The First Step

The First Step

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem which can be hard to do if you aren’t aware that you have problem. What many people don’t realize is that addiction isn’t just drugs, alcohol or gambling; in fact it can be anything. If the TLC television show My Strange Addictions has taught us anything, it’s that people can be addicted to a broad range of things from shopping to eating toilet paper, drinking urine, and sniffing baby powder.  One addiction that is growing in popularity is the addiction to the internet and more specifically social media.

Here are some statistics on social media provided by thesocialskinny.com:

• ·       Women are more active on social media than men 55% vs. 45%
• ·       91% of online adults use social media regularly
• ·       40% of people spend more time socializing online than they do face-to-face
• ·       Facebook is the most visited website on the internet (reaching one trillion page views on June 30th, 2011)
• ·       50% of Facebook users log on everyday
• ·       The average user spends 700 minutes per month on Facebook
• ·       Almost 50% of 18-34 year olds check Facebook when they wake up – 28% before even getting out of bed
• ·       50 million users log onto Twitter every day
• ·       Users on YouTube spend a total of 2.9 billion hours per month on the site
• ·       Smartphone users are twice more active on social media than non-smartphone users

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As you can see from these statistics we spend a lot of time online, updating statuses, connecting with friends and family, watching videos, posting photos and videos and playing games so it’s no big surprise that someone can become easily addicted.  The hard part however, is admitting you have a problem and this can be because you are in denial or are simply unaware of the impact social media has on your life.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to post about how you can help prevent yourself from becoming addicted to online activities and the social media world, as well as tips for those who are already addicted and need help. Each week I am going to post a challenge to hopefully get you thinking about how much time you are spending online and how it’s affecting your life. My challenge for this week is simple, keep a journal and record how much time you spend on your social media websites (Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, LinkedIn, YouTube...etc.) and how much time you spend on other activities (outings with friends or family, reading, watching TV, biking…etc.) and record your observations in the comments below.

I look forward to your observations!

-Tiffany.H

The Causes of Social Media Addiction

Behind every addiction, there is a psychological problem that causes addictions to arise. With addiction there is always a reason and people who are at greater at risk to develop additions. There is no actual cause to why people become addicted to social media but there are risks and factors that can make you more prone to becoming addicted. These risks can include psychological problems, emotions and life situations that may occur which can result in the start to media addiction. Specific factors such as loneliness, people who suffer from insomnia, depression and stalkers are some of the many reasons why people become addicted to social media.

This video is showing how different emotions kept causing her to want to communicate on Facebook. When she was having a good time, upset, got fired, got a divorce, it all made her quickly want to go right back to Facebook which in return caused her to become addicted to social media. Every time her mood changed she always felt the need to inform others through social media because it gives her a reason and purpose to keep using the site and to receive attention back from others, which keeps people interested.

More simple reasons why people become addicted to social media are the need and want to stay connected with friends and things going on in the world. As humans we are always curious and social media sites such as Facebook always keep us wanting to come back for more whether it is a post about a celebrity or gossip about a friend.  Throughout this video, the girl is constantly using social media to update her daily life in hopes others will see. This is also a reason in which people become addicted because they want attention due to low self-esteem and sites such as Twitter or Facebook will give you that ego boost that is needed from others’ comments. 

The satisfaction we are gaining from social media sites is the ability to connect, search and obtain information. This thought can lead to addictions when it is no longer occasional and becomes obsessive and constant.

-Kristie.M

What Is Addiction?

What is addiction? Many of us all have our own ideas and definition of what addiction is, but in simpler terms addiction is the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity. Everyone is aware of drug, alcohol and gambling addictions, but what about social media addictions? Does it exist?

Addictions can include, but are not limited to, Drugs, Alcohol, Gambling. Over the course of the next 7 weeks, I will be posting about what social addiction is and if it really exists and how it compares to other addictions such as gambling, drugs and alcohol. This week, the post will be focusing on what addiction is in general.
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Habits and patterns associated with addiction are typically characterized by immediate gratification (short-term rewards), coupled with delayed deleterious effects (long-term costs). For example, if we were to talk about a shopping addict, the immediate gratification would include the excitement of a new outfit, accessory, makeup, etc but the long term costs would be when they notice that they don’t have the money to be able to be constantly buying these things and resort to borrowing money and being in a lot of dept. This article is very informative about addiction, what it is, signs, causes and so forth: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/addiction/

People who are addicted can’t control their need, even when it comes to negative health, social or legal consequences. Addiction is known as a chronic, yet treatable, brain disorder. As much as people think that when you’re addicted there is no hope for ever stopping or being clean, that’s not true. Almost, if not all addictions are treatable. You just have to have the dedication to work hard, and the mentality to want to stop and become clean.

When you think of addiction, you typically think of just the most common types but if you’ve ever seen the show My Strange Addiction on TLC, you know that people can become addicted to almost anything, strange or not. As an example to just one of the strange addictions someone can have, here’s a video from TLC’s hit show My Strange Addiction.

Check back next week for a post about social media addiction.
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-Karley.S

Dangers of Social Media Addiction

My mom has been harping on me the last little while about constantly being on Facebook. So it got me to thinking can people be addicted to social media? Are their potential dangers to being addicted? I decided to do a little bit of research to find out what some of the dangers are and whether I really am addicted.

 

Social Media addiction has been recognized over the last couple of years as a new serious social problem. It is by no means different from any other type of addiction, remaining harmful to all forms of relationships (work relationships, personal relationships and other family dynamics.) A new online study has found out that the urge to use social media is uncontrollable and often results in people getting addicted to them. The study also revealed that social media addiction is more than even cigarettes and alcohol addiction. Social Media addiction should still be handled with the same care and commitment that we use to battle any other type of addiction.

There are some people who can no longer function "normally" without Facebook. For them life is complex and stressful when cut-off from their virtual life. Facebook addiction is considered the worst out of all social networking sites. Some people get so busy in their virtual life that they start forgetting about their real life. They begin to neglect the people and the responsibilities around them. This can cause people to be socially inept. This is probably the biggest problem to being addicted to social media.

According to psychiatrists social media addiction can lead to reduced creativity and creation of passive thoughts in the mind, which will affect the overall productivity in people. It can also lead to low self-esteem and reduced concentration levels among other mental disorders. These problems usually occur in adult’s aged 18 to 25.

So according to this information I am not addicted to social media...Thank Goodness! I am definitely going to take this information to heart and try to control the amount of time i use social media.

Here are some facts about social media addiction:

•   About a third of women between the ages of 18 and 34 go online to check their Facebook messages and updates before brushing their teeth.

•   About 21% people from a group of 1605 that were questioned for the research admitted that they woke up in the middle of the night to see if something new had happened on Facebook.

•   A large part of the Facebook-generation is older than 35, and it would seem that they prefer instant messages and posts above real conversations.

(Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research).

Here is a lighthearted video on Social Media Addiction:

 http://vimeo.com/40675238

Resources

http://www.squidoo.com/the-real-dangers-of-facebook-facebook-addiction

http://www.gizbot.com/social-media/social-media-more-dangerous-than-cigarette

-Chelsea Andrade