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SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION
"I'm an addict. I just got lost in Facebook"
Replies a young mother when asked why she doesn't see herself able to help her daughter with homework, this case while extreme is suggestive of a potential mental health problem.
Social networking sites are seen as global consumer phenomenon and addictive use of social media has become an area of increasing research interest as it may affect over 210 million users worldwide.
If you have thought about leaving Facebook , swearing never to return only to weekly log back in a week later what is termed social media reversion , you're not alone as 44% of this U.S young adult sample reported problematic social media use (PSMU) which was strongly and independently associated with 9% increase of depressive symptoms.
Etiology:
Scholars have suggested that a combination of biological, psychological and social factors contributes to the etiology of addiction.
Neuroimaging studies have clearly shown the portions of the brain that are involved when engaged in social media. Social media engagement has been found to trigger three key networks in the brain – the mentalizing network, the the self-referential cognition network and the reward network":
-"Mentalizing network" means that when the human brain is not actively engaged in something, it tends to start focusing on other people to "see the world through a social lens," – a process called mentalizing. Occurs in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that engages in social interaction, creates empathy to other peoples thoughts and feelings, and helps us make judgments about other people that are perceived as being important and thus non-optional.
-Self referencing thinking about oneself is important for self-appraisals, and social competitiveness. In fact, humans devote about 30–40% of all speech to talking about themselves, but this number spikes to about 80% of social media posts. Egocentrism has been linked also to Internet addiction as it may facilitate the engagement of in addictive behaviors and attracts people to use it in potentially excessive way.
-Reward network Teens have exaggerated activity in the nucleus accumbens area of the brain, which is associated with reward system. The increased activity and size of the nucleus accumbens among adolescents is the reason for social approval and social outcomes administered by peers to be highly valued. It has been proven that an adolescents decisions (good or bad) are certainly influenced by the opinions of their peers. This behavioral tendency has been associated with increased activity in the reward network of the brain. Social media provide the adolescent with a constant supply of social rewards in terms of peer recognition and approval, as can be seen from the triggering of the reward network, which can serve as a powerful attraction to continued social media use.it is possibly the most important reason of disorder. Even more compelling is the fact that online social media engagement causes a release of oxytocin and dopamine making it much harder for people to resist the activity.
Susceptible groups:
An open web-based survey including the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-16, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Results demonstrated that lower age, being a woman (indicating that women may tend to develop more addictive use of activities involving social interaction than men), not being in a relationship, being a student, lower education, lower income, lower self-esteem, and narcissism were associated with higher scores on the BSMAS . Although most effect sizes were relatively modest, the findings supported the notion of addictive social media use reflecting a need to feed the ego (i.e., narcissistic personality traits) and an attempt to inhibit a negative self-evaluation (i.e., self-esteem).
Signs of social media addiction:
. 1. You spend a lot of time thinking about Facebook or planning how to use it. You feel a preoccupation to use Facebook or the immediate need to share. Over-sharing stems from saying too much and then regretting what we said. Those who suffer from an addiction do not always judge what is appropriate or inappropriate to post.
2. The default choice for your free time activity is to be on Facebook. You may leave your Facebook open in the background, Even when you are outside enjoying a drink with a friend, you log in to the Facebook app on your smartphone every now and then during brief moments of non-interactions.
3. You use Facebook in order to forget about personal problems as a psychological escape. The use of Facebook then becomes a distraction from problems because ones attention is always diverted with its use.
4. You become restless or troubled if you are prohibited from using Facebook. With addiction, there is an element of withdrawal. We associated with withdrawal from drugs and alcohol and not necessarily behaviors but studies show that people can also go through withdrawal from additive behaviors like Pathological Gambling. When we talk about Facebook addiction, you may start to feel anxious if you cant access your network.
5. You use Facebook so much that it has had a negative impact on your relationships, it may come to a point when you get more comfortable socializing online than offline or fearful with face-to-face communication, which is a far richer experience than communicating online where one cannot actually see non-verbal communication.
Treatment for Social Media Addiction:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy at the Center for Internet Addiction and Recovery, that works by admitting the presence of the problem, must turn off all notifications, reschedule when checking social media (twice a day is an average) and help the addict find alternative ways of communicating.
*For people interested in the topic please visit the links below for further reading:
http://netaddiction.com/ebay-addiction/
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2004.7.384
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460316301095
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-online-secrets/201709/social-media-addicts-need-feed-their-egos
Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale
http://smaddiction.web.unc.edu/bergen-facebook-addiction-scale/
DISCUSSION QUESTION
1-How did this article make you feel?
2-How does social networking affect your life?
3-What do you suggest as a good alternative ways of communication?
Thank you all for reading; I'm waiting hopefully for your comments and answers.