How Social Media Keeps Sucking You Back In

How Social Media Keeps Sucking You Back In

In doses, there's nothing wrong with some cute cat videos and over-edited Instagram pictures. When 15 minutes of scrolling turns into an hour-long ritual, there may be a problem. Social media can quickly become a consuming factor– it's all based on an algorithm. Rather than displaying posts in chronological order, social media marketers use an algorithm to display posts you are actually interested in. Now, a personally crafted lineup of posts lies at one's fingertips. Who can blame someone for getting sucked in?

  

Common social media app from WURP 

Sprout Social even wrote that some social sites will display “posts from your closest friends and family front-and-center in your feed” as they predict your interests will line up. Social media knows its users better than some of their friends. Without a reliable algorithm, people would be searching for enjoyable content like a needle in a haystack.

Simultaneously, social media wastes its user's time while destroying mental health. Social media use can begin as just a quick scroll to kill some time on the bus or waiting for the bell to ring. Quickly, this mindless scrolling becomes part of your routine. Snapchat, Instagram, and Tiktok promote unrealistic standards among their users, turning sharing pictures into a competition. Influencers fail to highlight their low moments, causing viewers to feel bad about their own life. While posting is exciting, many users find that they become reliant on the number of likes and comments to dictate their feelings toward the experience they just shared. Now they have been sucked in. From here, it's a cycle of posting and checking the post interactions for validation from “friends” on the internet. 

Meme from Social Media Stories

Social media can act as a tool to help people find their crowds and to keep long-distance friendships alive, but the tournament that it subjects users to outweighs the pros. Rather sending a snap memory to a distant friend, call them up! The peer-reviewed journal article from Social Media Stories even suggests that taking friendships off of social media can provide them the opportunity to grow stronger. 

So How Does Addiction Happen? 

With all the colors and interesting pictures, obviously, Tik Tok is more interesting than your living room. The flashing lights, bright colors, and many smiles that apps like Tik Tok and Instagram use channel dopamine (a natural “feel good” chemical) to the brain, imminently training the body that dopamine can quickly be found in these places. Like drugs providing a quick dose of dopamine, the brain can gain quick releases moderately from the effects of social media.

Crosssection of a human brain showing thoughts from Center for Brain Health 

 The brain becomes hollow in the absence of social media-filled dopamine– not really but close. Stanford Medicine explains how the brain does experience a dopamine-deficit state, which basically means that the brain is hungry for more dopamine because social media creates unnaturally high levels within the body. There are supplemental ways to provide your body dopamine apart from Tiktok. Music, exercise, sun exposure and sleep can all provide your body with a natural and healthy release of dopamine.  Is social media becoming your drug?

How to tell if social media is screwing with your life?

There's no doubt about it, social media oversteps boundaries in many people's lives. The rewarding nature of scrolling without end gives our brains instant satisfaction. Giving up something that makes us feel so good is never easy. Over 210 million people will admit that they have an addiction to social media according to Stanford Medicine. A good place to start is to evaluate the presence of social media in your life. 

• Is social media getting in the way of special events? 

• Do you think about returning to social media when without it for a certain amount of time?

• Does social media get in the way of other hobbies?

If yes, don't fear, there is a solution. Being able to enjoy social media without it becoming a consuming factor is important and achievable through these steps. 

Social media thought bubble with icons known from social apps from Quora

Many phone providers offer time limit controls to be set on designated apps. A reminder to hop off an entertainment platform can be helpful, this is not a permanent solution, but certainly a start. A more drastic step is a social media cleanse. 

Ditching Social Media

 Social media cleanses are becoming quite popular and are shown to be highly effective. The Cleveland Clinic published a study showing how frequently social media users show FOMO, and anxiety, deprive users of sleep and negatively affect their self-image.  Excessive social media usage can even form a blurred line between reality and false online connections. So clearly what's lost by taking a step back? These cleanses can reduce FOMO, anxiety, and help to decipher valuable interpersonal connections from shallow online ones. 

Facebook meme 

Media cleansers recommend taking your mind off of social media when you first detach. Go on a walk, take yourself on a date, plan a trip. It doesn't have to be extravagant, just something that you are doing solely with the intent of pleasing yourself. The most important step, resist the urge to post about it on social media! Turning phone notifications off can help. Do not disturb can provide peace of mind, you can check and respond to notifications at your own pace as you reclaim your phone from the chokehold of social media. Rember, just because you can be doesn't mean you have to be available to your entire contact list 24/7. Set boundaries for yourself. 

Social networking apps are being tossed into a garbage can illustrated by Vanessa Ferguson

A social media cleanse doesn't have to be permanent. Whenever you feel like you can use social media in moderation, it is a good time to go back. A permanent separation can be necessary for some users but is not necessary for all.

Creating healthy ways to unleash dopamine is essential. Without the presence of social media, you will suddenly have time for new hobbies and activities. Explore around– see what speaks to you. Find a valuable source of dopamine apart from technology. 

Finally, the last step: the return. Returning to social media after a cleanse can be a whirlwind, but once again, it is essential to take the skills that you learned from time apart and apply them. Rember, the joy you feel from social media is not sustainable and is merely created based upon an algorithm that knows how to keep you scrolling.