Posted by Social media allow us to find and connect with people across the world. However, studies have shown that excessive and compulsive usage of social media would lead to depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), aggression and many other behavioral disorders.
Psychological signs
1. You obsessively check your social media sites
- The last thing you do before going to sleep and the first priority after waking up is to reach for your phone with social media apps and scroll the screens for many hours.
- Additionally, you check your social networking sites every few minutes while eating, during work/class, traveling, in the middle of your sleep, and even in the toilet and bathroom. [1] [2]
2. You frequently update your activities
- You actively publish your activities and experiences through social media such as the food you ate or cooked, checked-in places or locations and your feelings such as ‘feeling loved,’ ‘listening to,’ ‘thinking about,’ ‘blessed with,’ ‘angry on’ etc.
- You arrange meetings and parties with your friends and family to update something new on social media.
- You tag people who are not involved or affected by your post to get more reach for your updates. [3]
3. You eagerly wait for other’s response
- You feel proud that your updates get positive responses and you become unhappy and delete some updates when you get negative or fewer responses.
- You feel stressed and disappointed when someone doesn’t respond to your connection request and, you accept the stranger’s connection request to widen your social media network. [4]
4. You have many unsuccessful attempts to get away from social media
- You tried many times to reduce or completely stop using your social media account, but you failed many times miserably. [5]
5. Your craving for social media usage is beyond the words
- You get stressed and become anxious when you are not accessible to your social media sites for some time and think your life is a disaster when you are not using any of your social media platforms. [6]
6. You integrate social media slang into your language
- You use social media acronyms such as LOL (laugh out loud), b4 (before), BRB (Be Right Back), FYI (For Your Information), ICYMI (in case you missed it), GR8 (Great), AMA (Ask Me Anything), DM (Direct Message), IMO (In My Opinion), and use hashtag (#) for everything. [7]
7. You look disconnected from the real social life
- You communicate with your friends and family through social media, even if you are living in the same house and feel uncomfortable to talk to them without using any social media platform.
- You consider a person who has no social media account doesn’t socially exist, and you believe the social life is more in the social media than in real life. [8]
Physiological signs
In addition to the psychological symptoms, the excessive and compulsive use of social media will lead to many physical health issues such as backache, headache, eye strain, obesity, sleep disorders, carpal tunnel syndrome, etc. Those who are addicted to social media failed to do their chores such as healthy meals, timely sleep, personal hygiene, which lead to carelessness in their work, studies, relationship and social life. [9] [10]
Read next: How can you recover from social media addiction?
References
[1] Jehangir Bharucha, Safer Communities, 17 (2), 2018, 119-131
[2] Nancy A. Cheever et al., Technology and Adolescent Mental Health, Springer, 2018, 101-112
[3] Silvia Casale et al., Addictive Behaviors, 76, 2018, 312-318
[4] Han-Chung Huang et al., Computers in Human Behavior, 82, 2018, 111-123
[5] Jie Du et al., Computers in Human Behavior, 84, 2018, 68-75
[6] Ofir Turel et al., Journal of Psychiatric Research, 97, 2018, 84-88
[7] https://www.speakconfidentenglish.com/english-internet-slang/
[8] Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe et al., American Academy of Pediatrics, 127, 2011, 800-804
[9] Keith W.Beard, CyberPsychology & Behavior, 8, 2005
[10] Hyunna Kim, Journal of Exercise Rehabilitation, 9, 2013, 500-505
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Oh my goodness! an incredible article. Thanks
Very nice information.
A caution one must take note of. Very good points to be aware of.
I completely agree! I feel like setting a time limit for all these has really helped me!
So many people are addicted to social media nowadays…These should definitely help prevent it!
I spent so much time with my phone, it’s hard to tell if I’m a hard worker or reliant on social media. This is a helpful post.
Before I frequently check my list of followers, some of them do the follow and unfollow you after. I feel so disappointed and affect myself as well. Until i learned how to not care those people and enjoy what i have and people who believes in me. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your post
I spend my whole day on Social Media. I believe I have all of these signs of being an addictive user. But what comes on my minds is I am a Blogger and a Social Media Manager too. Am I considered as an addict too even if it’s part our job?
How about being a Blogger which usually have these signs? Are we considered as a Social Media Addict as this is part of our job?
I am definitely sharing this with my friends because they need this information.
After reading this article, I can say that I’m not completely addicted to social media. I definitely do know how to unplug because it’s so easy to get caught up in it. Thank you sharing this, because social media addiction is a real thing!
everyone at a certain point is tied to social networks, it is something that connects us in a certain way, but everything in excess is bad
Social media is more present in our lives than in the past few years. It is growing together with all the new platforms and now some people are getting addicted to it.
I totally agree with you on all those points listed. That’s jut the truth
Uh this article made me thinking hard and I consider myself definitely as an addict 😂😩! This really is a serious subject thought thank you so much for sharing and I enjoyed reading this and do some self analysis.
Oh my, i think I’m having some of these signs, but not just that intense. Thanks for the reference you shared.
Great post!
I agree with this so much! Society has been conditioned to be justified by social media and it is so sad! This is a great post and so many people need to read this! Shut off social media and go outside! Enjoy nature! Get a hobby!
Very educative post, with a lot of valuable pieces of information! Thanks for sharing! Keep it up
Valuable Information. Thanks 🙂
Thanks for the valuable information!
Thank you for the post which is informative and thought-provoking.
Thank you Balakrishnan
I love this post! I wrote something similar regarding email addiction, and the warning signs are fundamentally the same.
Thank you Gill
Nice information i would say.
Thank you Saksham