It’s common knowledge that social media has become part of a now routine schedule for the masses, but what I want to know is whether it can have a serious, negative effect on someone’s lifestyle.
We all use social media to an extent, but not all in the same way. Some may feel the need to utilise the availability of open communications for self development and to build relationships. Others may feel the need to become involved with a brand or social group as a form as altruism. For the majority of young people using social media, Facebook and Twitter (among others) offer an almost escapist opportunity. Be it escaping from doing more productive things with your time, or from boredom in general; social media tempts all users to stray from what they should be doing.
I mentioned that we don’t all use social media in the same way. As a journalist for example, one could reasonably expect me to dabble in social media more than say, a plumber. If I’m using social media more than the average person to promote my ‘brand’ per se, does that hint towards addiction, or productivity? For me, I’m happy to fall into the category of an ‘addict’ in relation to time spent on social media, because I imagine I do spend a significant amount of time on Twitter. But personally, I think the diagnosis of addiction is ultimately dictated by the cause and effect of your actions, and I use social media in an entirely different way to that of your typical social media addict. Let me elaborate. Ultimately, I’m trying to either keep up to date with the day’s happenings, or promote material that (in theory) presents me as an active figure in the media industry, and allows prospective employers to follow my online footprint. That footprint, let it be said, is not one that begs attention with the underlying desire for notoriety – that is reserved for trolls and lonely Justin Bieber enthusiasts.
So let’s continue the theme, with myself as a case study. I’ve touched on Twitter, but left the likes of Facebook to one side. This is because I can honestly say I couldn’t care less about the whole ‘fishing for likes’ aspect that it carries aloft so proudly, which is a characteristic attributed to social media addicts. I rarely post on Facebook at all, I feel that the whole idea behind it as a social network has been lost, and now focuses on a turmoil of hierarchy surrounding ‘who’s the most popular’. Which as you don’t need me to explain, is dictated by an extremely technical formula: number of friends multiplied by number of likes per post, per day. Or something.
Rant aside, the fact is that even though we know that nothing new has happened since the last time you checked Facebook, the majority of us still end up checking the newsfeed, in anticipation of that red notification of hope residing in the top left of your screen. Here I feel, is the perfect time for a fridge analogy – you go to the fridge expecting a banquet to have suddenly appeared since the last time you checked. Three and a half minutes ago.
Social media has been linked to Maslow’s theory of motivation, a pyramid that stratifies levels and causes of motivation. The theory is that we are motivated to different levels depending on the subject cause. For example, breathing, eating, sex, and other vital bodily functions are the highest priority and therefore provide the highest level of motivation. The scale ranges through emotional states – love and relationships, to something called ‘self actualisation’ – effectively just ‘personal fulfilment’; ideologies, morals etc. John Antonios has made parallels between how social media now acts as a level of needs, from personal branding and monetization (social needs) to structure and existence (basic needs). The significance of this is only really interpreted effectively when it comes down to the numbers. The average number of tweets everday through 2012 was 175 million. There are 2.7 billion likes on Facebook daily, and half of the 350 million Facebook users log on daily. That’s 175 million people with a compulsion to log on to Facebook at least once a day. We have compulsions to brush our teeth once daily at the very least, to eat, to sleep. When put like that, the theory of addiction to social media becomes all the more real.
Freddie Holmes 