Unsocial Media

This is a piece I wrote in 2018 regarding social media and the impact it is having on our daily lives.

Social media dominates our lives and we can’t seem to stop, but do we realise the extent of this invisible addiction? 

Since the birth of our social media universe, we have become simultaneously the most connected and disconnected society that the human race has ever seen.  

When Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1990, he dreaded the idea that his creation would turn sour in years to come.  

In fact, in early November at a web summit in Lisbon the father of the internet revealed how his worst nightmares had come true about his own creation. 

“Humanity connected by technology on the web is functioning in a dystopian way,” he told the Guardian newspaper. “We have online abuse, prejudice, bias, polarisation, fake news. There are lots of ways in which it is broken.” 

This bleak reality from Berners-Lee is a reflection of the toxicity that comes with our use of technology.  

More and more of us are somehow trapped in the web and becoming sucked in to the social media black holes that have grown drastically over the last ten years. More than 80% of Americans used social media in 2017, highlighting just how established the likes of Facebook and Twitter are in our daily lives. 

The average person now owns more than five social media accounts. As a result, modern western culture is growingly dependent on technology to function. 

And social media continues to grow. There are currently three billion active social media accounts, all telling individual stories and publishing snippets of our everyday lives for our “friends” (and strangers) to see.   

We spend longer stalking distant friends’ choice of dinner than we spend feeding ourselves as the average person spends almost two hours on social media every day. This toxic trait is something we can all admit to and recognise as an area of our lives we would love to change, so why don’t we? 

We don’t change because it is an addiction. As each generation becomes more dependent on mobile phones, we delve deeper in to a new world of dark addiction and an unhealthy obsession with the internet.  

Much like substance abuse, alcoholism and gambling addiction, social media provides temporary bursts of happiness that do not ultimately contribute to our overall wellbeing. However, the addictive nature of gaining a like or a follow online is enough to get us hooked in a cycle of refreshing apps over and over again.  

A 2016 study, titled ‘Computers in Human Behaviour’ revealed that ‘increased use of multiple social media platforms is strongly associated with both depressive and anxiety symptoms.’ 

And like any other addiction left untreated, it will only get worse. Excessive use of social media is harmful for our mental health and learning to moderate our use is the only way we can avoid falling deeper in to this pit of online obsession. 

The first step to overcoming mobile phone addiction is accepting that we use it way too much.  

Understanding why we use our phones so much is also key. If we can determine the root of the issue, such as boredom or procrastination, we can work on those issues to cut the addiction off at the source.  

Matthew Lieberman, Ph.D., a UCLA professor of psychology and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, told Shape magazine, “When I want to take a break from work, the brain network that comes on is the same network we use when we’re looking through our Facebook timeline and seeing what our friends are up to.” 

This explains the natural hunger that our brains have for social networking since we come to associate relaxation with scrolling through our phones. It is in our biological nature to crave validation and a sense of intimacy, both of which we can obtain through social media.  

In moderation, social media is one of the finest creations to ever bless the planet. We are closer to distant friends and relatives and just one click away from information and news. Our work and study are more efficient than ever with the aid of the internet.   

Yet we can’t seem to balance our time wisely. We are missing moments as we watch them through a phone screen. We are increasingly idolising unrealistic social media profiles which negatively effects our mental health. We are causing accidents from using phones whilst driving. 

Tech giants such as Apple are trying to help us with our consumption as they introduce new features such as time limits for certain apps that we can monitor and control ourselves – so there is no excuse not to make changes.  

Turning notifications off could dramatically reduce how much you pick up your phone by removing the temptation when a message pops up. Allowing yourself time on the phone, but then knowing that you must put it down after thirty minutes, may help you get in to a healthier routine. Think of it as a mobile phone diet. 

Keeping busy with other, more productive things is a great way to create positive distractions from using mobile phones. Reading, exercising or any form of hobby can be the perfect replacement when boredom kicks in.  

Both Google and Apple have also included settings in their recent software updates to encourage users to have a phone ‘bedtime’. This is crucial as we know that screens can keep us awake for up to two hours after usage, meaning we are losing precious sleep.

  

With a bit of will power, anybody can improve their usage of phones and social media. We have the tools at hand to aid our recovery and plenty of time to be saved in the process. 

Unless we learn to control our mobile phone consumption, we will find ourselves in a more unsocial world than ever. Protecting our mental health and learning living away from technology is more important than any Facebook status ever could be.  

Hannah Gowen