Social media addiction

The modern technology revolution and the mobile phone development from networks to tablets and smartphones enable people access to the internet almost instantly. One big section of internet access related to social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and more. It was estimated there will be 2.7 billion social media users by 2018. With no doubt that Social media will be one of the dominated part in people life. As social media account for 30% of all media time spent, people become addictive to the social media which social media already became a powerful tool to show social status (Monroe, Jamison).

People have already developed some patterns of behaviors on using social media in their daily life, which classify as addiction. For example, teenagers are the largest group of social media user. 90% of the adolescent access Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis (Woods, Heather Cleland, and Holly Scott) no matter where they are at. They spent more than 3 hours every day on social media. Among those young group, teenagers only consider social media is equal to social status. People with large number of followers in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter represents the high status and popular in the society. They attained fame, commercial success and business to earn money. They act like a role model in life and attract teenager to follow and mimic their appearances and behaviors. Therefore, with high followers and friends already become the famous and cool child in the school. In order to main the social status, teenagers eventually into competition with their peer groups. To become high status, teenagers will be very careful for how they post things and how to present themselves to be cool and outstanding in the group. The social media has changed the means of sharing information. Some media houses are also uploading news and newspapers on their respective social media pages. In the same way, advertisements are significantly run on the various apps on the smartphones (McChesney, 172). According to the article called Digital Disconnect, “In 2000, daily newspapers received nearly $20 billion from classifieds; in 20ll the figure was $5 billion. A free ad on Craigslist generally gets more responses. Display advertising fell from around $30 billion to $ 1 5 billion in the same period.” (McChesney,172). More and more people are utilizing digital means to advertise such as Craiglists instead of traditional printed newspaper classified ads. Social Media become the main target of the commercial advertisement because large user basis. Most the commercial advertise company want to work to social media to expose their service and products. They spent huge amount of money and used exaggerated or fake information to get attentions around. As a result, the online users are accessing the social media on a daily basis to be informed. They have to spent large amount of time and energies on social media and internet to check on new information, to check on friend’s recent postings about recommendation for popular make-ups or cool video games. People average spent about smartphone 32 times in a day. The traditional of journalism is dying, because it can no longer fulfilled the people’s urge desire for mass new information in modern world (McChesney,172).

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Figure 1: 90% of youths use smartphones on daily basis to check social media

Teenagers are the main targeted for this commercial competition as the user basis in social media and internet. When those teenagers are additive to the social media, social media cause reducing sleep quality, increasing anxiety level, and losing ability to study and work. Many teenagers reflect that they cannot live without their cell phone. They feel more nervous as they check their cell phone more, and they felt forced to check the cell phone to stay cool because all the friends around them play it. Many teenagers said that they feel totally isolated from group, and lost connections with the whole world. This is a big mental issue right now. When they They are total controlled by the social media as well as the power and high status implication behind it (Monroe, Jamison). The effects of social media addictions should be one big problem, but no much researches and conclusions are draw to address this serious issue. The main reasons were discussed in the Gauntlett’s article. The researcher and scientist are very difficult to make connections between excessive use of social media and the effects of that. A model cannot be set up to understand the meanings of the social media, because they focus on appear element of addiction instead of focus on the contents to attract teenagers in social media. No huge attentions were draw in the society because the addiction effects of social media lack of scientist foundation (Gauntlett, 9). The effects of social media can be widely found on physical health way. The China Post reports that approximately one out of every two smartphone users suffer some discomfort after they have used their phones for close to 30 minutes. The youths suffer a lot as they use the messaging apps like Whatsapp, Messenger, and Viber. An example is the 26-year old Chinese man who was diagnosed retinal detachment and almost lost the vision. His problem developed for talking with his girlfriend in social media for a long duration in the dark (Parry, Par 3).

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Figure 2: Most people check their social media sites on a regular basis

In conclusion, the social media has a strong social power. It is exposing its users to many challenges which affect them mentally and physically. Social media has taken the place of people’s daily life and way of communication. Unfortunately, they are lead to many mental problems. Staring at the screen of the smartphone for a long time is likely to cause eye problems. Unfortunately, the youths find it difficult to shun from using their smartphones as they are already addicted. Teenagers are the future, all the people should guide them to how to use social media, and reduce the time spent on it.

Sources

  1.     “Smartphone Use Poses Danger To Eye Health.” Www.Chinapost.Com.Tw, 2016, http://www.chinapost.com.tw/editorial/taiwan-issues/2016/10/20/481553/smartphone-use.htm.
  2.     Woods, Heather Cleland, and Holly Scott. “#Sleepyteens: Social Media Use in Adolescence Is Associated With Poor Sleep Quality, Anxiety, Depression and Low Self-Esteem.” Journal of Adolescence, Vol 51, 2016, pp. 41-49. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.05.008.
  3.     Parry, Lizz. “Could Using Your Phone At Night Cause Blindness?” Mail Online, 2014, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2646136/Could-using-phone-night-cause-blindness.html.
  4.     McChesney, Robert W. “Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning The Internet Against Democracy.” Digital Journalism, vol 2, no. 2, 2013, pp. 247-249. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/21670811.2013.838412.
  5. Monroe, Jamison. “Looking for ‘Likes’: Teens and Social Media Addiction.” Newport Academy, Newport Academy, 10 Apr. 2017, http://www.newportacademy.com/resources/mental-health/teens-social-media-addiction/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2017.
  6.     “David Gauntlett – Ten things wrong with the media ‘effects’ model.” David Gauntlett – Ten things wrong with the media ‘effects’ model, http://www.theory.org.uk/david/effects.htm. Accessed 15 Aug. 2017.