“The thing about social networking is that it’s a social behaviour. They also tended to have lower levels of education, income and self-esteem. Then in 2017 a large, national survey found that those showing addictive behaviours were more likely to be women, young and single. In 2014, in another overview paper, they added that SNS use provides continuous rewards users may increase engagement with it to relieve dysphoric mood states, sometimes leading to psychological dependency. They also found that more time spent on these sites involved less involvement with real-life communities. They found that extroverts appear to use these sites for social enhancement, whereas introverts use them for social compensation. Griffiths and his colleague Daria Kuss published the first ever review paper for what he calls SNS (social networking sites) addiction in 2011, at a time when there were only three papers on the subject. Of course, our results were from a self-selecting sample so do not necessarily represent the general population, but they were nonetheless interesting. When we polled BBC Future’s Twitter followers for what they thought was ‘too much’ time on social media, there was little consensus. This suggests that screentime isn’t necessarily an accurate gauge for whether someone is using their favourite platforms problematically. You can have two people doing things identically – it makes a big difference if someone has a job, partner and two children.” Putting a time limit on social media use is, for Griffiths, “a bit of a red herring. So, as long as that enthusiastic playing isn’t affecting an individual’s job or personal relationships, then there is no need for concern. If they did that for two years then maybe obesity or being generally sedentary might bring on some health issues, but in terms of addiction? Excessive enthusiasms add to life and addictions take away from it.” “If I take video gaming, for example, I’ve come across a lot of very excessive gamers,” Griffiths explains, “but there’s little known negative, detrimental effects in their life. The most important factor is whether a person can differentiate between healthy use and a relationship with social media sites that is negatively affecting their life. These include mood changes, social withdrawal, conflict and relapse. In his research, Griffiths has found that a technological compulsion like ‘social media addiction’ comes with all the behavioural signals that we might usually associate with chemical addictions, such as smoking or alcoholism. “I do think it can be potentially addictive.” “Do I believe that people can be so engrossed in social media that they neglect everything else in their life?” he asks.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |