How often do you log on to take a look at your social media in a day?

In this generation, social media has become part of our everyday life as it is fun, relaxing, and most importantly, a useful way to connect with ourselves with the world. However, social media can be a double-edged sword.

According to social media addiction research from Mediakix website (2021), it reveals that 210 million people suffer from some types of internet and social media addiction in the world, and the circumstance will only become more severe in the future.

Social media addiction is a behavioral addiction that is defined by paying too much attention to social media, and compelled by an uncontrollable impulse to log on to or use social media, as well as applying so much time and energy to social media which results in damaging impact on our daily lives.

The effects of social media addiction in relation to people’s mental health and well-being include three aspects: negative emotional reactions, sleep deprivation, and cyberbullying behaviors.
   
   








   First of all, social media addiction can lead to negative emotional reactions, such as anxiety, depression and unsatisfied of life.

Especially the extreme fear of not being involved or failing to attend a social event, which is Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). Since social media allow users to give “likes” and comments on others’ posts, this may cause anxiety among some users worrying about how many “likes” and comments they receive every time they post something.

What’s more, people tend to compare themselves with others on the social media. They not only compare the “likes”, but also the number of followers with others. Due to this kind of fear, social media users tend to stay online in fear of missing out.

In these cases, the negative emotional reactions are triggered by the pressure of sharing, comparing with others and the fear of not getting involved.  
   
   






   Next, social media addiction can lead to sleep deprivation.

The use of electronic devices can disturb our sleep in two ways. On one side, the blue light emitted from the screen has the greatest impact on sleep, which suppresses melatonin, a hormone signal to make one fall asleep.

Moreover, the result of blue light exposure may be worse for people who wake up to use their phone after falling asleep.

On the other side, the use of electronic devices changes our body clock. It is an essential process for most people to check their social media before going to sleep, but they usually find out they are incapable of putting down their phones when it’s time to sleep, and delay their bedtime for one or two hours at last.

Eventually, sleep deprivation affects our health in the long term.





   
   


    At last, social media addiction can be associated with cyberbullying behaviors.

According to a study about adolescents cyberbullies conducted by the University of Georgia (2021), adolescents who have higher social media addiction are more likely to engage in cyberbullying.

This study also reveals that males are even more likely to be addicted to social media than females. Based on the study, we could see that One of the reasons people become addicted to social media may be that they are unsatisfied with their reality life or in a bad mood, so they resort to the virtual life of social media, and further find out that cyberbullying can make them “feel better”.

This further explained why people who have social media addiction tend to engage in cyberbullying more easily.
   








   To sum up, social media is an indispensable feature in the digital generation, and it does bring a lot of joy which makes our life more fascinating and colorful.

However, it can bring negative impacts if overused, such as the drawbacks mentioned earlier, including negative emotional reactions, sleep deprivation, and cyberbullying behaviors.

Although it is hard to resist the urge to use social media, there are some ways to detach ourselves from social media. For instance, turn off social media notifications, limit social media screen time, and devote more time to the activities in the real life. An American actor, director, and producer Denzel Washington (2017) said,

                       “Are you using your device or is your device using you?”

It is important that we should take full advantage of the benefits of social media and control the usage of it to reduce its negative impact to our mental health and well-being, instead of being controlled by it. 

References 
The 8 social media addiction statistics everyone needs to see. Mediakix. (2021, September 16). Retrieved March 15, 2022, from https://mediakix.com/blog/social-media-addiction-statistics/ 
Amanda L. Giordano, Elizabeth A. Prosek & Joshua C. Watson (2021) Understanding Adolescent Cyberbullies: Exploring Social Media Addiction and Psychological Factors, Journal of Child and Adolescent Counseling 
BBC News (World) on. (2017, February 10). [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/829734010721095680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E829734010721095680%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fkichuu.com%2Fusing-device-device-using-bbc-news%2F