Why are the Social Media and Mobile Gadgets so Addictive?

I was on a street waiting for a public utility jeepney to ride. Then I heard a loud and long scream of a horn from a vehicle from my right, accompanied by the angry screeching of its wheels on the concrete road.

I turned to see what was happening. A man, probably in his mid-twenties, crossing the four-lane road with cellphone held in front of his face. He was texting as he was crossing. He paused and looked at the black Mitsubishi Pajero that had just stopped about a meter or two away from him. As if nothing happened, he continued to cross the road, his eyes still on his cellphone.

The Pajero did not move. I don't know for how long. Maybe the driver was still in shock. That man crossing was fortunate that the driver had a good reflex and was able to stop the Pajero in time.

September 4, 2021

Hello, readers. Believe it or not, the story above is true. It happened in the late 1990s. There was no Facebook, or any form of social media yet. But text messaging has just started to gain popularity at that time.

I was wondering though if the man with the cellphone realized that he almost got run over by a Pajero that day, and how long the driver was able to recover from that near-fatal incident. But, probably you have heard or read in the news about numerous accident caused by "distracted walking".

Anyways, my post is not about "distracted walking", but why cellphones and social media are so addictive that it could get us hooked even while walking or driving? And these days it looks much even worse. Social media has already taken a number of lives.

Dangerous Selfies

Wikipedia has a list of over 200 incidents related to taking selfies from 2011 up to this year. And many of them were able to post those selfies in various social media before they lost their lives.

But why put your lives at risk when taking selfies?

Let's scale this down to a less dangerous level.

What is the first thing that you do when you wake in the morning?

How often do you check your phone for messages in one day?

Do you often check the number of likes and comments on your posts on your social media?

What do you feel when you see a lot of likes and comments? Feels good, right? And that good feeling makes you want more of it, right?

Have you ever wondered why?

Simon Sinek explains why in this video.

Intriguing, right? Every time we see a lot of likes, new followers, etc... our brain releases a chemical called dopamine - which is also known as the "feel-good" chemical. Every time we hear our phone "beep!" which means we receive a message from our social media, we get a little dose of dopamine! And it seems, the more we get dopamine, the more we want it... In other words, we get addicted!

So, the more we use our social media and devices, we get more doses of dopamine. And we want more and more of it. That's why we can't seem to put our devices down even if it's way past our bedtime. Kids these days would hide under a thick blanket to hide the light from the cellphone screens from their parents. Or have you done that yourself?

Are You Addicted to Social Media and Your Devices?

How can you tell? Ask yourself these questions.

1. Do you post almost everything that you eat?

2. The moment you wake up, do you reach for your phone before anything else?

3. Has the word "hashtag" become a part of your spoken language?

4. Do you mindlessly scroll down on your Facebook, and or Instagram wall for "miles"?

5. Do you feel like it's the end of the world when your wi-fi is down or there's no available wi-fi in your area?

6. Are you always anxious as to how many likes your photos received?

7. Do you delete photos that did get much like?

If your answer all or most of these questions, then you might start considering that you are spending more time on social media than you should.

Do you want to know what's more intriguing? Social Media are designed to be addictive! You don't believe it? Take a look at this.

And that's coming to a Google insider. If you take a look at it. These social media giants are spying on our every activity to make money. These companies are using the social media applications ... or their users to amass millions if not billions of dollars a year.

So while we are wasting our time "using" their platform, they are using us to make money.

Let me share a question from the Academy Award Winning Actor Denzel Washington.

"Are you using the device, or the device using you?"

The Challenge.

And let me close this post with a challenge.

Can you go through a day WITHOUT your cellphone?

Thanks For Reading.

References:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_selfie-related_injuries_and_deaths

https://www.lifeadvancer.com/social-media-addiction/

Lead Image

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay  with modification

Related Post:

https://read.cash/@JLoberiza/the-dangers-of-using-a-mobile-phone-and-other-devices-too-much-7d2846f3

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