Social media use is an extremely popular and widespread part of current society trends. Social media has undoubtedly shifted the way people around the world interact, communicate and socialize with each other. Millions of social media users are logged onto their Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other accounts all hours throughout the day. This constant connection and exposure to social networking has unique implications towards addictive behavior and overall mental health.
Facebook is one of the leading social networking sites linked to addictive social media usage (Sriwilai & Charoensukmongkol, 2016). However, before we get into the cons, let’s discuss some of the positives to this addictive behavior. Social media sites like Facebook are beneficial to business marketing, blogging, being able to communicate with others regionally, nationally, and world-wide and uniting people on a gargantuan platform to accomplish diverse objectives. While on the surface, social media seemingly provides an invaluable tool for satisfying the basic human need for social connections, constant exposure and addictive use has the great potential to undermine the overall well-being of users.
It isn’t uncommon to see most people facing down towards their mobile devices, most especially youth/teenage populations who utilize a variety of gadgets, such as cell phones, iPads, tablets, etc. (Agarwal & Kar, 2015). Though these networks are a valuable tool for connecting with friends, family, and other associates all across the world, the overuse can lead to the impairments of interpersonal skills and threaten the quality of relationships. Moreover, addictive use can cause things like isolation, low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and a major dilapidation in overall mindfulness and attention (Sriwilai & Charoensukmongkol, 2016). Nowadays, people post to social media to solely see how many “likes” they can get. It is almost as if people will do anything to garner the most “likes”, and from people they have never even met. The need to be “liked” has become addictive in and of itself when it comes to posting to social media accounts. It is as though these likes are associated with how popular, valuable, and important you are as a person, and when people do not acquire large amounts of thumbs up signs, it causes psychological distress to such an extent that people begin to behave irrationally both online and offline. Thus, from a personal and professional standpoint, social media use should be limited and utilized more responsibly among all populations.
The American Psychological Association’s code of ethics can help professionals traverse the complex process of addressing social media addiction. Although there are no clear cut standards, and although the only sort of addictive behaviors listed in the DSM-5 manual involve either substance abuse or gambling, APA ethical codes can ensure that patients seeking help for social media addiction are treated fairly and ethically as they navigate therapy and learn healthier ways to engage in communication and interpersonal interactions with others within society.
References:
Agarwal, V., & Kar, S. K. (2015, July). Technology addiction in adolescents. Journal of Indian Association for Child & Adolescent Mental Health. pp. 170-174.
Sriwilai, K., & Charoensukmongkol, P. (2016). Face it, don't Facebook it: Impacts of Social Media Addiction on Mindfulness, Coping Strategies and the Consequence on Emotional Exhaustion. Stress & Health: Journal Of The International Society For The Investigation Of Stress, 32(4), 427-434. doi:10.1002/smi.2637
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