For the second EOTO project, I chose Social Media Addiction. Social media addiction is the behavioral addiction that is defined by being overly concerned about social media, driven by an uncontrollable urge to log on to or use social media, and devoting so much time and effort to social media that it impairs other important life areas (www.addictioncenter.com). I think this is an important thing to discuss in today’s society because it affects everyone who owns a device and accesses social media. There are some very good things about social media, but also some very bad things. Some of the pros are: you can get information fast and you can more easily stay connected to distanced family members or friends. Some of the cons are: misconceptions, messed up sleep schedules, failing grades, giving away important information about yourself or your family, and most importantly losing the basic ways of human interaction.
Society as a whole is affected because of how quickly news travels and how it impacts people. For example, recently in my hometown and on the street where I live, 2 individuals were murdered in their home. A friend of mine from home saw there was police activity on my street and immediately sent me the blurb and asked if my parents were okay. Because of social media, my mom had actually contacted me minutes prior to let me know what she knew, in case I somehow heard anything, but all of the information was not available. She knew what house, but at that point nobody knew how many bodies and who was in the house; even the children who lived there, who I grew up with. Before soc
ial media existed, I would have learned about the incident after the fact, not while the event was happening. My friend who sent me the blurb would have known nothing unless she was physically on my street. In this instance, society was affected because it drew panic when panic wasn’t really necessary. What was being said on social media, while accurate, did not depict the complete reality of the situation.
Social media addiction can affect different “segments” differently based on what socia
l media is being accessed or not being accesses. I brought this up briefly during my presentation, FOMO. FOMO stands for the fear of missing out. Parents put parental guidelines on phones, meaning the user can access somethings but not everything. Or parents can limit the usage of phones throughout your day. FOMO comes from when someone misses out on something “fun” because they weren’t connected.
I think Social Media addiction affects the young more than it affects the older generations. Social media addiction affects me because I feel like I truly don’t know what is happening in the world because I am too busy being concerned about what others think or what others are doing. Instead, I should just be living life and enjoying the moment. For example, when I go to concerts, I am too busy recording the act going on than living in the moment and enjoying the show.
Overall, I don’t have an issue with social media as long as people are cognizant of how much they are using it and how much they rely on it. Any type of addiction is a serious problem and measures should be taken to avoid it. When my parents grew up, they would always tell me stories about how they would have to use paper maps to get from point A to point B, but in today’s society you can just look it up on Google maps and it will give you an arrival time and an estimated traffic time, which you could not do back in the old days. I, myself have taken breaks from social media because of my mental health and it has helped a lot. I too fall in that trance where I am meant to be on my phone for 30 minutes and then that 30 minutes turns into three hours and 30 minutes. It is crazy how much time you waste on your phone and if you’re curious about this you can look up your screen time on any device.
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