Social Media Addiction vs. Gambling Addiction

In the last post, we talked about similarities and differences between social media addiction versus drug and alcohol addiction. I mentioned how they are similar in the means that if you become so caught up in either one of these addictions, you push away your closest loved ones and it affects you mentally, where differences being that drug and alcohol addictions affect you physically and social media addiction affects you emotionally.

In this post, I will be discussing how social media addiction relates to gambling. We will find the top similarities and differences.

Due to that fact that over the last 3-4 blog posts I’ve already mentioned about social media addiction and what it is, this post will mainly just talk about gambling addictions and how they can relate to social media addictions. Just like social media, gambling addictions can’t harm in you a physical way, but they can affect you mentally and emotionally.

Just like any other addiction, those who are addicted to gambling can only think about gambling, it’s the only thought on their mind. Gamblers often find themselves in big financial problems, such as debt, losing valuables to pay off debt, stealing and or borrowing money to gamble some more. Again, as any other addiction, with the right help, those addicted can get better.

Similarities between gambling and social media addicts are, they are affected both mentally and emotionally, They often suffer from losing friends and family because they spend more time feeding their addiction rather than spending time with loved ones.  Just like social media addicts, gamblers are affected mentally because all that runs through their mind is their next bet, or the next time that they can buy a scratch ticket and they are effected emotionally because they become so closed off from everyone around them that their relationships are put in jeopardy, often losing those close loved ones. Lastly, they are both curable. With the right help and mind set, everyone is able to put a stop to their addiction whether it be gambling or social media.

Differences between the two are, gambling involves interacting with real people and spending money, losing money, and stealing and borrowing. Where social media, you don’t interact with people face to face, and you spend all of your time online, checking your phone and other electronic devices.

While these are only a few similarities and differences that are linked between the two, there are most likely even more and some that even you and I probably wouldn’t even think of.

This is a good site to check out if you're looking to learn more about gambling problems, it defines what gambling addiction is, risks, symptoms, etc:  http://www.medicinenet.com/gambling_addiction/article.htm

- Karley.S