What do you think? Would you be able to delete Facebook for a week or log in only once in a day? As I see it, no. Social networks have replaced many activities from the past. Our smartphones have completely replaced the core functions of a normal cell phone. Nowadays, we do not send SMS messages anymore, we just send a personal message on Facebook, most of the times we try to call someone with Skype or Viber and we do not distribute flyers for a party, we just create an event on Facebook.
America’s first hospital-based “internet addiction” program at Regional Medical Center in Pennsylvania states that every year there are more and more people who register for their rehab package. In mainland China, Facebook is blocked since 2008, while the next year it was Twitter’s turn due to the fact that China faced the most problems with internet and social networks addiction. Individuals in Australia faced also social media obsession, as can be seen from the picture below.
But what are the signs of Internet addiction? If you start losing sleep because you feel it is urgent to check all new updates, you should start feeling worried about it. According to Diana Bocco, a reason we spent a lot of time in social networks is because they are casual, they provide relaxed ways of exchanging information, and it is hard to keep up with all of your 2000 friends. Information flows nonstop.
Joining a social network site can be fun, but we should not forget that being social in our ‘real’ life is far more important that on the web.
Sources:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/information/social-networking-sites-addictive.htm
http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/what-makes-networking-sites-addictive
