What is social media addiction?

Background

The rise in popularity of social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, has spawned an age of social media consumption that is difficult to quantify. Rather than point to specific numbers or trends in everyday use, perhaps a better way of considering the effect of social media on society is to consider that two professional journals now chronicle the ongoing relationship with social media. The new journals are the Journal of Social Media and the Journal of Cyberpsychology and Behavior, both of which are relevant to studies of the effects of social media on human behavior.

Facebook, for example, has changed the way that people communicate and maintain social relationships, both in productive and nonproductive ways. Twitter has become a global vehicle through which people collect, report, and share the news of the moment. Communicating with other people has become easier and more immediate, while the boundaries, rules, and language that govern this communication have become more convoluted. As a result, research aimed at how and why people find themselves using social media (and technology in general) is on the rise. For instance, psychologist Julia Hormes hypothesizes that the unpredictable updates on social media platforms and self-disclosures inherent in the process both activate the brain's reward circuitry, reinforcing the behaviors. Other research has suggested that people use social media for a sense of belonging, much as they would join social groups in the real world.

Furthermore, features of one’s personality that predict heavy (or limited) social media use are under investigation. For instance, poor emotion regulation, impulsivity, alcohol abuse, and Internet addiction were associated with social media dependence among young adults in one 2014 study. The merits of what widely interconnected, online relationships mean for face-to-face communication, intimacy, and privacy have become the objects of study as well.

The Human Relationship with Technology

Social media researcher Sherry Turkle has been exploring the interaction of human relationships and technology for decades. Her work has developed a collective understanding of how human beings interface with a technological society. Her seminal works applying self and interpersonal theories to social media relationships were predictive and formative. Turkle has shown that technological advances have made it virtually impossible to isolate oneself from complex interpersonal relationships.

Additionally, technology has done as much to challenge self-representation as it has challenged interpersonal relationships; for instance, many Facebook users report feeling anxiety in trying to manage their self-representation to varying audiences of friends, family, and professional connections on the site. Social media sites also encourage attention-seeking behaviors. In so doing, the ways in which one’s real life aligns with one’s virtual life are telling and have become useful fodder for ongoing research.

Psychological Addiction? Loneliness, Anxiety, Shyness

Because of the long-held assumption that social media helps to foster meaningful, online relationships, and because of the ease through which one can build a relationship with someone previously unknown to them, three psychological concerns in particular are now being studied: loneliness, anxiety, and shyness. No consensus exists on how these factors intersect with one’s proclivity for social media use (or for social media addiction), though there are a few interesting points to highlight.

First, research has revealed mixed findings regarding people who self-identify as “lonely” and people who self-identify as “anxious.” Some research has indicated that lonely people prefer face-to-face interaction (they find that social media lacks intimacy), whereas anxious people prefer electronic modes of communication. As such, loneliness could be better understood as something self-representational (with concerns hovering around issues of the self rather than of a specific fear of others or of socializing with others). According to a University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee meta-analysis of loneliness and Facebook use, lonelier people spend more time on the site despite not feeling their loneliness lessen while using it. Anxious people prefer social media because of the anonymity involved, making it easier to rationalize possible disapproval while having more control over how the other person experiences them. Studies have also suggested that those with low self-esteem are particularly vulnerable to dysfunctional social media usage, as they repeatedly seek the rewards of self-disclosure but often turn off their social media contacts with negative sharing.

Second, shyness is not something that inhibits social media usage despite the likelihood that shy people will experience the same minimal amount of social contact online as they would otherwise. Despite reported difficulty maintaining online relationships, shy people report heightened satisfaction in their virtual worlds. This is likely because they are spending a greater amount of time seeking, surveying, and considering positive social encounters while online. Additionally, social media provide a rather safe and secure outlet for heightened social interaction.

Third, the issue of locus of control has come under scrutiny as it relates to potential social media addiction. Specifically, research has examined closely the types of reinforcements experienced by heavy social media users. People are less likely to become addicted to social media if they feel that they have control over their own lives (both online and off), whereas people are more likely to be addicted to social media if they feel as though others have greater control over them (both online and off).

Turkle’s analysis of the Internet (and social media) as seductive is especially relevant here, particularly when one considers the fluid nature of a person’s experience of social media. That is, a person can update, alter, change, or redefine his or her online identity in the click of a button.

Bibliography

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