Research Paper : Social Media Addiction

Social media addiction is taking a poll on people’s lives at an alarming rate. People are being controlled if you look around you see that people are glued to their cellular devices this can be rather annoying, more accidents happen on the road due to people being distracted and students are not paying enough attention to their studies.As the popularity of social networking has increased, so has the addiction to these social networks.The statistics show that five to fifteen million individuals use the internet on a daily basis. Even with this high number, the number increases by 25% every three months.

We have become slaves to the internet we no longer enjoy the outside world but capture every single moment on our cellular device.The average person spends nearly 2 hours a day using social media, which amounts to 5 years and 4 months of his/her lifetime.(Technology Addiction in Adolescents ).With the rapid development of technology, social media playing an important role in communication has become indispensable in the lives of individuals.(The predictive role of Narcissism and self esteem on social media addiction). Social media landscape in early 2018 is defined by a mix of long-standing trends and newly emerging narratives.Facebook and YouTube dominate this landscape, as notable majorities of U.S. adults use each of these sites. At the same time, younger Americans especially those ages 18 to 24 stand out for embracing a variety of platforms and using them frequently. Some 78% of 18- to 24-year-olds use Snapchat, and a sizeable majority of these users 71% visit the platform multiple times per day. Similarly, 71% of Americans in this age group now use Instagram and close to half 45% are Twitter users. ( Pew Research of Statistics of Social media ). Whether we like to admit it or not, social media, in all its forms, has taken a toll on our relationships particularly our friendships. Social media makes us feel like we know people better than we really do. Let’s get one thing straight liking someone’s photo on Instagram does not mean a friendship is made.

Accidents occur more often on the road our phones are constantly buzzing. It’s no secret that texting and driving is a safety hazard . As updated car accident statistics continue to roll in, this problem becomes more apparent. It’s clear that thousands of people have died or may have changed a life forever because of distracted drivers using their cell phones behind the wheel. Texting and driving absorb a driver’s visual, manual, and cognitive attention creating the deadliest type of distraction on the road.(International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction). The red notification has permeated our lives it’s on our laptops, on our phones begging us to pay attention; begging us to drop everything and find out what it could possibly be. Inadvertently, technology has become our closest friend, the person we will do anything for, drop anything for, even break away from an important conversation to be with. “ Pretty much 100% of people are texting while driving and they’re killing everyone with their cars. People are willing to risk taking a life and ruining their own because they don’t want to be alone for 5 seconds.” ( The Center for internet addiction since 1995).The numbers illustrating the dangers of cellphone use while driving are downright startling. In fact, at any given time throughout the day, approximately 660,000 drivers are attempting to use their phones while behind the wheel of an automobile.(Social Networking Addiction, Attachment style and Validation Of The Italian Version Of the Bergen Social Media) Smartphones have made it easy for us to stay connected at all times. But that can pose serious safety risks if someone decides to check his or her text messages, emails, phone calls, or any other mobile applications while driving.

In a world that has become so dependent on technology, we are more consuming information and in different ways than ever before. News that people used to get from newspapers turned to radio, then television, and now we have access through our smartphones. with developing technological advancements these changes were bound to happen, but it was with these changes that new kinds of communication emerged, which is social media. It is damaging our lifestyles in ways that even a millennial who has grown up around this technology can still see, and this is coming from a kid who wasn't allowed to have social media and begged her parents for a Facebook at the age of 12.Three quarters of all teenagers in the U.S. have a smartphone. Much of the communication that goes on among teenagers is text based, meaning to takes longer to say less, but it allows for many different conversations to occur at the same time. This has led to short attention spans and less than productive habits as students spend more time on their smartphone being distracted than they spend applying themselves to their studies. Compulsive smartphone and Internet usage can be a sign of dependence and addiction, and can have serious consequences on developing young minds.Many teens and students find themselves glued to their phones from the time they wake up until the time they go to bed.Well research shows us that social media is addictive studies show that all the retweets and facebook likes have affected our brain’s reward area (The Mediation of self-looking). The symptoms of social media addiction in students is sleeping disorders, being overweight and obese, lack of physical activity, feeling of gut, Anxiety, Dishonestly and Depression. According to a recent report from the Pew Research Center, 95% of teens use a smartphone, and 45% say they are online almost constantly. About 70% of teens are on Snapchat and Instagram, while 85% are on Youtube.One would think all this near constant “socializing” would make teens feel more connected than ever before( Pew Research).teacher Cory McAbee, states that“Social media has crippled my students when it comes to interacting with one another in person. Their very ability to communicate is deteriorating,” says McAbee, who teaches 11th grade English in Rutherford County, North Carolina.Those who used social media while studying or doing homework also had slightly worse grades than students who didn't use the sites, possibly because this form of multi-tasking distracted students from their work.( The relationship between social media addiction and self-esteem among turkish university students).

