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Medical Video: You Will Wish You Watched This Before You Started Using Social Media | The Twisted Truth
Social media has almost completely changed the way we communicate and can be a useful way to stay connected between each other thousands of kilometers away from various parts of the world in just a split second.
On the other hand, social media has also made many people spend most of their time transfixed in front of the screen so that cyber activities are at the center of their lives. But, where is the dividing line between harmless social media addiction, turning into a real distraction in your life?
When is someone called addicted to social media?
Addiction usually refers to compulsive behavior (done repeatedly without realizing it, cannot be prevented, and is unbearable to reduce anxiety) which leads to negative effects. In most cases of opium, a person feels compelled to do certain activities so that it becomes a dangerous habit, which then interferes with other important activities such as work or school.
Following the description above, social media addiction can be explained as a necessity to use and actively engage in social media devices in an excessive and continuous manner - checking the status of Facebook updates or "snooping" someone's Facebook profile for hours without stopping, for example. But it is actually difficult to say when a preference for certain activities becomes a destructive dependence.
Does spending three hours a day on Twitter reading random tweets from strangers means you're addicted to Twitter? How about five hours? You can think that you only read the headlines because your field of work requires you to keep up to date with the latest news, right?
Researchers at the University of Chicago, reported from Life Wire, concluding that social media addiction can be stronger than cigarette addiction and liquor following an experiment in which they recorded the desires of several hundred people over several weeks. Social media ratings are ahead of cravings for cigarettes and alcohol.
And from Harvard University, researchers linked social media addicts to MRI machines to scan their brains and see what happens when they talk about themselves, which is an important part of what people do on social media. Researchers found that self-disclosure communication stimulates the brain's pleasure centers that are the same as passion for sex and food. Other brain scans from a number of separate studies also showed the same pattern of pleasure between social media addicts and drug addicts.
Many doctors have observed symptoms of anxiety, depression, and some psychological disorders in people who spend a lot of time online, but there is little evidence that has been found to prove that social media or internet use causes symptoms of addiction. Similarly, the lack of data about social network addiction.
What are the signs and symptoms of social media addiction?
Every time internet addicts feel overwhelmed, stressed, depressed, lonely or anxious, they use social media to seek solace and escape. According to Psych Guides, like other symptoms of addiction, social media and internet addiction arises in emotional and physical symptoms. Some of the symptoms below basically indicate that addiction may be developing; however, symptoms can vary between people. Anything?
Emotional symptoms of social media addiction:
- Feel guilty
- Nervous
- Depression
- Dishonesty
- Feeling absurdly happy when online
- Unable to keep the schedule in the real world
- Has no concern for time; unconscious time
- Insulation
- Be defensive
- Avoid doing obligations in the real world
- Easy to get angry
Physical symptoms of social media addiction:
- Headache
- Neck / back pain
- Weight increase / decrease
- Sleep disturbance
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Blurred or blurred vision; eyestrain
Daily habits that might indicate you are addicted to social media
Here are a few things you only know right if you can't escape social media:
1. Wake up, check social media
Almost every social media addict will start their daily routine by checking what happened and they miss it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram for a good night's sleep. There's usually not much happening, but that doesn't prevent you from staring at your cellphone when your eyes aren't fully open. Your cellphone is also the last thing you turn off at night.
2. Online wherever and whenever
You cannot not check your cellphone while you are on vacation, when crossing the street, or even when you are in the toilet for the sake of scroll timeline and watch endless viral videos, check out hundreds of pictures of your ex-girlfriend's vacation on Facebook from more than a year ago - no matter what you see, you will find a place and a way to sink into social media.
3. Encouraged to upload the best selfies and statuses to invite likes
The immense crippling pressure to make sure you get the perfect photo to upload on your Instagram is something that is truly understood by everyone who is addicted to social media. Whether it's a selfie photo that can be considered worthy of a fashion magazine or a photo of a beautiful landscape on a tourist spot to make your followers jealous, you need to get a perfect picture without blemish. The process can be troublesome and annoying, but you don't seem to care about the consequences.
Similarly, choosing the perfect selfie, deciding the right sentence for Facebook status updates or culture on Twitter can be very difficult. Usually, social media addicts will go through a rigorous editing process, back and forth deleting status, and repeat over and over until they get a paragraph that hits the heart.
4. There is no internet, life becomes prey
Occasionally bad things can happen, and for the social media generation there is no bigger disaster than being met with a situation of no internet / WiFi. Not being able to browse the timeline to find out the activities and status of friends and family is a daunting concept. This is the reason why many people prefer to fold from buildings that do not offer free internet.
