Is Facebook Really Addictive?
Aaliyah Hankins, Senior Reporter
February 10, 2012
Filed under Opinion
Recently, I saw on television a story concerning America and possibly the world’s obsession with social media websites, particularly Facebook. It was stated that “Facebook is more addictive than cigarettes.” Question is, Is this true? Could Facebook or Twitter be your form of nicotine? In my opinion, I would say yes. These sites give you the access to see exactly what people in your life are doing at the moment and where they are doing them. Someone never fails to mention on a post or a tweet that they are “live from the kitchen” or “with my bestie”. One can step into another’s life just by logging on.
I put social media users in two categories: ones who may get on occasionally every few hours just to see how their friends are doing and then there are the people who go completely overboard. These people log on faithfully every minute, every hour, even when they are busy. They will find time. According to Asktheexperts.org, “Although the participants’ strongest desires were for sleep and leisure, they were able to resist these in favor of working and social media.”
The need to want to constantly log on is fueled by the fact that it doesn’t cost anything to engage in the activity, even though one may want to resist. With cigarettes and alcohol, there is the obvious cost money wise, but the only thing that giving in to the media asks for is time.
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- photo credit: 1stwebdesigner.com. “Twitter Bird, Follow me!”
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- photo credit: mayazankoul.wordpress.com “Girl obsessing over facebook.”