We have become slaves to the internet we no longer enjoy the outside world but capture every single moment on our cellular device. Technology has the remarkable ability to be a great tool for taking more control of our lives as well as the ability to control us. We see this in numerous ways.On the positive side, we can now connect to friends around the globe, making distance a forgettable obstacle. There’s the Skype ad showing how Paige and Sarah bonded over the platform, becoming best friends without ever having met. Paige and Sarah aren’t alone. The average American moves every five years, so tech allows us to keep up, no matter where that might be.Then, there are apps and technology focused on the quantified self to help us change our fitness habits. Nike+ connects more than 11 million users to their workouts in more meaningful ways. When we go out and get active, it invokes positive reinforcement from our communities, encouraging us to exercise more regularly. While we might grow tired of those check-ins and fitness posts and hate them for making us feel lazy, they are a powerful motivator. Social media is critically important in giving voice to communities who’ve been systematically excluded from media people of color, women, LGBT people, poor people. By giving people a chance to share their under-covered perspectives with broadcast media, social media has a possible role in making the media ecosystem more inclusive and fair. The power of social media to raise money for candidates, recruit people to participate in marches and rallies, to organize boycotts of products or the overthrow of government is one of the best-documented and most debated powers of social media.(Aygar , Bilge and Uzun , Bilge).

Less talking on cell phones when people are behind the wheel, but a lot more fiddling with them. Drivers were 57 % more likely to be observed using their cellphones to text, send emails or for purposes other than making phone calls, and were less likely to be seen holding or talking on hand-held phones.There is something that many new drivers do multiple times a day that can be over three times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. It may not come as a surprise that social media is the culprit of such risky behavior. Using social media while driving is the newest deadly trend that is swerving into our path.When cell phones first rose to popularity, people spent a lot of time talking on the phone while driving. Cell phones are now smartphones, and talking while driving turned into texting while driving and further evolved into something increasingly more dangerous, using social media while driving.Sending or receiving a text message while driving a driver’s eye off of the road ahead for an average of 4.6 seconds. To put things into perspective, traveling at 55 miles per hour in that short amount of time is the equivalent to driving the entire length of a football field, completely blind. If the 4.6 seconds it takes to send a text message can be so dangerous, imagine how much longer it takes to use social media while driving, and how much more hazardous it becomes.As stated previously, using social media while driving can be three times more dangerous than drinking and driving. According to research conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory and the Institute of Advanced Motorist, the reaction time of a driver is slowed by 38% while using their smartphone, as opposed to the 12% of someone who has been drinking. (Kose, Ozge Buran and Dogan, Aze). laws that prohibit all drivers from holding and using cellphones and other electronic devices while driving can help raise public awareness of the dangers of driving while using these devices and help lower crashes. Laws prescribing the use of cellphones vary from state to state by April 2019, talking on a hand-held cell phone while driving was prohibited in 18 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety IIHS( Minnesota’s law becomes effective on August 1, 2019; Arizona will issue warnings until 2001 when it will issue tickets). Further, the use of all cell phones by novice drivers was banned in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Text messaging was barred for all drivers in 48 states and the District of Columbia and novice drivers were banned from texting in Missouri.

Social media is use by millions of individuals who collectively generate an array of social forms from their interactions. Social media network maps can be useful in understanding the variety of social structures the emerge. Network maps can reveal the structures of the crowd and highlight strategic locations or roles in these webs of connection. By mapping social media network spaces, researchers and practitioners can learn about the most common and best uses for these communication services. Social media is an addictive chemical that we humans love and seek technology has evolved throughout the years we’ve become enslaved to the internet we no longer treasure moments with family or loved one’s but capture it with our cell- phones we are glued to our cell-phones either with work or with our self-image there has been many tragic accidents due to social media use on the road and students grades are suffering because they get tempted to check their socials in class and that causes them to fall behind. We’ve become so obsessed with making sure the story we’re telling on social media looks exciting and beautiful and meaningful that we’ve failed to pay adequate attention to the stories other people are telling.

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