No, they're not talking about a physical addiction, but whether heavy social media users could refrain from using social media for a week. During that week, participants were asked, at random intervals, whether they had the urge to use social media, as well as urges to engage in a range of other activities. They also were asked if they gave into those urges, and whether the urges conflicted with other activities and desires. Respondents overwhelmingly reported having various urges during their responses, and it appeared that using social media was harder to resist that many other behaviors. The study's author, Wilhelm Hofmann, was quoted as saying
“Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not ‘cost much’ to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist. With cigarettes and alcohol there are more costs -- long-term as well as monetary -- and the opportunity may not always be the right one. So, even though giving in to media desires is certainly less consequential, the frequent use may still ‘steal’ a lot of people's time.”Now, there may be an important confounding factor here - to get responses at random intervals, participants were given a Blackberry, and gave their responses through that device. So each participant, at each inquiry, was using a device with social media capabilities in a way similar to engaging in social media, when asked about their desire to use social media. At the very least, this would seem to give social media urges a primacy and immediacy not found with the other urges being asked about (sports inclinations, sexual urges, spending impulses, smoking, alcohol consumption, etc.). That could bias responses.
Still, I can see that some people may develop some degree of dependency for social media use, related to a need for connectedness. And dependencies are hard to shake. But I don't see any real suggestion that social media is any more or less "addicting" than any other habit, and is more likely to be driven by an underlying need than the behavior itself.
But make up your own mind.
Source - Twitter, Facebook More Addictive than Cigarettes, Alcohol, The Social Graf MediaPost blog
I agree that both social sites are enticing to audiences of all ages. Twenty years ago, everyone received a newspaper on their doorstep; now, it is unheard of for someone not to have a Twitter or Facebook account.
ReplyDeleteWhat is more interesting to me though, is how advertisers have taken full advantage of this "addiction." Facebook for instance has "custom" advertising on the side of your webpage. These advertisements are specifically designed to fit your gender/age demographic,and is also based on your recent web searches. Advertisers know that most Facebook users are "addicted," checking their pages daily, and take full advantage of that fact.