“You can pretty much assume that I spend the majority of my time on my phone going through Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook Reels, Youtube and many other apps. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is check all of my social media accounts. Even if I really need to pee, I do this first, which is probably why I get so many UTIs”, Saying a 22 years old girl named Sarah about her obsession with social media.
Over the past decade, checking and browsing through social media apps like Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat, Pinterest etc has become increasingly popular among the youngstars. Overuse of social media can be very alarming. Social media addiction is a psychological disease in which a person becomes unduly obsessed with the digital world and spends so much time on these platforms that it interferes with other aspects of their lives. If you have an addiction to any of these apps or multiple apps, you may feel it necessary to visit these sites several times every day. You may spend so much time and energy posting and interacting with other people that you forget to look for yourself. It also may lead you to participate in harmful behaviors in order to get social media attention in some cases.
As time passes, Someone who is addicted to Tik Tok, Instagram or Facebook may realize that he has become more and more dependent on social media. After that, when he tries to withdraw the addiction, he may experience unpleasant symptoms of mental and physical illness.
There are some unavoidable signs that determine a person as a social media addict. We most often witness them in our life. The symptoms are:
1. It’s the first thing you do when you wake up
Almost every social media addict will start their day by scrolling endlessly through what they missed on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and other social media platforms during the sleeping period. Interesting fact is, those apps are designed with endless content and you’ll never get bored of seeing the same thing. It’s usually nothing, but that doesn’t stop us from staring at our phones.
2. Randomly Taking Photos
Every social media addict is also very familiar with the terrible pressure of having to get the ideal photo to post on Instagram. You need to capture the ideal photo, whether it’s a fantastic selfie or a dog walking beside you or attending an event. Other people usually get irritated by you, but you don’t mind doing it.
3. Having Imaginary Notification
Getting a notice can be exciting if you’re addicted to social media, but when you start imagining them, you’ve got a problem. A Social Media obsessed Person often hears a notification sound coming through his phone. But when he checks it, there’s no notification here.
4. Anxiety, Irritation, or anger when unable to check social media
For some people, being unable to access the internet and check their status and updates can feel like a death sentence. They feel frustrated and anxious when there is an issue with internet connectivity, the social network is down, or it is slower than usual.
5. Frequently Checking social media
People who are addicted to social media feel a constant urge to check their account all the time. They do not want to miss a single thing happening in social media sites.They continuously check through their social media account with the hope that suddenly something exciting will appear.
6. Ignoring Family, Friends and Closures
When a person’s social media addiction continues, it can consume all of their time and energy. As a result, a person who is addicted to social media will isolate themselves from family and friends and spend the majority of their time online.
7. Losing Interest in Other activities
As social media consumes more and more of a person’s time, it becomes the most important aspect of their lives. As a result, the addict will spend the majority of their time on social media and very little time doing the things they used to enjoy.
8. Anxiety due to lack of likes and views
Addict People usually get very disappointed when they are not getting likes, retweets or views as they expected or wanted to have. This leads them to experiencing negative feelings, like anxiety and irritability etc.
9. FOMO and feelings of inadequacy
Person with Tik Tok, Facebook, Instagram addiction continuously feels the FOMO or fear of missing out and incapability of what they”re doing. They continuously stress about missing something happening online and can’t get rid of these feelings.
10. Lack of Attention to Details:
Wasting all the time on Facebook, Instagram or Tik Tok makes a person metally and physically tired. They start to lose their persistence in any real life work and can not pay proper attention to anything happening around.
Social Media is surely a very effective platform for communicating and networking. If you ever feel like you’re somewhere attached to those apps or witness someone getting addicted to social media, consider it very seriously and look for prevention methods as soon as possible.
To learn about how to prevent the social media addiction, click here: