At the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, the CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff believes that a company like Facebook should be regulated (https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-ceo-marc-benioff-said-at-davos-that-facebook-should-be-regulated-like-cigarettes-2018-1) the same way as cigarette companies are because they are not concerned about the consumer.
They are only interested in their own financial gains.
The question was posed as for how could we as consumers think of social media addiction the same way we do cigarettes? Cigarettes can kill you, so how could social media be a threat to anyone’s health?
In an article posted by the New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/17/can-mark-zuckerberg-fix-facebook-before-it-breaks-democracy), Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg described as Facebook being personal and it intersects with psychology and technology. The employees at Facebook are not therapists and they do not care about the mental state of the individuals who use their service. In fact, some of the tricks they have used have caused psychological issues to arise in individuals.
Facebook even went as far as experimenting with users’ news feeds to see what kind of reaction they could get from of them. According to the New York Times, when the experiment was conducted the users had no way knowing what was going on, but according to Facebook, when a user agrees to the terms of the service, the Facebook team are allowed to do whatever they want to its user's information.
It is believed that the experiment is what caused the Cambridge Analytical scandal. It was founded that 87 million’s people’s personal data had been harvested and sold to a consultant to manipulate voters. The New Yorker had stated that Facebook had known about the scandal for years and did nothing about it.
Ever since the Cambridge Analytical scandal, the fallout from it has been felt all across politics, including the 2016 U.S. Elections, 2017 Kenya Elections, and United Kingdom’s Brexit vote.
Why is Social Media an Addiction?
Studies have been conducted that show that social media addiction is in fact real. Facebook is not the only social media site that people use, even though, they have more than two billion users. While there are 500 million tweets sent a day from Twitter, there are also 95 million pictures sent through Instagram on a daily basis. On YouTube, it has been found that 400 hours of the video feed is being uploaded every minute.
By those large numbers, it should tell us that social media is, in fact, an addiction. The whole social media craze is just a business ploy. The more individuals click and scroll, the better is it for social media sites. When social media sites send notifications and personalize newsfeeds to its users, it is just a ploy to keep people coming back for more. The more times people visit or use the site, the more money the company will make.
There are a few reasons why people get so easily addicted to social media:
We love to socialize: As humans, we love interacting with others and want to feel like we belong.
We crave validation: On social media sites, there are follows, likes, and emoji’s that let people know how we feel about something.
Fear of missing out: Dan Herman, a marketing strategist first made mention of the term, whereas Patrick McGinnis coined the term (https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/07/29/fomo-history/). In 2013, it was reported that most people feared they would miss out on something if they didn’t stay connected on social media.
Brings the ego out: In order to earn recognition, people will disclose personal information and pictures of themselves.
Chemistry of the brain: Social media is physically and psychologically addictive. Harvard University conducted a study that showed that when a person discloses information about themselves a part of their brain fires and lights up. It has also been shown that engaging in social media activities has caused issues in a person’s personal life as well, which researchers would call an addiction.
In conclusion, social media rules the world, no matter what negative impacts it may have. It is a part of our culture and social media sites gain more than any user might think. Social media is a money-making business and the more people fall into the trap, the more the social media market will prevail.
It is time to crack down on how social media handles users’ data. There need to be some regulations put into place, the same way there are with cigarettes. Social media sites would then be more careful about how they handle users’ information because there would be consequences in place.
Since social media addiction is real, if it gets out of hand, an individual may need to go to inpatient rehab for personalized treatment. The idea of going to inpatient treatment for social media may seem crazy, but if it starts to affect a person’s life, then help needs to be sought immediately.
Social media addiction is like cigarettes. It becomes a day-to-day habit that can’t be stopped until it starts to take over a person’s health. With social media, an addicted person always has to be connected to some type of technology. If they’re unable to connect for any length of time, it could make the person do something that he or she regrets, such as causing harm to him or herself or another person.
With personalized treatment, a therapist will help the person find the root cause of why they are so addicted to social media. It may seem obvious to why a person could be addicted to social media, but sometimes it may be something more to it.
There are different inpatient treatments available. All of the treatments don’t require using medication. A person may be able to use a Christian or holistic treatment. Even though it is considered as addictive as cigarettes, the same treatment may not work for social media addiction.
Finding help for social media addiction is the easy part. It’s actually asking for help, the hard part. There is no reason why a person needs to let social media control them. It’s time to start taking control of their own life.
While at the Sunshine Behavioral Health (https://www.sunshinebehavioralhealth.com/) centers, we don't work with social media addiction, it can be serious as just discussed.