Elements of Addictions
1. Compulsion
2. Craving
3. Consequences
4. Control
Symptoms of Social Media Addiction
The symptoms of social media addiction include:
- Restlessness if unable to check social media,
- Increased reliance on social media as a coping mechanism
- Negative impacts on one’s personal life.
Causes of Social Media Addiction
The causes of social media addiction include:
- Addictiveness | Stress | Self | esteem | Social anxiety
These factors drive a person to continue with the excessive use of social media to clear out unpleasant feelings. As a result, it becomes uncontrollable and it is harmful.
Types of Problematic Behaviors of A Social-Media Addict
➢ Salience: The dominance of social-media activities in one’s thoughts and daily life.
➢ Tolerance: The tendency of spending an increasing amount of time using social-media to attain the same amount of pleasure.
➢ Mood Modification: The use of social-media to avoid or mitigate unpleasant emotions experienced in real-life events.
➢ Relapse: Failure of curbing excessive social-media use after attempts of abstinence or control.
➢ Withdrawal: Psychological distress experienced when one cannot get access to social-media.
➢ Conflict: The adverse impact on one’s job or studies because of problematic social-media use.
➢ Wrong usage: When the usage of something become abuse, it is already been used wrongly.
Social media has its merits and demerits. When it is not use well, definitely, it will have negative effect on the users.
Negative effects of Social Media Addition
The effects of social media addiction include:
1. Anxiety or depression
2. Increased isolation
3. Sleep disturbances
4. Decreased physical activity
5. Low self-esteem
6. Poor work or school performance.
7. Trauma
8. Mental Health Struggles
9. Genetic Predisposition
10. Neglected Appearance
11. Financial issues
12. Unhealthy hobbies
13. Inability to fulfill obligations
14. Mismanagement of time
15. Physical accident – Some walking or driving on the road with full concentration on their social media and involve in accident that cause them their life or something precious to them.
16. Increased chances of being bullied online or becoming a cyberbully by spreading malicious rumors and offensive remarks through about the users, which can be emotionally scarring and traumatizing.
Positive Aspects of Social Media
The positive aspects of social media include:
- Staying connected with family and friends worldwide
- Connecting with like-minded people
- Using it to raise awareness about important causes
- Used for evangelism and other church activities
- Used to get other teaching and educational resources
- Used to build healthy relationships by using the social media platform to educate, inspire, foster empathy, and deepen relationships.
Strategies to Address Social-Media Addiction
1. Digital Detox: Begin to reduce the amount of time planned to access social-media by setting specific time in a day to access social-media, when the set time elapse, don’t reset another until after another 24 hours.
2. Spend Time Away From Screens: Avoid technological devices as much as possible for a certain period as it can affect your visual – eyesight problem.
3. Establish Contingency Plan: Build in a plan around only accessing social media after accomplishing the task.
4. Reduce Contact and Access List: Reduce number of friends on social networking sites, delete unused apps and unsubscribe from online sites that have few benefits, turn off notifications and delete game apps consuming time and data.
5. Total Cut-off: If possible, cut-off totally to enable your system to be cleansed from the negative effects of the addiction.
6. Check the type of social media that is not useful or beneficial to you and exit from there; it may be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc. There are some that expose you for attack and very unpleasant engagement, cut off from such. When ready to resume back, put necessary precautions to avoid falling into another addiction.
7. Communication: Find help by speaking up when finding it difficult to achieve all your set goals to enable you cut off from the addiction. Communicate your difficulties, fears and challenges about the addiction.
8. Accountability: Look for an accountability partner, someone that can assist you to achieve your set goal. A non-judgmental person that you can express your weakness in achieving your set objectives and who will be willing to get you back on track.
CONCLUSION:
Wrong usage, compulsive and excessive social media can increase the risk of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, social isolation, poor sleep quality, and body image dissatisfaction.
As teenagers, we need to take note of all the foregoing to know how to use the social media properly because its addiction can be dangerous. Social media is to be used for our advantages and benefits and not to cause harm
Stay tuned; the next chapter will be released next week.
