Facebook Addiction: Is Facebook Addictive? By: Orgelen Tafa The creation of social networking websites such as Facebook, has allowed people to develop an unhealthy habit, which is much like an addiction, and is a growing problem that must be addressed quickly before it gets worse. There are three reasons why facebook can lead to addiction and it can lead to having no sense of time, lack of socialization and it causes problems in your personal life. Facebook can be very addictive for its users. Little do they realize that spending too much time on facebook, it has led to having no sense of time and even not being aware of time passing.
Most importantly, it is said that mostly males are affected in big numbers than females on facebook as stated by Kuss and Griffiths (2011). Kuss and Griffiths (2011) both states that “from the general population at risk for developing an addiction mostly to playing video games are males” (Kuss & Griffiths, P. 68). Facebook mostly appeals to human needs and mostly users that like interactions with playing online games, which is considered one of the factors of addiction that leads to many hours on facebook and online.
It encourages excessive play and that contributes to video game addiction on facebook users. Facebook makes people lose their reality of the real world and focusing on the fantasy world on facebook and especially focusing mostly with facing life problems and issues online, rather than living life outside facebook more often and longer than on facebook. Facebook is really a bad influence, because it attracts a lot of users’ attention to it and that leads to losing sense of time which is spending many countless of hours online and on facebook.
Facebook today has led to lack of socialization in today’s society. Socialization in traditional sense is like dealing with an efficient enforced code of silence, and letting others to do your thinking for you and facebook kind of influenced people a lot, especially children and teens. Since, Facebook is a great and convenient way to keep users connecting with their friends and family, and influencing them being locked inside the house and online, instead of being out and connecting more with people and doing extracurricular activities, rather outside facebook.
Socialization before facebook was mostly positive, and people learned to settle their own problems, to break rules, and to respect rights of others among other things in participating in the culture as part of the socialization process. Mohd Effendi (2011) states Facebook users care about getting a perspective view of what other people tend to post on their facebook profile. He is implying that people tend to use their time wanting to know what people think of their profiles, and having the urge to use facebook more and spending more time there, instead of socialization with people outside of facebook.
This leads to social problems with socializing with friends outside facebook, rather than online, which is not good for them. Socialization has led to people behaving differently online rather in the world outside facebook, and it has shown to have an increase in bullying, depression and even or anything that leads to lack of socialization, especially changes in a person’s behavior influenced by the addiction to it. Mostly it has resulted with children and teens which also it has led as well in an increase in discrimination that we see in institutions and everywhere else in the world.
Socialization changes people’s behaviors in negative ways, especially users who play video games are exposed to violence and who don’t get much along with other peers or in friendly ways. Facebook is one of the most addictive social networks and with addiction even linked to extraversion, shows rise to high-level of delayed-sleep rhythm that causes problems even in a person’s behavior and mood. People use facebook in order to forget personal problems or whatever reasons and all holed up in their houses, and cut off from completely socialization with friends and family.
People, instead need to learn, to overcome this lack of socialization, and that spending more time with friends and family, and spending more time doing activities outside facebook can make them overcome spending too much time on facebook and to have a positive socialization in their lives. In today’s society, facebook is very addictive these days because it causes problems in the users’ lives, especially even in their school place or in the workforce. Mostly, everyone has a facebook account wherever it is used for personal use by some people and for other people it’s used for advertising or other things, and for whatever reasons.
People who are influenced by facebook and are addictive are the kind of people, who mostly even feel lonely and even boredom, and spend their time rather on facebook to escape these symptoms, rather than having to socialize with friends or doing fun activities. But these problems of addiction has led to people suffering more from stress, anxiety, headaches, among other personal problems in their lives, the result of spending many hours online and facebook. This is a very big concern and it is showing that these effects of the addiction being on facebook which it can increase like a drug, and it’s bad for facebook addicts.
Having depression and anxiety can cause problems with your friends and family as well. Since, many cannot control spending their time wisely and with others outside facebook, this is a very bad addiction for them and with farther problems to disrupt their lives. So, spending many hours on facebook like checking status updates, newsfeeds and even communicating with friends online and playing games, it has shown that facebook truly leads to problems in their personal life and different people are affected differently from one another on facebook, especially children, teenagers and even college students.
Kuss and Griffiths (2011) both states that “according to a more recent study it was assessed that the relationships between Facebook usage had lower grades and spend less time studying than students who did not use this SNS. So, unless people do not learn to control themselves and use their time wisely and having self-control, they stand to lose a lot more and can even have a lot of problems with friends, family and even at school or anywhere for that matter. Facebook addiction can have both positive and negative effects and usually it has shown more negative effects on people who have become mostly addicted to facebook.
Also, facebook has kind of like become a part of their personal life, and they tend to wake up in the morning, and first thing that they do is logging onto their Facebook account and they cannot go on a day without using it, since they would feel depressed about it. And people cannot stop thinking about Facebook updates and comments and other things when they are offline and this are some of the negative effects on their lives. These negative effects show that they are kind of addicted to facebook and it won’t be really that easily to overcome the addiction to enjoy life better outside facebook.
The existence of facebook in our society and in the world has proven to be a powerful tool for communication among friends and family in the social network and as well a place for socializing with them as well. However, facebook has become one of the most addictive social network sites and males are the ones mostly affected, especially children and teens. Having no sense of time, lack of socialization and problems in a user’s personal life were among some of the motivational factors that led to people becoming very addictive to facebook.
Having no lack of tine, makes users not being aware of time passing and spending countless hours playing games which is shown to be one of the ways that Facebook mostly appeals to human needs and is considered one of the factors of addiction that leads to many hours on facebook and online. Lack of socialization on facebook has shown negative impacts on the users which has led to people behaving differently online rather in the world outside facebook, and it has shown to have an increase in bullying, depression and especially changes in a person’s behavior influenced by the addiction to facebook.
Also, in today’s society is shown to cause a lot of problems in people’s personal life since it interferes as well with their workplace and school place. People who spend a lot of time on facebook, because of loneliness and boredom are the ones who suffer more from stress, anxiety, headaches, among other personal problems in their lives, the result of spending many hours online and on facebook. Facebook users also have the potential to learn to cope better with using facebook wisely and to spending their time wisely and having self-control as well too in order to overcome addiction to facebook and not to spend too much time online.
Facebook is a major part in today’s society and there will always be people from around the world who will always be connected to friends and family online, and people need to act responsible in spending time wisely, so they don’t become addicted to facebook. Facebook will always be a part of everyday life in the society and it connects everyone from around the world like friends, families and relatives and everyone else, even though there will always be negative and positive impacts of the social networking site.
References Effendi, M. (2011). Facebook: The Phenomenon of Bringing Addiction? Journal of Communication and Computer, 8, 925-930. Kuss, D. J. & Griffiths, M. D. (2011, Nov. 4). Excessive online social networking: Can adolescents become addicted to Facebook? Education and Health, 29, 68-71 Kuss, D. J. & Griffiths, M. D. (2011). Internet gaming addiction: A systematic review of empirical research. International Journal of Mental and Health and Addictic, DOI: 10. 3109/16066359. 2011. 588351
