Have you ever checked how much time you spend on your phone? And how much of this time did you spend on social media? In 2019, the average time spent on social media per user is 145 minutes per day, which is an increase of 60% compared to the usage in 2012 of 90 minutes per day. Users in the Philippines have the highest social media usage of 233 minutes per day (Statista, 2020).
After watching The Social Dilemma on Netflix, I started wondering what is the reason people are so addicted to social media while there are numerous reasons why you should decrease your social media usage, for example privacy concerns and the negative effects of social comparison (Dailey et al., 2020)
Social media uses several psychological tricks to keep you hooked. Firstly, in order to refresh the posts, you need to drag down the screen, which is the same as pulling the lever on a slot machine. People always wait for an unpredictable random post, also called rewards, to show up after dragging down the screen. This is in psychology referred to as intermittent reinforcements. As it is so unpredictable, the user will repeatedly check their screen to look for new posts (P., 2020). Moreover, social media affects the brains as when a person is rewarded, dopamine is released. This happens when a person receives a ‘like’ or another positive notification coming from social media. In real life people only talk about themselves about 30-40% of the time, whereas social media is all about showing your life. Additionally, the specific sound of social media notifications is a stimulus to look at the screen and distract the user from the offline world, called persuasive technology (Kolitz, 2020).
Should people be more aware of how they can decrease their social media usage? Or are the negative effects of using social media not substantial enough to promote this? Also, companies and schools could put regulations in place to reduce the usage of phones while working in order to increase effectiveness.
References
Dailey, S., Howard, K., Roming, S., Ceballos, N., & Grimes, T. (2020). A biopsychosocial approach to understanding social media addiction. Human Behavior And Emerging Technologies, 2(2), 158-167. doi: 10.1002/hbe2.182
Daily social media usage worldwide. (2020). Retrieved 6 October 2020, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide/#:~:text=As%20of%202019%2C%20the%20average,minutes%20in%20the%20previous%20year.&text=In%20comparison%2C%20the%20daily%20time,two%20hours%20and%20three%20minutes
Kolitz, D. (2020). Why Is Social Media So Addictive?. Retrieved 6 October 2020, from https://gizmodo.com/why-is-social-media-so-addictive-1841261494
P., E. (2020). Reward Systems: Why Social Media Is So Addicting. Retrieved 6 October 2020, from https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/27290/20200914/social-media-addiction-ways-counter.htm
Hey Daphne, very nice blog. The Social Dilemma made a lot of people look at social media through a different perspective. There is an increasing number of researchers that associate social networks with gambling. Instead of our money, attention is the payment method. Users are in search of satisfaction when scrolling through the feed. To illustrate such mechanism, an experiment has been made with a rat lab, who displayed similar behavior regarding satisfaction as users do when scrolling. If such topics interest you, I would recommend that you read Bruno Patino’s work.
Hi Daphne! I find this a very interesting read as it is definitely applicable to me (unfortunately). I think that the usage of social media can only be decreased if the person is either (1) very aware of the negative effects and considers them to be important or (2) the person does not constantly have the physical possibility to check their social media accounts. During my bachelor I had this very interesting experience that I would like to share as I think it demonstrates how our socials affect our concentration span as well as taking up valuable time.
For one of my courses I had this older professor that did not allow us to bring any electronic devices to his workshop as he had noticed that students are more consumed by their laptop than his explainations. This meant that all the notes had to be written down or printed if you wanted to enter the workshop (which was not great for my wallet). I noted that as I did not have the option to check my socials, it took away the constant need to do so which allowed me to focus much more on what was actually being said an discussed. Moreover, not only could I concentrate much better, I started to enjoy the lessons more as students were more keen on speaking up during discussions. The main message I’m trying to get accross is that we often don’t notice how much social media affects our behaviour. We are very much focussed on ourselves when we use social media instead of focussing what is happening around us. If you take away that disturbing factor it creates peace as it make it possible to focus on one thing instead of constantly shifting between multiple channels.
Hi Daphne, really liked the contribution and believe social media is definitely something to watch out for. As you pointed out, there are often subconscious mechanisms or chemical reactions at hand. While the users are often simply unaware of it, social media platforms are deliberately taking advantage of this scientific knowledge to increase usage. The user can thus only be accused of negligence, as it would be simple to protect oneself against these stimuli. The social media platforms however know exactly how badly it can affect users and yet continue to ‘manipulate’ them into more usage through various tactics.
Instagram does not enable to see other users’ likes anymore, which was framed as a way to reduce insecurities especially among teenagers. Social media is getting adopted by younger and younger children and the platforms simply are not adapted since they were not originally designed for such a young audience. It is clearly time for change. In the social dilemma documentary, the employees interviewed all used to work at the biggest social media and tech firms. Most of them state that their children are barely allowed to have social media which clearly shows that something is not right.
Another thought I had while watching the social dilemma is that ‘Tik Tok’, which has been growing significantly in China (as ‘Douyin’) over the past years and is now finding its way to Europe, was not yet included since its success is quite recent. I hope that this new social media platform which is mainly adopted by children and young teenagers will be forced to be regulated (rumors about data privacy regulations are increasing). Maybe it will be used as an example to warn the more established players that if change doesn’t come soon, they will also face consequences.
Dear Daphne, thank you for this article! It is true that often users are not aware of the total amount they spend on their phones. Checking your phone has become a real habit for some people and this causes a very little attention spam. I have hear a lot of students also complaining about online lectures as they can very easily switch to something else or go on their phones to check their social medias. These big platforms like instagram and facebook should raise awareness of the potential danger of social media instead of exploiting sensible audiences such as children. Documentaries like Social Dilemma get a lots of attention, is that due to the fact that more people are realizing the downside of social media? I do also agree with your last statement. Some regulations should be put in school to try to limit interactions with social media at school for students to be more focused.