Attention engineering, the real cost of social media use, and how to unplug.

One of the most prevalent and harmful problems surrounding social media use is addiction. If you have recently watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix, you probably feel the weight of this problem as well.

Social media addiction forms from various factors and is strengthened by different disorders and mental health problems, many of which stem from social media use.

As a college student, I am able to observe the effects of social media first hand. It seems that this tool, which was created as a connector, is driving people farther apart. Now, it's not as dramatic as older generations would like to claim. However, it still marks a prominent shift in how younger individuals are interacting with the world. And not to call older folks out, but they seem to be obsessed with their phones as well — recording videos of their children, fireworks, concerts, you name it (even more than teenagers I might say). In addition, there are some members of my family, ones that are older than 50, that spend way more time on social media than I ever have. That is all to say, that everyone is different in their social media use, there is not one stereotypical person or demographic that is a social media addict. People in Indonesia don't even know they are using the internet, saying that they use "Facebook," but not the internet.

Also, I think that we could all benefit from some time away from our phones. Disconnecting, even in a time characterized by social distancing, is important for our mental, physical and emotional health.

Every time we pick up our phone and see a notification, every time we scroll through Twitter or Instagram or TikTok, every time we react to or comment on a post, we are rewarded with dopamine.

According to research conducted at Harvard University in 2011, every time we use our phones, there is an "increased activation in brain regions that form the mesolimbic dopamine system." Basically, we get a dopamine rush, which increases our chances of habitually checking our phones. This unconscious addiction is a result of a combination of biological, social, cognitive and psychological factors. These include personality type, low-self regulation, societal pressures, FOMO (fear of missing out), and many more.

Attention Engineering

There is a constant societal pressure to be connected with your peers by maintaining a continuous connection with technology. This is demonstrated through snapchat streaks, posting on social media consistently, or even liking and commenting on posts. Although relationships can be maintained and enhanced through social media, replacing real-life relationships for online ones can be detrimental, as we have seen during this time of self-isolation.

Also, because our brains reward us for socialization, social media can easily become addictive. As a result, we have formed a habit of constantly checking our phones every time we get bored. We start to feel awkward if we even have a moment to sit alone with our thoughts because of this cultural habit we have created.

Based on research for brain development, there is a conclusion stating that daily exposure to high technology stimulates brain alternation and neurotransmitter release, ultimately strengthening new pathways in the brain. Major social media companies take advantage of this by hiring "attention engineers" that use addictive principles, such as those used in casinos, to make their products as addictive as possible in order to maximize their profit.

If you're not paying for the product, then you are the product

-The Social Dilemma, a Netflix Documentary

The Cost of Social Media Use

The constant societal pressure to be connected changes many aspects of our lives from the nature of our social interactions to our mental health. Although social media addiction is still a fairly new idea in the world of psychology, addiction-like symptoms in relation to excessive and compulsive social media use are common in the general population. The journal of Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience found that the insular cortex plays an important role in social media addiction, as it does in substance addictions. So when people ask, "what's the harm" in using social media, they don't recognize the reality that social media's addictiveness brings multiple, specific harms. There are real costs to social media use.

Connection Between Happiness and Screen Activity

Often, we use social media as a distraction for life dissatisfaction. According to a study published in CyberPsychology & Behavior, self-reported dissatisfaction with one's family and recent stressful events are both associated with addiction to the internet, which suggests that internet addiction may be caused by using the internet as a coping mechanism for stress or stress-related problems. From self-comparison to decreased productivity, social media also causes dissatisfaction. The National Institute on Drug Abuse funded a Monitoring the Future Survey in which they asked 12th-graders more than 1,000 questions every year since 1975 and queried eighth- and 10th-graders since 1991. They found that teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on non screen activities are more likely to be happy.

This could be because of the increase in cyber-relationships which can be not as fulfilling, the wasted time on social media, or just simply the classic addiction-like symptoms that many teens experience as a result of social media use. Some of these symptoms, known as Griffiths' six components of behavioral addiction, are mood modification, salience- preoccupation with SNS usage, tolerance- increasing use of SNS over time, withdrawal symptoms when usage is limited or stopped, conflict, and relapse. Many scholars note the connection between impulse-control disorders and internet addiction. Hofmann of Chicago University's Business School says that "Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not 'cost much' to engage in these activities"

A New Kind Of Addiction (with New Problems)

In fact, anecdotal stories are suggestive of social media addiction as a potential emerging mental health problem. These stories are prevalent throughout our lives as college students, yet we are still unaware of their pervasiveness. A study by Baylor University noted that approximately 60 percent of college students admit they may be addicted to their cell phone.

Well, whether you like it or not, all of this time you spend on your cell-phone is decreasing your attention span, patience, and productivity. The intermittent rewards created by social media companies is not only making us addicted to their platforms, it's also reducing our capacity for concentration, which decreases our ability to spend our time productively.

My Experience: A Detox from Social Media

I didn't want to be tethered to my smart phone or controlled by it's carefully curated algorithms. I saw that I was wasting countless hours scrolling through social media instead of doing my homework or exploring the world. I wasn't as present with my friends or family as I would have liked to be.

So what did I do? I deleted all social media apps off my phone. That's right: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, even my email. I decided that if I wanted to check one of the platforms, I would have to go onto my computer for important messages. And the scariest part — I didn't tell anyone. I just did it.

The first few days, I kept reaching for my phone, thinking that it was buzzing and that someone needed me. But who needed me? I don't have kids. My friends can text me if they need something I thought to myself. I am only a student in college, so I had my laptop on me at all times if a professor emailed us that class was cancelled or an assignment was due. Still, I felt anxious.

Oddly, this encouraged me to continue as I knew that I was doing the right thing and wouldn't be feeling this way if I hadn't restricted myself.

After the first week, this magical thing happened where I kind of forgot that social media existed. I wasn't a productivity God or anything, but I was still getting a lot more done with the absence of distraction, of which my phone was the main perpetrator. Slowly, I started to feel more calm as well. I did start to meditate a lot more during this time as well so some of these results could be attributed to that, but I felt like the space that I had made between myself and technology had freed me in a way.

The month went by with bliss. When I downloaded the apps again, I didn't feel a need to scroll through them for hours — it was like their power didn't work on me anymore. It was like a child walking into a Las Vegas Casino, unmoved by what lie before me.

Eventually, though, the pressures started to creep back on me again and I began to use my phone more and more.

My New Habits

Every so often (usually three months out of the year), I will go on a social media "detox." It's like hitting a reset button that helps me become more aware and intentional with my social media use. I am tempted to knock social media for good, but I just feel like that's silly and not really sustainable for me. I have also put screen limits on my phone usage for the social media apps, which helps me be more aware of how much time I'm spending. Let's be honest — that person you met once's dog is taking up way too much of your time.

I also make sure to not check my phone in the morning and wait until later in the day to check social media apps. In addition, I have an alarm on my phone at night for when to turn off my phone so that I limit screen exposure before bed.

When I work, I always put my phone in a drawer or in my backpack so that I cannot see it in my peripheral vision.

I would highly recommend any of these tips if you do not feel a month-long detox is right for you. I feel that implementing these have made me a happier, more present person that is able to focus on the things in my life that are the most valuable and that I truly enjoy.