1: It’s addictive
“Experts have not been in total agreement on whether internet addiction is a real thing, let alone social media addiction, but there’s some good evidence that both may exist.”
A study from Trent University looked back on early research on the psychological characteristics, personality and social media use…
“It may be plausible to speak specifically of ‘Facebook Addiction Disorder’…because addiction criteria, such as neglect of personal life, mental preoccupation, escapism, mood modifying experiences, tolerance and concealing the addictive behavior, appear to be present in some people who use [social networks] excessively.”
The authors from Trent…
Study’s have been conferred that people tent to go through a kind of withdraw, people experience the psychological symptoms when they stop using social media…
“We have known for some time that people who are over-dependent on digital devices report feelings of anxiety when they are stopped from using them, but now we can see that these psychological effects are accompanied by actual physiological changes.”
Phil Reed
2: It triggers more sadness, less well-being
The more we as people use social media, the less happy we seem to be… A study a few years ago fund that Facebook users were linked to both less moment-to-moment happiness and less life satisfaction, the more people use the platform in a day the more these two variables dropped off…
“Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling such needs by allowing people to instantly connect. Rather than enhancing well-being, as frequent interactions with supportive ‘offline’ social networks powerfully do, the current findings demonstrate that interacting with Facebook may predict the opposite result for young adults—it may undermine it.”
Another study found that 11 others social media platforms how the same affect including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Vine, Snapchat and Reddit…
3: Comparing our lives with others is mentally unhealthy
Part of the reason Facebook makes users feel socially isolated is the comparison factor. People fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others aw we scroll through our feeds, and judgment we feel to others and are self.
A study once looked at how we make comparisons to others post, in “upward” or “downward” direction. There is this feeling that both types of comparisons made people feel worse…
“Which is surprising, since in real life, only upward comparisons (feeling another person has it better than you) makes people feel bad. But in the social network world, it seems that any kind of comparison is linked to depressive symptoms.”
4: It can lead to jealousy-and a vicious cycle
It’s no secret that the comparison factor in social media leads to jealousy – most people will admit that seeing other people’s tropical vacations and perfectly behaved kids is envy-inducing. There have been study’s that show how social media uses triggers feelings of jealousy.
“This magnitude of envy incidents taking place on FB alone is astounding, providing evidence that FB offers a breeding ground for invidious feelings.”
They add that social media can become a vicious cycle: feeling jealous can make your own life look better, and post jealousy-inducing posts of their own, in an endless circle of one-upping and feeling jealous.
5: We get caught in the delusion of thinking it will help
Part of are unhealthy cycle is that we keep coming back to social media, eve when did docent make us feel better.
“This is probably because of what’s known as a forecasting error: Like a drug, we think getting a fix will help, but it actually makes us feel worse, which comes down to an error in our ability to predict our own response.”
Looking at how people use Facebook, the users always feel worse after using the app.
6: More friends on social doesn’t mean you’re more social
“A couple of years ago, a study found that more friends on social media doesn’t necessarily mean you have a better social life.”
There seems to be a missunderstanding on the number of friends a persons brain can handle, and it take actual social interaction to keep these friendships. so the feeling of being social on an app is different then in real life.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 