How many times have you already caught yourself scrolling endlessly through social media? How many times have you told yourself “just another ten minutes” and ended up staying another hour lying on your bed, watching TikTok? Been there, done that.
We all know it’s very tempting to just procrastinate on the things you have to do and stay on your phone, seeing what your friends are doing on Instagram or who’s being canceled on X (formerly Twitter). But social media addiction is a real problem that is affecting a lot of people, especially teenagers and young adults. Therefore, do you know what science says about this?
How your brain works
First, let’s understand what is behind the process of getting addicted to something. Every time you engage in a rewarding experience, your brain secretes dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter and a hormone. It acts like a chemical messenger between your brain cells and the rest of your body. It also plays a part in many body functions, including memory, learning, sleep, motivation, mood and attention.
As it is related to the feelings of pleasure and motivation, dopamine is known as the “feel-good” hormone. It is part of your body’s reward system, which makes you feel good when you do something pleasurable and want to do it again. The more you do something that makes you feel good, more dopamine is released in your body, that way making you seek more of that feeling. And that is why it’s so addictive.
Every time someone likes something you posted, you get a dopamine rush. Every time you scroll and find a video that you like, you get a dopamine rush. Some researchers say that the feeling of reward you get from social media is similar to the one you get from substance use. That is why you can’t get away from the urge of endless scrolling that easily, even when you know you need to.
According to an article written by the Stanford School of Medicine, dopamine is triggered by our brain’s search-and-explore functions, making us want to look for new things all the time. On the other hand, the algorithms of social media platforms learn from what you’ve liked before, in order to suggest content you might appreciate. The result? You get trapped in the process searching for the next ‘best video you’ve ever seen’.
Social media apps, like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, have strategies to keep people using their products as much as possible. They provide an immediate reward for the user, such as likes, comments or shares, making whoever is engaging in those interactions keep searching for more of that feeling.
Max Fisher, from The New York Times, explains the process in his book called “The Chaos Machine”. According to him: “Dopamine creates a positive association with whatever behaviors prompted its release, training you to repeat them….When that dopamine reward system gets hijacked, it can compel you to repeat self-destructive behaviors. To place one more bet, binge on alcohol—or spend hours on apps even when they make you unhappy.”
A study from Harvard University attests that the reward centers of the brain are most active when people are talking about themselves. According to the research, that happens around 30 to 40% of the time in face-to-face interactions, and 80% of the time in the virtual world. Beyond that, many people use social media to escape from their problems and to relieve stress, which can aggravate the addiction and cause them to ignore real life responsibilities.
Are you addicted to social media?
The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale was developed by the professor Cecilie Andreassen to measure social media addiction. There are six questions, designed to measure addiction factors like salience, tolerance, mood modification, relapse or loss of control, withdrawal and functional impairment. To every question, you may answer with a number from 1 to 5 (1 = very rarely, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = very often), and the summative is your BSMAS score.
Here are the six questions:
- You spend a lot of time thinking about social media or planning how to use it.
- You feel an urge to use social media more and more.
- You use social media in order to forget about personal problems.
- You have tried to cut down on the use of social media without success.
- You become restless or troubled if you are prohibited from using social media.
- You use social media so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/studies.
The total score of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale test ranges from 6 to 30. The higher score you get, the more likely you are to be addicted. The study also says that, if you get 24 or higher, that means you are at risk for social media addiction.
Some possible side effects of the overuse of social media are low self-esteem, disrupted sleep patterns, increase of anxiety and depression, incresed self isolation and poor work or school performance. The addiction can also increase conflicts in real-life relationships, lack of empathy due to the decrease in real-life interactions and FOMO (fear of missing out).
If you are looking to decrease your use of social media platforms, there are some tips you can folow to make that happen. First, turn off the notifications from your phone. That can help you become more present and stop checking for new messages all the time. You can also track the time you spend online and set a limit to your social media use. Developing a hobby that isn’t technology related and putting your phone down before bedtime is really helpful aswell. It is all about rediscovering the life offline and prioriting real-life connections.
How about you? Are you addicted to social media?
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The article above was edited by Beatriz Imagure.
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