SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS EFFECTS NMD 200 COLE J, DANIEL K & MAHA F

Do you ever think about the basic things that contribute to our happiness ?

The basic need to provide any human happiness would be a sense of safety, creativity or being active, communicating and many more. The Brain injury services article also talks about how as people “We need quality attention from the people in our lives.” In real life situations some of us feel like we want to be socially involved since we are scared of FOMO.

Around seven-in-ten Americans use social media. Social media is used for several different purposes and these include: communication, reading the news, entertainment and many more.

HOW DOES SOCIAL MEDIA RELATE TO THIS?

Social media was created to help keep us in the loop and stay connected to those whom we care for. But now there is simply too much information all of the time, with little to no ways to help mitigate or control it for an individual person. This constant overstimulation and overfeeding of info eventually works as a positive feedback loop, wherein the more information people consume, the less satisfied they feel, leading them to log on again and again for more of that stimulation. And so on.

Social media relates to this because if we think about the basic needs that contribute to our happiness, one of them was “We need quality attention from the people in our lives". The need of communicating with anyone whether it's friends or family, we want to stay updated with what they are up to or what is going on in their lives. With that being said we begin to develop an addiction of needing to know what's happening on the internet all the time.

ADDICTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA: Social media addiction might begin from unmet needs, or the satisfaction of getting likes/followers. However social media addiction could also start by using it to “kill time” and overtime that develops into a bad habit which leads to needing to use social media. Dopamine is what our brains identifies when we experience these temporary emotions. Therefore when the dopamine wears off we want to go back and use social media again to regain these emotions.

ADDICTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA

Being addicted to social media has many negative effects and some of them are :

low self esteem: “which may be prompted by incorrect perceptions that others’ lives are “better” than yours”
Phantom vibration syndrome: when you think your phone is vibrating but it's not
FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out): “which can lead to even more social media usage”
anxiety
depression

SOLUTIONS

There are many different ways of using social media to benefit us in a positive way. Also we benefit from being able to connect with family and friends who live far away from us.We can use social media whenever and wherever, but we have to know when it is appropriate to use social media and how much we need to use it. Here are some ways you can minimize the use of social media :

Minimize the use of social media: when you are at work/school/social gathering and limit the use of your phone when you are doing something when you are alone or with someone else.
Using social media as a learning tool: There are a lot of websites that provide us with free courses to learn new skills.
Set up screen time: screen time allows you to set limits for your apps and communication. Using that helps you stay away from these distractions but you also start to develop a habit of checking your phone less. As well as knowing when its time to be off your phone.

SOURCES

NMD 200 PROJECT 1 | Jon Ippolito

Maha, Daniel Kerecman, Cole Jarvis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R0fTRTIQCE -Depression and the Secret to Happiness | Johann Hari

https://www.makeuseof.com/why-social-media-good-for-you/

https://technologyformindfulness.com/positives-of-social-media/

https://braininjurysvcs.org/six-basic-needs-we-have-to-meet-to-feel-happy-and-alive/

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/

https://www.healthline.com/health/social-media-addiction#downsides

https://iac.gatech.edu/research/features/what-is-phantom-vibration-syndrome

https://www.saintbelford.com.au/blogs/blog/7-proven-ways-to-spend-less-time-on-social-media-and-more-time-in-the-real-world

https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-affecting-your-mental-health

https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media

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