Social Media: The New Age 21st Century Drug

In the world of the 21st century, social media has been acting as one kidney and parcel of the human daily life, with more than 99 percent of the world’s population engaging in order to use this medium. There are side effects to the use of social media at large, even if it does not have completely adverse effects with regard to some of the other factors to which it engages the human brain. Excessive usage is associated with various problems.

Social media gets so popular in certain aspects of entertainment that people tend to waste somewhere around 1/9th of their entire life only in seeing memes and reels, approximately 2 hours and 31 minutes on average per day. Learning from it and developing skills in various disciplines and health-related reasons can immensely benefit and even change lives. However, the real problem lies in the use for entertainment and killing time, which most people make it out to be. Far too many people can describe the feeling of logging into Instagram to scroll through their feed for a few minutes, only to realize that it has been four hours.

Procrastination is another major problem; one wants to read, but as a result, social networks take up several hours that could have been used studying. This leads to the putting off of certain tasks, under the pretense of accomplishing them “tomorrow” or “later”, and that “tomorrow” or “later” hardly ever arrives.

Research indicates that 80% of smartphone users check their phones as soon as possible after waking up in the morning, typically to see social media notifications, for no real reason at all (1). Social media algorithms are purposely designed to be addictive. This can be further understood through the Skinner Box experiment by B.F. Skinner, who was a psychologist studying behavior reinforcement. In the experiment, a pigeon that had been put in a controlled environment learned to press a lever so that it could receive food or some small amount of dopamine as a reward. Even after the reward system was turned off, the pigeon continued to peck at the lever.

It is in this work that Skinner has proved that rewards given promptly could condition anything to rerun behaviors, be it in animals or in humans. This is because a lot of them depend on related algorithms in social media that engage the user by way of the same psychological mechanisms that were already in force in the Skinner experiments. This means that user addiction is caused due to this conditioning, leading to elongated periods of engagement, and thus many problems occurring in the human brain. It is therefore crucial for the health of our brain to recognize and rise above that addiction. However, a big issue with frequent release of the neurotransmitter dopamine is that it can actually destroy the reward system.

Dopamine is a feel-good hormone that gets released when we do something pleasurable, be it good or bad. From playing games online or in person to getting likes on social media, a good feeling ensues because dopamine is being released. Social media makes the process easy with likes, comments, and followers flowing with the least amount of effort on the part of users, and hence the high addiction. This easy pleasure makes strenuous chores less likely to occur.

Negative Effects that Social Media Brings About

1.Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

FOMO is a psychological phenomenon where one is afraid that they are missing out on rewarding experiences. Social media algorithms seize upon this to ensure that the user never exits the platform. First off, the notification system lets the user know when someone has liked or commented on a particular post, making him/her go back to the platform quite frequently. This could make one check his/her phone at least 110 times a day out of fear for missing something significant. This is a habit acquired by frequent usage of social media.

2.Social Comparison

As healthy as competition may be, hyper-comparison is harmful to the mental health state of people. Every day, the lives, standards of living, and physiques of others seen on social media make people compare themselves to them and crown themselves with a poor state of self-esteem and confidence. This behavior is perceived to be very common in teenagers, who tend to compare the perfect, seemingly perfect lives that exist on social media. Instead of working towards their dreams, they engage in what can be described as mental masturbation. These kinds of comparisons result in poor mental well-being and self-esteem, thus ending up reflecting a gloomy world.

Vogel et al in 2015 stated that social comparison on Facebook was related to lower self-esteem and higher depressive symptoms. According to their responses, the participants endorsing themselves to compare showed an increased life dissatisfaction more than those not comparing themselves with others (3).

3.Falling Attention Span

Attention spans have been greatly impacted as a result of social media, almost all the time leading to a consequential reduction in our ability to focus for any considerable length of time. This occurs through some of the key factors found within social media sites.

The design is for short interactions—social media platforms survive on small consumable content. A character limit for tweets is set, which only allows for some seconds when making videos on TikTok. This repetitive exposure diminishes the ability to hold on to longer tasks or deeper content in the brain.

Attention gets fragmented by this continuous flow of updates and notifications. Any alert may bring a focus swing and bring the user out of the current activity. Such continued disruption can over time reduce concentration from one source of information for a long time span. Moreover, perpetual distraction can follow this expectation of a new notification, further wearing down attention spans.

It’s designed to be addictive on the platforms we choose to use. This continues thanks to the added element of social media platforms’ algorithms, which work to maximize usage by involving the user in the content of the feed and thus maintaining their interest in what will come next. It thus extends usage through frequent switching from one post to another and diminishes the ability to focus on a single subject.

The Algorithm of Social Media

Social media algorithms help influence the behavior and engagement of a user. This is because most of these algorithms are always programmed to show content that is most likely to keep a user engaged, which is determined by past interactions like, shares, and comments. The core purpose of such algorithms is to increase users’ engagement time so that there is a rise in advertising revenue.

The strong influence is that of content personalization. With the help of algorithms using the user data, the feed would become more person-driven. This personalization creates a very engaging experience and provides satisfaction, making it hard for the user to disengage.

Another aspect that comes into play here is the reinforcement of echo chambers. Most often, algorithms are designed to display content that reinforces the prior beliefs and opinions of users. In some cases, this might lead to a narrow perspective and less exposure to different points of view, hence promoting social polarization.

It also entails the use of notifications. These alerts will ‘notify’ the user of new likes, comments, or messages in order to captivate their attention back to the platform. Anticipation and instant gratification from these notifications create a feedback loop that keeps the user coming back.

How to Overcome Social Media Addiction

1.Set Time Limits

One of the best ways to cut down on social media use is to set time limits. Most smartphones today come already equipped with features that can help an individual monitor and even curtail his or her time on the screen. Setting time limits for the social media usage in a day may well lead to a corresponding reduction in the overall time spent using these platforms.

Turning off non-essential notifications can actually go a long way to reduce the desire for checking social media frequently. Not getting an alert when someone likes or comments on a post can reduce disturbances and help the user focus on other tasks at hand.

2.Offline Activities

Another method to reduce reliance on social media is to pursue hobbies or other activities that do not involve screens. Doing some sports, reading, or spending time with friends and family will give a better balance and reduce the urge to be constantly making social media checks.

3.Being more mindful when using it:

Mindfulness can be the answer to understanding more about its use in social media habits. An answer to why it is used and awareness of the quantity of time this activity is consuming will lead to making conscious decisions when one needs to use it.

4.Digital Detox

One of the things that is valuable is to go off social media regularly—these are called digital detoxes. These can vary in length, from hours through full days, and really seem to help in resetting habits and reducing dependency.

Conclusion

While social media may potentially lengthen one’s view of one’s life or of the world, social media by design and patterns of use could breed diminished attention or increased procrastination and mental health problems concerned with FOMO and social comparison. The algorithms behind the design of social media have been tuned to maximum engagement, often at the cost of user well-being. It is in these impacts and efforts toward strategies to reduce the harm that one finds the keys to a much healthier relationship with social media.

Written and scripted by: Bidhan Acharya

Footnotes:

1. Harris, T. (2016). How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds — from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist. Medium.
2. Alter, A. (2017). Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked. Penguin Press.
3. Vogel, E. A., Rose, J. P., Roberts, L. R., & Eckles, K. (2015). Social Comparison, Social Media, and Self-Esteem. Psychology of Popular Media.