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Social media originated as a way for people to connect with family and friends, even if they were thousands of miles apart. But over the years, it has transformed. Now, social media is used in a variety of different ways and a lot more frequently. For instance, businesses, non-profit organizations, and even politicians use it as a way to reach a much targeted market.
Meanwhile, teens and young adults use social media as a virtual scrapbook to document every detail of their life as they are living it. There are even “influencers” with large social media followings that use their following as a way to promote a product, service, or group through social media and gain support for it. Social media is even a valuable resource for and a means of connecting isolated populations with other parts of the world.
As part of their study, participants answered questions about their social media use. The questions were tailored to see how dependent people were on social media, as well as how they felt when they couldn’t use it and how they would feel about never using it again.
After the survey, the participants completed a common psychological task known as the Iowa Gambling Task, which helps gauge value-based decision-making skills. During the task, the goal is for the participants to collect as much money as possible. The researchers found that those participants who spent more time on social media were likely to have less money at the end of the task. Meanwhile, those who spent less time on social media finished the task with more money.
Other Issues with Excessive Social Media Use
For some people, the thought of not being able to check their social media accounts reasons them to break out in a cold sweat. They get nervous and anxious and are not sure how to handle the situation. When this happens, therapists often refer to this as social media anxiety disorder, which may share similarities to social anxiety disorder.
This connection is not surprising given that anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorder in the United States; and technology seems to be making things worse. In fact, appears that the more technology people acquire, the more stressed out they become.
Practical Ways to Monitor Social Media Use
Whether you want to monitor your social media use, your teens’ use, or both, there are a number of steps you can take to see not only how often you are using social media, but also to determine if you are using it in healthy and productive ways.
Manage Notifications
When notifications from social media ping on your phone all day, every day, it can be challenging not to toggle over to your social media accounts and see what is happening.
For this reason, it can be extremely useful, and preventative, to turn off the notifications on your social media accounts. This way, instead of social media beckoning you to check out what people are posting or saying, you are in control.