No longer arguing, we are slowly becoming dependent on a technological development that allows billions of individuals worldwide to connect. But, are we addicted?
"To a moderate degree, social media is a good way to help young people connect with each other, build relationships with peers and express themselves," said Karrie Lager, a pediatric psychologist. Dear. However, excessive internet use can have serious consequences. "
Columbia University Research Center (USA) - CASA Columbia - discovered the relationship between adolescents, social media habits and drug abuse.
Researchers have found that 70% of teens aged 12 to 17 - about 17 million users - spend most of their time on social networking sites. This study also found that teens who regularly used social networking sites had a five times higher probability of using tobacco, three times higher than alcohol, and twice as high as marijuana.
"Despite all the genetic differences, most children are very vulnerable," says Charles Sophy, MD, MD, director of medical psychology at the Los Angeles Child and Family Care Foundation. The impact and the fact that we view social media as one of the pressures from popular peers only makes the situation worse. " Sophy has treated many young people who are struggling with the severe consequences of long-term social abuse.
Dr. Karrie Lager is concerned that exposure to addiction will encourage newborns to drink alcohol and drugs soon. "The teenager's ability to perceive issues will gradually fade, and they think that when people use them, they should try," said Lager.
Is there really something called social addiction? Researchers have found a similarity in behavior among the Internet's overly loyal followers and substance abuse abusers, but Dr. Lager says there is still a lot of work to be done. go to concluded. While we all applaud Facebook for completely transforming the social scene by connecting millions of people together, serious consideration of the undesirable consequences of reliance on this Web site is unlikely. caring
The University of Michigan (USA) pointed to this problem in a study in August-2013, tracking the relationship between the habit of using Facebook and the level of happiness. By texting the volunteers five times a day for 2 weeks continuously to test their feelings after using Facebook and their level of life satisfaction after two weeks of research, the researchers I found that Facebook has a negative impact on every volunteer at different levels.
The reason why we can not resist social networking activities Facebook has been answered by a study conducted by the Department of Psychology at Harvard University (USA). This study suggests that people will receive a "biological reward" for exposing their personal stories to the community.
This "reward" is immense when social network users are aware of their thoughts and will be transmitted to others. So why are we stuck in the network of social media? After all, it is all because creativity has programmed our brains. The desire to reveal personal life to the surrounding community has long been embedded in every human being - not just a social media effect.
This psychology has so deepened that people can spend money talking about themselves rather than discussing others. Yet, while excessive openness itself is not a phenomenon created by the social media system, these broad public systems provide the user with a A platform for reaching out to the masses of other individuals and receiving immediate feedback from the public.
Dr. Adi Jaffe, director of research, education and innovation at the Alternatives Treatment Program (USA), spoke about the downside of this phenomenon by arguing that social media By using mobile devices, a small part of the user experience the symptoms of the addict.
However, this is not the first time people have compared the impact of social media on drugs. Rameet Chawla, an infamous programmer with social media channels, has come across a perspective that extreme power can hold even the lives of those online media. Initially, Chawla's friends began to feel uncomfortable when he did not respond to their social networking activities.
In order to resolve the conflict, Chawla had to write a software that automatically entered his news update page and "liked" all the news from his friends. Surprisingly, after the software worked for some time, Chawla became very famous with the number of followers skyrocketing, his photos were more "like" and even many people recognized him on the road. .
"We are addicted," says Chawla. We experience painful sensations. We are excited by this "opium", just one dose will get strange response. Chawla's comparison of social media with pure cocaine seems radical, but this association is becoming a common metaphor.
Users are excited to become famous on social networking and Sophy says that this is how social networking affects teens. "I've been in contact with many children, teenagers and adults who are obsessed with social networking as a measure of self-worth and self-worth," Sophy said.
However, these are the criteria for virtual assessment, until returning to real life full of anxiety and depression, some mental problems began to appear. So does social media give rise to a new problem that has not occurred before or has exacerbated existing basics?
"Social media simply speeds up the process, though in most cases the problem is already there," Sophy said. Sophy believes that there are similarities in attitudes and behaviors that make people addicted to drugs or social media.
"There are people who abuse dangerous things (sex, drugs, food, social media ...) to relieve themselves of genetics," Sophy said. But there are also people who receive these behaviors because of circumstances and events in their lives. " So what should we do? Dr. Adi Jaffe feels that reorienting the target is the best solution.
"So we should focus on research or pooling resources to increase understanding and provide the necessary support for those struggling to overcome addictions," explains Adi Jaffe. Most people who are detoxified know that many people still experience drugs or alcohol without being addicted. Therefore, instead of trying to limit the social media system, we need the necessary treatment.
Lager said that our understanding is still very ambiguous, he analyzes: "Whether excessive dependence on the Internet is the cause of depression or merely depressed youth and other psychological problems. They tend to abuse the Internet. At my own clinic, I often meet young people with anxiety and depression who use the Internet to seek help and support from society and the problem that arises when they abuse the Internet as a way to Get out of your emotions and troubles. "
Danny Bowman.
Most Internet users aged 20 to 30 reject the concept of "social media addiction." Meanwhile, most young people agree that they need a lot of praise from people and feel good when life has Myspace and Facebook. Dr. Luskin said that young people today are "indigenous people" of the technological world, unlike older people who are just "immigrants". Because those who have grown up at the present time will not be able to fully grasp the feeling of being born and growing up in a world dominated by technology.
Social communication as a component has been so deeply ingrained and indispensable to today's youth and certainly will have certain psychological effects that "immigrants" like us can not understand. lens. Is it possible to view social media haunting as an addiction?
"We draw the line between habit and addiction when something begins to interfere with our normal lives," Luskin said. We can not deny that social media addiction has occurred in some users. "Few people are addicted and fortunately we can still help them," Luskin said. For some people, social media is addictive and can be deadly like all the other addictions - even water is deadly and people are still drowning because of water. only. We need to be careful and we should not keep the problem and prohibit it. "
Obviously, the tendency for addiction to develop in our relationship with social media and while we have not reached a consensus on social media, the problem remains. a big day.
Today, social media is viewed by employers as an important occupational skill. What if the tool would harm young people in the future, generations could not even imagine how life without social media would be?
