Rather Than an Addiction, Checking Facebook Represents Social Media Age
It’s conventionally known that cigarettes and alcohol are habit forming, but according to new research there’s a new, more addictive recreational substance out there — Facebook. However, constantly checking Facebook is not a diagnosable problem, but a reflection of the social media age that we currently live in.
There is always that one friend who checks their phone everywhere: during dinner, in the movies (jerks) and while driving. They claim they have an “addiction,” but what they are really suffering from is FoMO, a Fear of Missing Out — a phenomenon that sounds like texting jargon but is actually a psychological concept introduced by Dr. Dan Herman. This is a fear of possibly living life in an incorrect or boring way. Facebook exacerbates FoMO because it provides a constant feed of what others are doing. According to psychologist John Grohol, checking social media is not so much an addiction but an impulse to ensure that something “more important” isn’t happening at the time.
Social media has become so prevalent that according to Forbes Senior Online Editor Kashmir Hill, people who don’t have Facebook accounts are viewed with suspicion. Not having a strong social media presence is a unifying trait of mass murderers such as Anders Breivik and James Holmes, according to technology website Slashdot. People who don’t have accounts may raise social red flags. That kind of peer scrutiny makes it hard for people to stay away from social media.
Facebook is not an addiction. It’s just the most popular medium for social interaction — until the next big thing comes along.
— Aleks Levin
Senior Staff Writer
Facebook’s Tangible Effects on Brain Make it a Diagnosable Condition
It seems as if each youth generation lays claim to a zeitgeist drug — LSD in the ’70s, cocaine in the ’80s, heroin in the ’90s — and now, Facebook in the 2000s. Some find it absurd to compare social media to illicit drugs, but Facebook should be considered an addiction for its tangible effects on the brain.
According to a 2012 study from Statistic Brain, 98 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds partake in social media websites —the 54 percent of those with Facebook can probably attest to the slight gratification from seeing a red flag notification. This is due to activation of the brain’s dopamine reward system, states the Best Masters of Psychology 2012 infographic. Chemically, the brain responds to Facebook’s live and interactive interface similar to how it responds to Schedule 1 controlled drugs like crack cocaine or methamphetamines — they all cause dopamine release to fuel dependence.
The public remains in denial about social media addiction, but healthcare experts do not. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders releasing this year will, for the first time, include Internet Addiction Disorder as requiring “further study.” China, Taiwan and Korea already accept the diagnosis and label it a national health crisis. The growing consensus of Internet Addiction Disorder’s legitimacy among psychological experts speaks to Facebook’s addictive capabilities.
Facebook’s virtual intangibility lures users into thinking it is innocuous, but look at heroin. Now classified as illegal with no medicinal qualities and high abuse potential, heroin was once marketed in late 19th to early 20th century as a harmless miracle cough syrup.
— Angel Au-Yeung
Contributing Writer
Unlike Social Media, Cigarettes and Alcohol Have Physical Consequences
Labeling social media an “addiction” is another cop-out to justify people’s lack of self-control on the Internet. The Facebook phenomenon should not be considered worse than alcoholism and cigarette addictions that actually have life-threatening physical consequences.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attributes about 80,000 deaths to excessive alcohol use each year in the United States. The 2010 U.S. Surgeon General’s report says that cigarette smoking is the number one cause of preventable death worldwide, with 443,000 individuals dying from smoking-related illnesses each year. There have been no recorded deaths directly linked to an addiction to Facebook. Also, although previously linked with depression, a July 2012 study published by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health states that there is no significant association between Facebook use and mental illness. At most, Facebook is a time-waster that does not warrant a comparison to a one of the biggest killers worldwide.
In a 2012 article in The New York Times, “Are We Addicted to Facebook? It’s Complicated,” psychologist Larry D. Rosen says that Facebooking is a compulsion rather than an addiction. This means that while the desire to go on Facebook exists, it is also possible to fight the urge with almost no physical repercussions. Rosen also claims that this compulsion tends to affect those with a predisposition for obsessive tendencies.
Facebook is just a website, while alcohol and cigarettes are real poisons. And while people may blame Facebook for having “addictive qualities,” with enough self control, it’s an easy habit to break.
— Alia Bales
Staff Writer