Author : Dr. Jakir Hossain Laskar, PhD

Social Media Addiction: Addiction is a compulsive behavior which causes negative cravings and influences in the mind. People are forced to do certain addictive activities as a harmful habit so often that they cannot complete their important activities in a regular basis. Genetic studies in molecular level have proved that transduction and transcription factors of the maintenance of addiction trigger initial vulnerability which increases intoxication of mind causing dysphoria and stress-like responses from the dysregulated pre-frontal cortex, basal ganglia and extended amygdala in the brain. Social Media Addiction

Any kind of addiction is a biopsychological disorder which has genetic implications with responsible social factors. Children and teenagers are 8 times more prone to become addicted. Those who have experienced physical or mental abuse during childhood or adolescence have higher risks of developing addiction. Living in a state of frequent stress enhances the addictive qualities. Now, in this topic, our question is, – “How do you know that you’re addicted in Social Media?” Important 36 signs have been pointed out here to make you understand easily. If you have 5 signs or more in your habit, you may be considered addicted in social media.

1. Obsessive Checking of Gadgets – If you check your mobile phone, computer or tablet every few minutes, may be many times an hour for watching notifications, inbox-massage, etc. on Facebook, E-mail, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and so on, you’re prone to internet addiction.
2. Spending Free Time with Social Accounts – If your teenage son or daughter prefers to spend all his or her free time on the social media accounts instead of participating in extra-curricular activities and complete homework assignments, he or she may be suffering in social media addiction.
3. No-Internet Phobia – Off and on you’re thinking that if you cannot access internet always, you’ll become secluded from the rest of the world. No Wi-Fi compels you to feel like a setback and devastation.
4. Location-Tag Mania – Every time you are checking in wherever you’re going to a new destination to let your friends and relatives know where you’re located.
5. Social Isolation because of Social Media – If your child is spending more than 3-4 hours daily on social media keeping yourself away from social life, you’ll be considered clinically addicted.
6. Announcement Mania – Those, who meticulously share trivial things to everybody on social media what they do every minute, every hour or every day, are strongly addicted. Announcing personal things like, wake-up time in the morning, lunch or dinner menu, shopping experience, etc. is almost unnecessary.
7. Not Caring to Family Circle – One of the strongest signs of social media addiction is you’re spending your time on cell-phone or laptop hour after hour without talking to your family members even when you’re in a same room with your loved ones. In this situation, an addict does not care answering their questions, does not listen their orders, and does not bother interacting with the family circle who is physically around him or her.
8. Notification Thinking – Social media addicts keep a meeting schedule with like-minded people every week or every other day to plan on what kind of updates or notifications to put up on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc.
9. Timeline Addiction – Facebook addicts tag their unwilling friends on pictures; they compel friends to see the pictures on their Facebook timeline.
10. Mindless Scrolling – When your parents or spouse shout at you for mindlessly scrolling through your mobile screen during a conversation and you do not care, means you have weakness and dependence on digital media.
11. Imbalance between Social Media and Social Life – If you strongly believe that life events are more happening on social media than in real world, you are addicted.
12. Digital Spokesman – Some people make earnest requests on WhatsApp or Facebook for their family or friends to send cash or kind. Most of them think as if their life depends on social media. They do it because of addiction.
13. Isolation Phobia – When you forget to take your android phone or iPhone while you go outside, if you feel truly isolated from the rest of the world, you’re addicted. If you go to a short vacation without your laptop and suffer cardiac palpitations because of it, you’re also addicted on digital media.
14. Irrational Reaction Formation – When you’re not able to upload your pictures on Facebook or Instagram, you’re making wildly irrational reaction or abnormal behavior only because of social media craving.
15. Too Much use of Lingo – If you’re using words like ‘Hashtag’, ‘Tweet’, ‘Insta’, ‘Inbox’, ‘Update’ as a local dialect in your lingo or vocabulary, you are seriously inclined to digital media.
16. Pet Animal Account – He who has created a Facebook or Twitter account for his pet animal is certainly in a state of social media enslavement.
17. Updating Obsession – Those who always update their Facebook status; have violent obsession on phone checking and take their mobile phone in the toilet or washroom, are addicted on digital media.
18. Always Traveling with Mobile – Some people always need to travel with mobile phone, as living without social media is impossible for them even if for a single day. They eat with it, they sleep with it, they play with it, and they cannot live without it. They have strong dependency on social media.
19. Friend without Account is Unsocial – If you consider your friends unsocial and alien who do not hold a social media account, possibly you are addicted on it. Social Media Addiction
20. Friend Request not Responding – If your child is stressful, anxious and tensed all day long as someone did not respond to his friend request, surely he has strong dependence on social media.
21. Secret Agent Behavior – If you have been illegally following and watching some of your friends over a period of time via social media accounts, you’re enslaved by it.
22. Much Use of Acronym – Now-a-days addicted persons think that everyone will understand their used abbreviations, such as, SYS (means, see you soon), CTN (means, cannot talk now), MYOB (means, mind your own business), JTLYK (just to let you know), etc. Social Media Addiction
23. Much Use of social media Vocabulary – Some people get angry and furious when they see that people in real life cannot understand their social media vocabulary. They cannot resist uncontrollable anger because of digital media dependency.
24. Maniac-Depressive Psychotic Behavior – You express excitement and feel proud when one of your beautiful pictures or quality comments is liked by more than hundred people on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. But you feel sorry and depressed when many people do not like it. This is a sure sign of social media addiction.
25. Eating with Inbox – Many people cannot resist themselves to use Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. while they are having their lunch or dinner. Foods they eat not only go into their digestive system; some part of it may go to the inbox of their social site account.
26. Closed Door Account Syndrome – If anyone stealthily spends on social media working hour after hour behind closed doors, certainly he or she is addicted on it.
27. Social Signature – If you inadvertently signed your Twitter handle name on your bank check book or self-attested credentials, you should be considered as social media addicted as it is playing role on your subconscious mind.
28. Hashtag Syndrome – If you’re frequently using hash-tag (#) with words, may be you’re addicted.
29. No-Response Effects – For the effects of addiction, people get upset and feel dejected when nobody makes comment on their updates or posts on Facebook and Twitter.
30. List Increasing Mania – Social media addicts frequently add unknown people, strangers on Facebook, Snapchat, Linkedin and Twitter to increase the number only.
31. Mid-night Checking – Many people wake up in the mid-night to check the updates and comments on their social media. They should visit de-addiction clinic.
32. Craving Friendship – When your son or daughter add you as a friend on Facebook or other social media, you express overwhelming happiness – which means you’re craving in it.
33. Communications with Device – Some people are not comfortable communicating with friends without using his social media device. They are to some extent dependent and have weakness on it.
34. Online Attention Craving – When you’re deeply saddened and feel worthless if your social media friends are not paying due attention to you online, psychologists consider your state of mind as addicted.
35. Use Mobile while Mobile – Social media addicts Tweet on their mobile while working. They log on to Facebook before brushing their teeth in the morning and they check their Twitter, WhatsApp or Facebook updates after going to bed at night. Social Media Addiction
36. Having more Online Friends – If you don’t receive a comment on your latest post within 24 hours, you feel motivated negatively. If the number of your online friends is much more than your real-life friends, you’re really addicted on social media.

Related Article: How do Social Media affect our Mental Health?

Social Media Addiction

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