In the last ten years, social media and websites have brought changes in our daily lives and realism, that have benefits or risks to our personality, minds and consciousness are not measured.
Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, etc. have profoundly changed the behaviors of our social lives in the last ten years. Also, the Internet helps people communicate with other people living around the world We have friends in New York, Hong Kong, South Africa and Northern Europe that we can correspond to at any time we want without paying attention to time differences. Social users often share their ideas, digital photos and videos and inform others about online activities and events with people in their network.
Many of us prefer to spend time on social media, but if this behavior becomes excessive, it affects everyday activities such as work or our social relationships, this is called social media addiction.
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Social media addiction is a term that indicates a very long time spent on such sites as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social networking sites, and as a result of this excessive use affected the person’s daily life.
Addiction simply means compulsive behavior that leads to negative effects.In this case, social media addiction refers to the person who uses these sites compulsively.For example, it refers to those who spend long hours browsing the updates of the websites or chasing other people.
However, it is not possible to determine if a person is addicted to social networking sites because they spend a lot of time on these sites to follow the news or to entertain and kill time .. How can we say that this person specifically addicted to social networking sites?
Although there is no specific description of a social media addict, doctors have identified some general characteristics such as excessive use associated with depression, anxiety disorders or other mental disorders, as well as some other signs that determine whether this person is addicted to social networking sites or not.
But although many people use social media continuously in their daily lives, few are really addicted. If you are concerned that someone may be at risk of social media addiction, you should first know the signs of social media addiction.
Spend a lot of time in using media or think about social media, make it as a solution to forget their personal problems. Use of social networking sites is highly addictive, you will be very anxious and unsettled when they are unavailable or have no internet connection.
If an individual does not have any friends in fact and only communicates with virtual friends, this is another sign that networking addiction is beginning to take its way into one’s life.
If an individual is procrastinating in time to keep up-to-date with updates and does not miss anything, for example, that affects his or her accomplishment at work, this is a sign of addiction.
Because social media addict stays all the time staring at the screen and lacks real social communication, it is dominated by a sense of loneliness and isolation and thus a sense of dissatisfaction and happiness.
Addiction to social networking sites is a big problem because it leads to other psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety .. But how this problem occurs from the ground up?
When you receive notifications from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, your brain produces a small amount of dopamine that makes you happy and satisfied. Each time you receive these notifications, the tears become excited.
Over time, waiting for notifications to get that much happiness will turn into a habit, and then you fall into the compulsive addictive behavior you rely on to feel happy.When you see someone commenting or admiring a publication, you will feel happy and deserved, experts say.
But on the other hand, when you are dominated by social networking addiction, you will no longer feel the same happiness, compulsive behavior in the follow-up of these sites and will not be able to control, but with more sense of isolation and depression because of the distance from all real social activities. A famous social media in the Middle East, which is following a large number of followers of the communication programs «YouTube».
Ryan Abu Hadi, said that spending long times in front of smart devices may be reflected negatively on some and explained that addiction on the sites of communication is linked to two factors first period of time spent by the individual. Secondly, the addiction to social media sites depends not only on time, but also on the individual’s cognitive framework, which is controlled by successive statements through those sites, but the issue of getting rid of Addiction on social media is difficult, but there are steps to escape this addiction.
Ryan called on users of the sites to distribute the time they spend on other activities such as exposure to multiple other means and direct social interaction with others, the family that meets in one place but everyone is isolated by «iPad» or smartphone realistic scene, offering advice To adolescents’ families and follow-up continuously to reduce the risks of social networking sites, which shed negative materials may harm the user.
It is important to mention about the steps of treatment of social networking addiction and now we summarize those steps: First: Be convinced and be frank with yourself in determining the extent and level of attachment to social networking sites Is it up to you to the point of addiction or not. Second: Do not preoccupy yourself with all the choices in those sites and try to determine your goal accurately before entering them.
Third: Always specify the time you will spend on social networking sites before entering them. Fourth: Make useful hobbies creep on your addiction to social networking sites to remove them from your life and occupy its position. Those steps in treatment will become positive and profound impact in the case of the individual’s internal conviction of the need to get rid of addiction to social sites and the internal and self-assertion that the treatment of social networking addiction is very, if realized, changed life for the better.
References
- YouTube
- The New York Times
- CNN
- BBC News
- The Guardian
- The Wall Street Journal
