Social media: A quasi-addiction for attention-seekers

It’s 7 a.m., and that annoying cell phone tone you’ve set as your alarm urges you to wake up. You yawn and open your eyes, reaching instinctively for your phone and silencing it. 

But you don’t put it back down — you plug in. You mindlessly scroll through social media feeds such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr, as the instant gratification of likes and favorites keeps you awake.

When you do detach from your phone,  it’s only a matter of time before you turn over and check it again out of instinct, hoping for another favorite, another tag, another comment. We love Facebook and Instagram not just for others’ content, but for the instant gratification we get from posting content of our own and receiving praise for it in the form of “likes.” 

This positive reinforcement becomes a quasi-addiction for users. According to a 2014 study by the University of Albany, SUNY, roughly 10 percent of the 253 respondents reported “disordered social media use.” Those who reported social media addiction were also cited as more likely to be susceptible to problems such as impulse control and alcohol abuse. This Internet addiction is creating a more vain, materialistic culture. We must recognize and curtail this social media dependence. 

Social media causes us to become addicted to attention.

In fact, we are so conditioned to respond to our phones that we even imagine them vibrating when they’re not. Michelle Drouin, an associate professor of psychology at Indiana University–Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Ind., reports that up to 89 percent of her students experienced this “phantom pocket vibration syndrome,” according to Psychology Today. We are hard-wiring ourselves to seek instant gratification wherever we can find it, so when we do finally put our phones down, we still imagine them buzzing.

Just look at the queen of social media herself, Kim Kardashian. With a heavy presence on Instagram, Kardashian recently unveiled her cropped, platinum-blond cut to her 28.2 million followers. 

As social media is a digital platform to fish for compliments, celebrities get the most attention. High-profile social media vanity only reinstills impossible standards of beauty or accomplishment, but with a new-age twist. 

A study by Science Newsline Psychology found more than half of the 600 participants said that looking at photos on Facebook added to their body-consciousness, and the same number said they compare themselves to others when they view photos or status updates, according to Forbes. Whether consciously or not, the common mantra says, “Wow, I wish I could get millions of likes on my Instagram selfie like Kim Kardashian.”

When rappers, models, athletes and rock stars flaunt their money and success on their social media accounts, it teaches us to value materialism, excessive wealth and other toxic values — similar to the way television and movies can bombard us with false realities.

In “Blood on the Leaves,” a song from Kanye West’s 2013 album Yeezus, he notes the vanity of our Internet-obsessed culture. “She Instagram herself like ‘bad b*tch alert’/ He Instagram his watch like ‘mad rich alert,’” West rhymes. A quality education, healthy lifestyle and smart spending habits don’t look as sexy when they’re not covered in diamonds and filtered through VSCO Cam. 

The reality is that everyday people just don’t live up to these standards. 

Writer Chelsea Fagan created a blog, “The Financial Diet,” in which she explains her hatred of the Minimalist Pixie Dream Girl trope, or the girl who exists only in a Pinterest utopia. A manic pixie dream girl is an attractive, quirky female character that only really serves to progress a male hero, according to Tvtropes.org. Fagan addresses how these types of characters are bad for our mental health — they’re bad for our future generations, too. 

 I should disclose that I have accounts on most major social media sites, and I interact on them regularly. If I’m not careful to limit my use, I can get sucked into the social media vortex just as easily as anyone else.

Research from Harvard University in 2012 stated that “disclosing information about the self is intrinsically rewarding.” Think of the rush you get when your posts on social media attract an audience, inviting all your friends to congratulate you on that great new job, engagement announcement or new haircut. 

What is social media doing to our self-esteem? It’s difficult to stay grounded and keep your values in line when you’re constantly exposed to a stream of photos that wrap up the lives of the rich and famous in a nice little bow. 

Social media can still serve wonderful, innovative purposes. Strangers on social media recently saved a boy’s 13th birthday party after no one RSVPed. Back in 2011, word of Bin Laden’s death spread viciously through Twitter, before President Obama could announce it — a turning point for social media. 

It’s all about moderation and realizing what’s real and what’s fantasy.

Millennials are lucky because technology was gradually introduced to us — we weren’t swarmed. It’s time we think critically about our social media use. 

The constant updates cause constant distractions and weakened concentration. We need to take a step back and focus more on living life rather than doing everything for the Vine. 

Turn off your push notifications, and pledge to post unedited photos. It’s better to live life in the moment than to remember it through a filter.

Write to Katie at kmm214@pitt.edu.