Choose your drug: Tobacco or Twitter?
In a world that lives more online than offline — how has our emotional dependence on digital devices has caused a mass addiction?
Stats don’t lie
During my research, I stumbled upon an animation depicting the current social situation: a technology-obsessed generation glued to our screens; as if looking up for even a second would be illegal. Although satirically exaggerated, it accurately represents how we prioritise smartphones over surroundings. Here are some of the latest facts on media usage in the UK:
· The average adult internet users spend a whopping 25.1 hours online per week
· Smartphone ownership in 2018 has increased by 61% since 2008
· People reported more negative than positive emotions when not online (pictured below) (Ofcom 2020, 2018)
Many observations of how we spend more time with technology than interacting with others, condemns society’s growing social media addiction and its related side effects, expressing significant concern towards our internet dependency.
This alludes to McLuhan’s (1965) notion of technology as extensions of modern man. Phones are being extensively embedded into our lives becoming part of our mind and body; physically and metaphorically. Let’s be honest, losing our phone is equivalent to losing a limb.
Smartphone symptoms
“Anxiety is part of the new connectivity” (Turkle, 2017)
Throughout her empirical research, Turkle reflects on how users feel empty without their phones — one interviewee reported feeling “naked” (Turkle, 2017, p.152) and disconnected without social media. This may be due to FOMO, the fear of missing out “social interactions which are constantly happening online” (Marbabaie et al., 2020).
Similar feelings were found in users who digitally detox — the conscious decision to disconnect from smartphone overuse. Lee et al. (2018) argued detoxing led to greater technostress and withdrawal-like symptoms due to the loss of interconnectedness with others.
“Social media apps…can be more addicting than heroin” (Gill, 2017)
In their book ‘The Dark Side of Social Media’ Sheldon et al., (2019) concluded Internet users demonstrating similar behaviours to people with drug or alcohol addictions. The non-stop receiving of likes and comments on social networking sites activates the same reward area of the brain as cocaine. The table I have illustrated below shows the eerily similar symptoms of drug addiction (Griffiths, 2005) and technology addiction:
Consequently, we forever seek to stay connected online regardless of health risks, in order to avoid loneliness and the fear of social exclusion.
Not our fault?
Although there exists an obvious presence of unhealthy smartphone usage associated with loneliness and anxiety, we cannot blame ourselves. Ou & Zouxia (2019) argue phones are designed to be addictive. As evidenced in the video, companies purposely incorporate features such as infinite scrolling, push notifications and bright colours, extending our time online while decreasing our sense of control (Vox, 2018).
How we utilise this bottomless vortex of communication in my opinion, boils down to self-control, but we choose addiction over abstinence.
References
Gill, B. (2017). Unsocial Media. ESSAI, 15(1), 18.
Griffiths, M. D. (2005). A “components” model of addiction within a biopsychosocial framework. Journal of Substance Use, 10(4), 191–197.
Lee, J., Sung, M. J., Song, S. H., Lee, Y. M., Lee, J. J., Cho, S. M., … & Shin, Y. M. (2018). Psychological factors associated with smartphone addiction in south Korean adolescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 38(3), 288–302.
McLuhan, M. (1965). Understanding media: The extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Mirbabaie, M., Marx, J., Braun, L. M., & Stieglitz, S. (2020). Digital Detox — Mitigating Digital Overuse in Times of Remote Work and Social Isolation. arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.09535.
Ofcom. (2020, June 24). Adults’ Media Use & Attitudes report 2020. Ofcom. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0031/196375/adults-media-use-and-attitudes-2020-report.pdf
Ofcom. (2018, August 2). A decade of digital dependency. Ofcom. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2018/decade-of-digital-dependency
Ou, T., & Zouxia, J. (2019). Smartphone Addiction and Negative Behaviors among High School Students. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 2(5), 87–93.
Sheldon, P., Rauschnabel, P., & Honeycutt, J. M. (2019). The dark side of social media: Psychological, managerial, and societal perspectives. Academic Press.
Turkle, S. (2017). Alone together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other. New York: Basic Books.
