Manage Social Media

Deal with Social Media Addiction

Li Wentong, Michael Nov 19, 2012

Manage Social Media

CONTENTS

Cover Page

Contents

Definition and Classification What is Social Media Addiction? And Its Classification Compare and Contrast The Difference between Social Media Addicts and Common People Cause and Effect Effects of Social Media Addiction Process Three Steps to Deal with Addiction Expository How to Spend Time on Social Media? End

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Manage Social Media

Definition and classification What is Social Media Addiction?

Just one generation ago, internet was only accessible to scientists and researchers, and the notion of cyber social media hasnt formed. Howeve--r, nowadays Facebook is popular with everyone from toddlers to pensioners whenever we want (Richard, 2012). Surprisingly, there are more Facebook users than automobiles in America (Pring, 2012). Since there are numerous social media users indulging in social media every day, we cant help wondering whether they are addicted to social media or not. Unfortunately, the virus of social media addiction spread rather rapidly among youngsters. And once users indulge in social media, it is even harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol (Meikle, 2012).In order to express this problem, Im going to provide a precise definition of social media addiction and specify some basic types of it in the following contents. According to Walker (2012), social media addiction refers to a phenomenon that users spend so excessive time on social media that social media interferes other aspects of their daily life. And based on diverse platforms, their habits and symptoms, social media addiction is classified into distinctive categories: Twitter lovers post whatever seems new to him, whether it is valuable or not; Blog addicts try to respond to every single question from readers and become frustrated if no questions are asked from fans; Facebook addicts mostly communicate on the virtual platform while they are unwilling to share news with others in reality (Laird, 2012). Although there are distinctive differences among these addicts, one point is similar: they all keep linking with social media accounts regardless of the time and it has interfered with their normal life. Concerning the situation where social media addiction is rather tough to handle, in the following paragraphs Ill contrast social media addicts to common people so that we can have a clearer impression on them. Page 3

How to Deal With Social Media Addiction?

Comparison and contrast The differences between Social Media Addicts and ordinary people.
After the definition and classification of social media addiction, we may further discuss about some characteristics about social media addiction. Indeed, social media addiction is a rather newly discovered phenomenon since even Facebook came into existence to the public in 2004 (Carlson, 2010). However, since then there has been a steady inclination of social media addiction cases, there is no excuse for us not to recognize social media addicts explicitly. Therefore, I will contrast addicts to common people and deduce some traits. Compared with ordinary people, certain behavioral traits of social media addiction occur on social media addicts. First, unlike common people, addicts are more likely to be over involved in the virtual society activities; put the social network ahead of families and friends and regard it more fundamental than life basics such as studying, eating and sleeping. Gradually they become monks who, like many other addiction sufferers, reject anything around them and isolate from regular life and rely on social networking solely. In addition to behavioral obstacles, social media addicts also suffer from psychological issues. Addicts can become panic, irritated and anxious than usual even if when they log off for daily tasks for a while (Fitzgerald, 2012) In contrast, ordinary people are able to maintain regular and basic social activities. Physical obstacle traits also include social insecurity, and they prefer communicating via virtual chatting platforms rather than face- toface interaction (Schafer, 2010). As on a small scale, addicts are always struggling to correspond to the self-satisfactory state, updating their news about private life constantly. They are quite vulnerable when competing with successful peers, but only to find their experience of life is too dull. However, as ordinary people, these issues are rarely discovered, noticed and concerned. Furthermore, to leave a further impression on social media addiction, Im going to analyze some effects of it in the following paragraph. Page 4

Manage Social Media

Cause and effect Effects of Social Media Addiction

After discussing about traits of social media addiction, we can learn more about its serious effects. Till Sep 2012, the number of Facebook users had reached up to 1.01 billion (Lim, 2012). However, according to a new study, plenty of students are among social media addicts and it is hard for them to sustain their lives without social networking for one full day (Finnegan, 2010). Since social media addicts have obsessive usage of social media, some unique effects can be triggered. The most direct effect of addiction on social media is becoming isolated and passive to life. As Social Media addicts overuse time and energy on the virtual society, the passionate towards realistic life declines gradually. Finally, instead of being brought closer to family and friends, they feel hurt and isolated, with ruined relationships. Moreover, because of the continuous distraction from the virtual world, addicts will lose passion and concentration on study. According to a recent study, on average Facebook users spend less time on study and consequently meet lower grades than others particularly because of excessive engaging in virtual communities (Kuss& Griffiths, 2011). One primary factor that contributes to this problem is that users do not maintain a rational social media usage schedule and dont have an explicit purpose for using. Moreover, addiction to social media also has a potentially negative threat to health. In order not to miss any news, the addicted users prefer to stay up occasionally. However, they will deprive their sleep as a result of the bad habit. At last, energy will decline and they will become irritable, short-temper or even depressed. Considering that addiction to social media has so many severe negative impacts, we mustnt hesitate to take actions to cope with it for the social media addiction sufferers. Therefore, Im going to offer some comments and tips on how to treat the disease.
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How to Deal With Social Media Addiction?

