Millions of people around the world use social media. Whether it's to gather news, interact with friends or just escape for a while. Most of us use social media multiple times every day without thinking about the negatives it can attract. Social media can lead to addiction and in turn ruin some other aspects of your life.
According to the article "The Evolution of Social Media: How Did It Begin, and Where Could It Go Next." , 72% of U.S adults use some sort of social media.
The article continues to explain that more and more companies are using social media to push their product onto customers. This means that social media will grow even more to come. 88% of businesses that invest their money into marketing on social media have received a positive outcome.
Before we dive into the problems of social media addiction, we have to talk about why and how social media is so addictive. Apps like TikTok, facebook and Instagram all have similar ideas and features that they use in order to keep consumers on their app for as long as possible.
According to the article, "What Makes TikTok so Addictive?: An Analysis of the Mechanisms Underlying the World's Latest Social Media Craze.", the like button is a huge part of social media's large success. Like buttons provide a source of dopamine for the person who likes. This dopamine keeps the users on the app so they can keep getting this level of stimulation.
Another important part of why social media is so addictive is the infinite scrolling feature. The infinite scrolling is a feature that most social medias provide. This feature allows the user to keep scrolling without having an end. With this, they keep on scrolling and eventually lose track of time.
Social media addiction has plenty of downsides. One main problem that social media addiction affects is academic performance. Students who are addicted to social media have seen a decline in their academic performance.
According to the article, "Social Media Addiction and Its Impact on College Students." by Lei Zhao, there is a positive correlation between stress and social media addiction and there is a negative correlation between academic performance and social media addiction. These results were conducted through surveying different university students and looking through the results.
One other negative effect that social media addiction causes is the declination of mental health. Social media and mental health have been found to be linked together. An article by Phayam Kandee, a PhD graduate, shows that university students that have participated in Kandee's study were found an increasing social media addiction id they were linked to depressive symptoms. Because of this, social media addiction and depressive symptoms work together to create a deep hole for university students.
One very important thing to remember is to set time limits for yourself. Setting time limits is an amazing way to reduce your time spent on social media and remove the risk of addiction. Try to reduce the amount of time spent on social media to 30 minutes- 1 hour. This is a healthy amount and it won't cause any harm.
Try to find something else you can do instead of social media. Social media isn't the only thing you can do. Instead of using up all your time on social media, find a hobby or interest you could sink your time into instead.
Phayam Kandee, et al. “A Model of Factors Influencing Social Media Addiction in University Students.” Pacific Rim International Journal of Nursing Research, vol. 26, no. 4, Oct. 2022, pp. 674–89. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.delta.edu/login? url=https://https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rzh&AN=159305730&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Zhao, Lei. “Social Media Addiction and Its Impact on College Students’ Academic Performance: The Mediating Role of Stress.” Asia-Pacific Education Researcher (Springer Science & Business Media B.V.), vol. 32, no. 1, Feb. 2023, pp. 81–90. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.delta.edu/10.1007/s40299-021-00635-0.
Bujph. “What Makes TikTok so Addictive?: An Analysis of the Mechanisms Underlying the World's Latest Social Media Craze.” Brown Undergraduate Journal of Public Health, 7 Feb. 2022, https://sites.brown.edu/publichealthjournal/2021/12/13/tiktok/.
“The Evolution of Social Media: How Did It Begin and Where Could It Go next?” Maryville Online, 3 Mar. 2021, https://online.maryville.edu/blog/evolution-social-media/.