Social Media Addiction

Almost half of British teenagers say they feel addicted to social media, according to findings that come amid mounting pressure for big tech companies to be held accountable for the impact of their platforms on users.

The findings, from  the Millennium Cohort study, adds to the evidence that many people feel they have lost control over their use of digital inter-active media...

The research, by Dr Amy Orben's team at the University of Cambridge used data... which is tracking the lives of about 19,000 people born in 2000-2002 across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. When the cohort were aged between 16-18 they were asked, for the first time, about social media use.

'Anxiety', Head of a Girl
Jean-Baptist Greuze (1725-1805)
Photo Credit: Victoria Art Gallery [CC BY-NC-ND]

Of the 7,000 who responded, 48% said they agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: "I think I am addicted to social media."...

Scientists said this did not mean these people were actually suffering from a clinical addiction, but that expressing a perceived lack of control suggests a problematic relationship...

Dr Michael Rich, director of the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston children's hospital, said the latest findings aligned with his centre's clinical experience that a significant portion of young people were struggling with "problematic interactive media use" (Pimu), uncontrolled use of interactive media of all kinds, including social media, but also gaming, pornography and "information-bingeing - endlessly linked short videos, blogs, aggregate sights...

Dr Andes Roman-Urrestarazu, a psychiatrist at the University of Cambridge... said that policies were needed that went beyond clinical solutions for individuals.

"Social media and major tech companies remain largely unregulated in the way they engage with people," he said. "What I find interesting is that algorithms that are designed to increase sales tend to be particularly noxious and tend to produce these types of products that put vulnerable people at danger," he said "We need to push for algorithmic transparency.

(Hannah Devlin, The Guardian, 2024)

So yet another piece of research  indicating an unhealthy relationship between social media and teenagers. And what about adults? Are there not strong indications that many struggle in similar ways? 

... At the same time, researchers are still trying to unpick the effects of phones and social media on our mental health. According to recent studies, the decade from 2010 to 2020 saw the beginning of a sharp decline in the happiness of young people. This is, of course, the same decade in which the internet became something that lived in our pockets. It's this shift, the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has suggested, that has driven the decline in mental health, arguably more so than social media itself.

This chimes with my own experience. It's not necessarily Instagram that makes young people sad and anxious, but the unremitting presence of it in their lives through their smartphone. Many people surely would like to give up their phones, but society does not allow for that. In many ways it is socially unacceptable not to have one.

Even now, I would love to go back to my old Nokia brick. Recently, feeling overwhelmed by the constant buzzing of my iPhone, I bought a secondhand Nokia from eBay. The Nokia is still in its packaging, under my bed, ready for me to use it as soon as it becomes an option again.

(Isabel Brooks, The Guardian 2024)

"Many people surely would like to give up their phones, but society does not allow for that. In many ways it is socially unacceptable not to have one." This is sheep-like behaviour! You are or you should be in control of whether you have a smartphone or not.

Some Young People on Social Media

Music-Making Angels
Italian (Genoese) School
Photo Credit: Tabley House Collection [CC BY-NC]

The author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written a detailed essay about the conduct of young people on social media "who are choking on sanctimony and lacking in compassion" and who she says are part of a generation "so terrified of having the wrong opinions that they have robbed themselves of the opportunity to think and to learn and to grow."...

In her essay, the author of Half of a Yellow Sun said she noticed in certain young people "a cold-blooded grasping, a hunger to take and take and take, but never give; a massive sense of entitlement; an inability to show gratitude; an ease with dishonesty and pretension and selfishness that is couched in the language of self-care; an expectation always to be helped and rewarded no matter whether deserving or not."

They had, she added: "an astonishing level of self-absorption" as well as "an over-inflated sense of ability, or of talent where there is any at all".

On social media she said many were: "obsessed with whatever is the prevailing ideological orthodoxy". There was, in this world view, no room for nuance or complexity. Ask a question and "you are told that the answer is to repeat a mantra"...

"I have spoken to young people who tell me they are terrified to tweet anything, that they read and reread their tweets because they fear they will be attacked by their own. The assumption of good faith is dead. What matters is not goodness but the appearance of goodness. We are no longer human beings. We are now angels jostling to out-angel one another. God help us. It is obscene."

(Alison Flood, The Guardian, 2021)

To think, to learn, to grow as an individual - doesn't that mean that there will be times when your views will not align with  those of your family, friends or acquaintances? Shouldn't the "prevailing ideological orthodoxy", in whatever sphere, be challenged, questioned and debated?