Process Three Steps to Deal with Social Media Addiction

Since social media addiction is horrible and tough to handle, it is our responsibility to control ourselves and get rid of social media addiction. Hopefully, following three simple steps can help social media addicts return to normal life. At the first stage, ignore requests and irrelevant recommend links from unfamiliar sources. There is no need to accept every single request and get involved in valueless websites. After all, on average Facebook users face 55 new links every day, while most of them are irrelevant and they could be traps (Sanders, 2012). Once we accept too many requests, obviously we will fall into the infinite universe of social networking. Hence we dont need to consider the extra annoying requests. At the second step, inform our friends about our decision to fight with addiction, and invite them to supervise us. There is no need for us to remain connected to Facebook if we no longer need it all the day, and it is not essential for us to check Twitter from time to time. Dont hesitate to take actions and step forward. At first it might be tough to overcome some obstacles both psychologically and physically. However, with support from our close friends, parents and classmates, the habit of wasting time on social media is likely to disappear, for they will keep reminding us of how much time we have wasted. Furthermore, chatting with them will obviously enhance the relationship. At the last stage, allocate time to other activities and concentrate on more important things. We will be astonished to have a large amount of free time for our private business. Afterwards, our routines will return to normal. Remember: There are other things more important than Facebook in our life (Syed, 2012). Immediately after returning from social media addiction, we may wonder how to spend the extra time. Therefore, it is essential to discover how to spend time on social media.
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Manage Social Media

Expository How to Spend Time on Social Media?

With the rapid development of social media, we tend to spend more time on social media. However, as students, our primary aims are to perform better in academy rather than to become Facebook addicts. Considering that it is easy to for us to lose track of time while chatting online and that obviously some certain social networking sites can be addictive, sticky and hard to get rid of, Im going to explain some strategies on how to distribute time on network intelligently. The most important strategy is to develop a routine while using social media. Having a regular task list is of vital importance to undergraduates not only in the study but also in the recreation. Follow the routine strictly and we will find it no longer unimaginable to reduce useless waste of time on social networking. There are also some useful tools that can record how much time we spend on social media and monitor our engagement in social networks, such as Addictomatic, TwitterCounter and Google Alerts (Kallas, 2012). Throughout monitoring and analyzing, they can ensure us to spend time more efficiently. Another strategy is to avoid over thinking about the content when coming up with a post. After all, entertainment is not equal to study. The key to manage our time on social media is keeping balance between study and social activities. Although it is crucial to build and maintain relationships with our friends and families, keeping balance and spending time properly still come first. After all, there is no more time to waste when we confront with heavy study load.

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Manage Social Media

Keep away from Social Media Addiction! Hope We Can Manage Social Media!

References

Paragraph 1: 1. Larid, S. Oct 12, 2012. The 10 Types of Social Media Addicts. Marshable Social Media. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http://mashable.com/2012/10/12/the10-types-of-social-media-addict-infographic/ 2. Meikle, J. Feb 3, 2012. Twitter is hard to resist. The Guardian. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/03/twitter-resist -cigarettes-alcohol-study 3. Pring, C. Sep 15, 2012. 216 Social Media and Internet Statistics. The Social Skinny. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http://thesocialskinny.com/216-socialmedia-and-internet-statistics-september-2012/ 4. Richard, C. Sep 17, 2012. Social Networking Addiction. Riches Corner. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http://www.richescorner.com/social-networkingaddiction/ 5. Walker, L. (n.d.) What is Social Networking Addiction? Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http://personalweb.about.com/od/socialmediaaddiction/a/SocialNetworking-Addiction.htm Paragraph 2: 1. Carlson, N. Mar 5, 2010. The full story of how Facebook was founded. Business Insider. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http://www.businessinsider.com/howfacebook-was-founded-2010-3?op=1 2. Fitzgerald, B. Jul 12, 2012. Social Media is Causing Anxiety. The Huffington Post. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/10/ social-media-anxiety_n_1662224.html 3. Schaefer, M. Apr 19, 2012. You can be addicted to social media. Business Grow. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http://www.businessesgrow.com/2012/04/19/ yes-you-can-be-addicted-to-social-media/ Paragraph 3: 1. Finnegan, O. ( May 29, 2012). Twitter Trumps Facebook. Social Media Today. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http://socialmediatoday.com/orlaithfinnegan/538203/twitter-trumps-facebook-primary-source-social-media-intelligence 2. Kuss, D. J. & Griffiths, M.D. (2011). Excessive Online Social Networking. Education and Health. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http:// www.academia.edu/894744/ Kuss_D.J._and_Griffiths_M.D._2011_._Excessive_online_social_networking_Can_adolescents_become_addicted_to_Facebook_Education_and_Health_29._6 3-66 3. Lim, Y. H. Sep 30, 2012. 1 Billion Facebook Users On Earth: Are We There Yet? Forbes. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ limyunghui/2012/09/30/1-billion-facebook-users-on-earth-are-we-there-yet/ Paragraph 4: 1. Sanders, D. Apr 17, 2012. Facebook and CIOs: Waling the Line. Health System CIO. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http://healthsystemcio.com/2012/04/17/ facebook-and-cios-walking-the-line/ 2. Syed, N. A. Aug 8, 2012. Social MediaA Good Thing or A Bad Thing? Social Media Today. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 from http://socialmediatoday.com/ syed-noman-ali/608781/social-media-good-thing-or-bad-thing Paragraph 5: 1. Kallas, P. (2012). 54 Free Social Media Monitoring Tools. Social Media Marketing Resources. Retrieved Nov 19, 2012 fromhttp://www.dreamgrow.com/54-

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