Social Media participation is taking humongous proportions, especially for college students & younger population – It has come to a point where many of them are literally addicted to it – And that too such a addiction, that students who are asked to abstain from it have withdrawal symptoms like in case of any other addictions.
This was found out by a study – "24 Hours: Unplugged" – conducted by University of Maryland where 200 students were asked to give up all media for 24 hours. The study results surprised everyone with majority of students admitting that they are incredibly addicted to social media.
All participants were asked to write about their experiences of 24 hours and they wrote more than 110,000 words: in aggregate, about the same number of words as a 400-page novel…take that.
Typically students who abstained from media were bored & lonely at not being able to connect with their friends (irrespective of whether they were far away or close by), and expressed tremendous anxiety about being cut-off from information world. Many felt that they had lesser information than everyone else.
Most of all these students care about being cut off from that instantaneous flow of information that comes from all sides and does not seemed tied to any single device or application or news outlet."
That’s the real takeaway of this study for journalists: students showed no significant loyalty to a news program, news personality or even news platform. Students have only a casual relationship to the originators of news, and in fact rarely distinguished between news and more general information.
I think most of us who are active on Facebook & Twitter should do this exercise every once in a while – completely abstain ourselves from Social media for atleast couple of days. If you are edgy, or are anxious to get back to your tweets & FB messages, these are sure signs of addiction.
What say guys – Are you Social Media Addicts ?
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Arun, totally agree with you. This is not an addiction but have become a way of life. Remember good old days when lot of things used to be luxury, but now have become a necessity… the social media is also going towards this trend. The urge to stay connected virtually is high when the physical associations have become limited due to constraints of time, distance and priorities. The fast paced life do not permit us to meet up with old friends and find new ones passionately nor do we have time to sit together and chat for a while any longer….so the one liner updates about each other have become the most cherished way of “staying in touch”… the feeling of having someone to share information, learn new things, argue, comment, criticize and enjoy. I dont think, those who got into this as mainstream of networking for both professional aspirations and personal emotions will be ever able to get out of it… cant imagine a day not receiving emails, not knowing whats happening around and staying closed. I guess it will not only depress us but also succumb us to a self-pity of being alone :-) ofcouse virtually. Being alone in the real world has become a gone old story!
Honestly, I’m certain I would feel the same way. Not only does my job require me to use social media throughout the day, but my personal life often revolves around communication through digital means. I need social media. And I’m not so sure it’s a bad thing. Sure, addiction is a scary term, but that typically refers to destructive behavior or habits that interfere with our daily functions. I may be “addicted” to social media, but I’d argue it has had a positive influence, having helped me stay on top of current events, strengthen personal and professional relationships and find interesting and entertaining sources of information. http://popculture2point0.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/can%E2%80%99t-live-without-it/