Why Are We Addicted to Social Media?

Social Media is enticing and tempting to people because the colder and more disconnected the outside world gets, the more of an attempt to stay connected and reach out to people or what we want becomes available through the online world. Or so we are led to feel! It actually desensitizes us to those real conversations and connections we used to have from the outside world, and it creates the need to "always know what is going on, always be a part of the discussion, and always be in the know of what others are up to and why" that otherwise might be difficult or not possible. It provides that to people, while removing them from any social aspect or element of having to be involved or to know how to interact and deal with situations, requests, or people. It lets people look up information and porn as well as other things at the tip of their fingertips in record time. If they want to see pictures of dogs, they can. Instantly. Pictures of cats? Yes, instantly. Who goes to the movies anymore when you can just download them instead of going with friends or that person you like? People no longer want to go outside to make a garden because they have "farmville". The pictures of the person you want to talk to or know but are shy or afraid to are always there to greet you, along with parts about their life that no conversation would ever let you know of them if they knew it was you looking at what they posted.

All of this leads to addiction of information and always being the center of attention in social circles, as well as an addictive personality disorder...which facebook fosters and profits from with ads and sponsored pages to those masses.

People have all kinds of wants. Social media provides the needs and fills (artificially) those wants for a time, while making people follow it further and disregard their needs and knowing or interacting with the people who were supposed to be the most important to them.

 

We are addicted to social media because social media is the place or platform where anyone can be a star. I equate social media to being on the red carpet at the Grammy awards or the Oscars. Selfies, celebrity gossip, bragging and texting to people you never met. I really do think that social media is akin to the 1999 film "The Matrix". Sometimes I feel like when I'am engaged in social media I'am in a virtual Matrix, out of body experience. Social media and its addiction is an epidemic by the way and it is re-wiring our brains. Edward Bernays, "1984", "Brave New World", and films like "The Matrix" foretold us of the phenomenon which is social media. I had a co-worker 4 years ago who told me that I must be careful not to become addicted to Facebook. The media is the 4th branch of government, and now social media is the 5th branch of government. I was born in 1972, a product of Generation X. I grew up with Walter Cronkite and Peter Jennings, now kids have social media where they get there news.

 

I actually do not use any social media other than Facebook, and I only get on Facebook about once a month. I do think people like the voyeurism aspect of being able to peer into another persons like which may lead to some of the addiction aspects of it. In addition, I think that people like to show off and social media offers them a perfect platform to do this.

 

I am totally not addicted to social media. I don't have time to be. I don't even check my Facebook on a daily basis. I have notifiers on my desktop so if there was something important I would see it. Otherwise I probably check in there a couple of times per week. And I haven't gotten into the others at all. Facebook is a useful tool and it is a great way to keep abreast of what is happening with family and friends. But it does not hold my interest for very long at all. I can skim it quickly and move on to other things.

 

I think that people are addicted to gossip and love fueling that addiction. We use to just gossip about people vocally but as soon social media became popular it was an easy way for use to shared pictures, secrets and gossip. I truly think that is why people are addicted to social media.

 

A lot of people are making fools of themselves on social media. Hopefully, some of these comics are already retired from working, cause thier big mouth on Facebook can seriously hamper their ability to find employment, unless it's with some comedy club or freakshow.

Actually, it's not my place to parent people. People, for the most part, can live the way they want to live. Nonetheless, I think social can be a waste of time, much as television is.

 

I think the appeal of social media is tenfold because it's invade our personal and public life. How many jobs now do background checks to see that you have social media and what's on it? You almost seem weird if you avoid the sites. But I think the potential of fame and money, since a good chunk of people work from home, adds to the other reasons to check your feed. It's the new gold rush, everyone wants to be the next one that goes viral.

 

Yes, I use Facebook every day. In fact, I would surf Facebook many times a day. Does that mean I am addicted? No, I don't think so. Facebook is where I get in touch with my family and friends. Facebook is where I find out what's going on in the world. Indeed, very often, I get breaking news from Facebook before it appears on the news sites. So why shouldn't I use Facebook? Should I stop using it just to show that I am not addicted to social media? I think not. It's just a medium and it's convenient. The alternative is to get on the phone to talk to my family and friends. And get the news from the radio and TV. That's definitely not as cheap and timely as using Facebook.

 

7 years later and idk, I was into fb a lot more back then, then after the clownvid we went through just gave it up, and a lot of the people I knew on there were just work related and frankly were mostly weirdos I met while doing extra work in LA. In fact back then central casting was using only facebook to post jobs so it was a practical thing for a while.

Now with tiktok and others like yt you can get ad revenue for views so this is a race to the bottom really, fast food with drugs in it type of stuff gets produced for profit. I did IG for a while during clownvid lockdown bs because it was just photo based but after the blmBS and a lot of LA weirdos rants and such blocked everyone, private only and then totally stopped using it. I do NOT use any social media at all that is phone based, this is social media here but it's computer based and obviously not as pernicious as major sites that are entertainment focused.

I am trying to do without as much of the propaganda/subversion tool-media as possible but it's not easy when you grow up in it and would be very hard to cut the cord to it all. Videogames and movies/tv are very hard to give up and probably won't be possible. I just try to look for things that are not too nasty and also that have some real information to it, not a total waste of time.