By Karina DiMare
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, social media usage has rapidly increased and has not gone back down to pre-pandemic usage levels. Social media has become an addictive substance, especially for those in younger generations.
People today have a constant stream of new information at their fingertips. It has become a crutch for those who lack social skills or overuse media out of boredom or loneliness, leading society to detach from reality.
The human brain experiences surges of dopamine upon receiving a comment or like, much like the brain’s reaction to addictive drugs. However, this dopamine is fleeting and leads to the brain wanting more and more. This dependency forms unhealthy habits, such as compulsively picking up one’s phone or consistently thinking about how their Instagram post is being received.
Brain regions involved in resisting temptation and reward are not as developed in young people as they are in adults, which causes adolescents to be more impulsive and use social media like a “slot machine.” It is a short-term fix to alleviate negative emotions like anxiety and stress, making it addictive like gambling. The instant gratification and rush of dopamine from social media fades faster each time it’s used, making users want more.
“We use it to satisfy any needs that we might have or soothe ourselves in moments of despair or just negative feelings, so it becomes a coping mechanism as well as a major distraction,” said Adolfo Lagomasino, a communication professor at The University of Tampa.
Excessive social media usage can have negative side effects such as “low self-esteem, depression symptoms, and psychological distress,” according to an article published in the Computers in Human Behavior journal. Individuals try to relieve their negative emotions with social media but become dependent in the process, making their mental state worse.
Young people isolate themselves from reality and turn to social media over 10 times per day. They dismiss those in their physical space and opt to connect with those online through social media instead.
A study done in January 2021 found that adolescents spend an average of 7 hours and 22 minutes a day using media. This number has most likely increased in the past four years. This time is often spent “doom-scrolling” and watching people live their lives while users should be living theirs.
The act of phubbing occurs outside of the virtual realm and is damaging to individuals’ mental health. Phubbing is “the act of snubbing others in social settings by individuals looking at their smartphones instead of having face-to-face communication in social settings.”
Precious time is wasted absorbing unnecessary information that takes up space in the brain while wasting time and energy. Everyone is always plugged in, numbing any original thoughts or imagination. We know too much about everyone else. This breeds an unhealthy amount of jealousy and comparison, which is the “Thief of Joy.”
We are all pumped with the same information, leading us to have the same jokes, cultural references, slang, music, and follow the same trends. We are all linked and have a collective consciousness due to consuming the same content and being influenced to buy the same things. Data-driven ads and paid ads done by influencers have led to overconsumption and users’ “doom-scrolling” on the TikTok Shop.
When your eyes are constantly glued to a screen, intaking excessive amounts of content, you miss everything that’s going on around you, and your attention span is compromised. Psychologist Dr. Gloria Mark has found that over the past two decades, human attention spans have been shrinking.
“Back in 2004, we found the average attention span on any screen to be two and a half minutes on average,” said Mark in the Speaking of Psychology podcast.
“And then in the last five, six years, we found it to average about 47 seconds,” she added.
The brain was never meant to intake the amount of information in such a short period as it does today through a screen. The consumption of short videos from Instagram Reels or TikTok negatively impacts one’s visual short-term memory.
Instead of watching people do activities in their “Day in My Life” TikTok videos, it would be more fulfilling to go outside and do them yourself. Picking up a hobby is much more rewarding than watching someone else do theirs through a screen.
In addition, social media platforms steal users’ data to use in algorithms that push advertisements to users based on their patterns. Our privacy is compromised, and our feeds are curated to our interests, which is dangerous because we’re only exposed to people with similar opinions and qualities. It takes away the opportunity to learn and keeps us in a protected bubble. In addition, this information can be stolen if data breaches occur.
“Your habits and actions [are] being monetized for somebody else, and most people don’t care, right,” said Lagomasino. “That’s kind of considered the price of admission.”
Cutting out the usage of all social media is not a realistic expectation for everyone. However, maintaining a balance between the real and digital world is a conscious choice. Moderation in all aspects of life is key and beneficial in the long run.
“I think that it’s up to us individually to decide what our healthy balance is,” said Lagomasino.
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Photo courtesy of Shutter Speed on Unsplash.