has had a negative impact on your job or studies?
If you answered “yes” to several of these questions, then you may be developing a social media addiction.
How many of you would admit to a social media addiction? The idea of social media addiction is a complex matter. Theordora Sutton talks of going on a “digital detox” as a response to the concerns that this addiction “erodes meaningful or authentic connection” (Sutton, 2017). Do you think social media addiction is affecting society negatively? Is this a personal problem, or is this be something that we as a global community should be taking a closer look at?
As for me, it took me twice as long to write this article about social media addiction with all of my needed “Instagram breaks” and important WhatsApp conversations. Needless to say, I will be taking a closer look at how social media addiction might be affecting me, my life and my mental health.
Resources
Addicted to Social Media? Psychology Today (2018) https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/in-excess/201805/addicted-social-media
Afacan, O., & Ozbek, N. (2019). Investigation of social media addiction of high school students. International Journal of Educational Methodology, 5(2), 235-245. doi: 10.12973/ijem.5.2.235
Alhassan, A.A., Alqadhib, E.M., Taha, N.W. et al. (2018) The relationship between addiction to smartphone usage and depression among adults: a cross sectional study. BMC Psychiatry, 18: 148. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1745-4
Chun, W. H. K. (2016) Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media. MIT Press.
Griffiths, M. D. (2018) Addicted to Social Media? Psychology Today. Retrieved October 28, 2019 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/in-excess/201805/addicted-social-media
Sutton, T. (2017). Disconnect to reconnect: The food/technology metaphor in digital detoxing. First Monday, 22(6). doi:https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v22i6.7561
These 8 Social Media Addiction Statistics Show Where We’re Spending Our Time. MediaKix. https://mediakix.com/blog/social-media-addiction-statistics/
Featured Image: “Addicted To Social Media ?” by joey zanotti on Flickr, used under CC licensing.
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