Social Networks Addiction: Reasons And Ways To Avoid

Social Networks Addiction: Reasons And Ways To Avoid

With the development of the Internet, the concept of “social network”, which was previously used only in the circles of psychologists and sociologists, firmly entrenched in everyday speech. Let’s try to understand what social networks are and are they as harmless as it seems at first sight.

For what do we need social networks?

Indeed, for what? We are so accustomed to Facebook, Vkontakte, Tweeter, that we even don’t notice when we become addicted and swallow the bait.

From the perspective of psychology, social network is a special form of social communication aimed at the interaction of Internet users. Its goal is meeting the needs in communication, dating, transmitting and receiving information. Social networks entered the list of most visited sites, especially by the youth audience. Being active in social network  is the attribute of mobility and life dynamism. Now you are not an ordinary guy spending nights somewhere in the streets, you are the User of Facebook and other rave web sites. Your life is bustling. Photos make you popular and quoting Camus makes your online friends admire you. And they don’t know that even you have no idea of who is Camus.

But every medal has another side. There is a joke: “Computer can solve all the problems, which didn’t exist before buying the computer» This is partly true about social networks. On-line contacts are replacing the real, live contact, claiming to be a kind of alternative to the latter. The trouble is that the site users are not always aware of that.

Real needs – virtual solutions

A person chooses the social network, through which he satisfies his or her specific needs. These may be the needs of a social nature, such as: alternative to phone calls, exchange of visual information, communication with multiple people simultaneously, quick and economical connection with those who live in another city or abroad. Through social networks person satisfies the latent needs that are not clearly seen in his actual behavior and appear only in dreams and fantasies. Online provides the possibility of anonymous social interactions (including the use of email, chat, ICQ). With the help of them you can construct new image of yourself, so-called “virtual personality”. This is the ability to search a new companion without having to hold the attention of the previous (since at any time, you can find a new one). Also, do not forget about the unlimited access to information (informational vampirism).

The virtual space provides the illusion of freedom associated with a decrease in psychological and social risk in the process of communication. As a consequence, the contacts in the network become more attractive than real, especially because of the ease of self-presentation. Remember, you are no longer just a guy from the street? When this behavior develops into a hobby – it looks like an escape from the real world into the virtual. Certainly, such a person becomes socially unadapted; his situational anxiety increases, new complexes form.

In addition, the nonverbal channels of communication (body language, facial expressions, tone of speech) are practically atrophied in the Internet. This distorts the emotions of the interlocutor (turns them into a “surrogate”), especially in the personal, intimate communion with person that is close to you. Attempts to convey emotions through emoticons do not solve the problem, since the latter are more artifacts than the emotional symptoms. The problem of rapid transmission of meaning arises, because sometimes it is hard to understand what the virtual interlocutor asks about  or why he delayed the response.

Prevention of addiction

Danger of becoming Internet addicts threatens first those people who are looking for communication, not for means of information exchange. Escape from the real communication with peers, friends, relatives, due to everyday spending long hours at the computer – these are the signals that warn us of Internet addiction.

First of all at risk falls the youth, and more specifically – adolescents, for which the intimate personal communication becomes the leading type of activity that fosters a system of self representation (in psychology it’s called “self-concept”). In another words, if the ordinary guy from the street doesn’t find a close and personal contact with family, friends, if his mom and dad are busy with anything but friendship with their offspring, he is at risk. He will look for alternatives in the virtual world of heroes, and this won’t contribute to adequate development of his personality.

Development of numerous social networks’ startups only promotes the involvement of the user in the world of virtual relationships. A striking example is the Cloud Girlfriend service. Visitor should describe his ideal, and the service will create the appropriate account in one or another social network. Virtual girlfriend will create visibility of warm relations communication through posting on the wall of the user.

How to struggle with addiction? Psychologists offer trite, but the working tip: do not abuse it. We live in an era of globalization and technologizing, and PC skills as well as the Internet are mandatory attribute capabilities of human competition in the labor market. Therefore, the question of increasing the measures becomes very acute.

One should remember that he was born in real terms and that he is intended to be happy. For full happiness  everybody needs at least four or five genuine hugs per day, and any web site isn’t able to provide that.