Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, BeReal… recognize any of these? Maybe you have all of them! Social media can have us glued to our phones and unaware of our surroundings for hours on end. But why?
Adolescent impact of social media gratification
Too much social media usage can have a huge negative impact on the adolescent brain. Unfortunately, social media is designed to hook our brains and become addicted. As much as three hours a day can increase the risk of mental health problems. Overuse of social media can rewire an adolescent brain to constantly seek out the immediate gratification offered through social media. It is important to be aware of what causes this dependency and how we can help to prevent social media addiction.
What causes instant gratification?
There are certain aspects of social media that are addicting and create that instant gratification. We make a post, write a comment, or share something funny, and we are instantly receiving “likes”, comments, and other reactions. These interactions make us feel happy, appreciated, liked, and maybe even popular. In order to keep these happy feelings, what do we do? We keep posting, keep commenting, keep checking to see who did and did not react to our Story that is about to expire, and so on.
Long-term “side effects” of social media gratification
The instant gratification from social media does not only impact our happy feeling in the moment, it can also impact parts of us in the long run. Excessive social media usage can lead to a lack of patience, a negative impact on our critical thinking, less impulse control, a decrease in attention spans, and can cause someone to be more easily distracted.
How to prevent this addiction
The instant gratification from social media is always at our fingertips as most of us carry a phone around daily. However, there are ways to help prevent the addiction from developing. This can be done by managing your daily screen time and setting up healthy boundaries within social media.
Daily Screen Time Limits
There is an option on most smartphones to set up a limit on usage. This can be locking certain or all apps after a certain amount of usage, or at a specific time. If you are having issues mindlessly scrolling through social media, consider setting up a limit on social media apps. For example, you can have your phone cut off your access to these apps after two hours of use, or from 8:00pm-6:00am.
Healthy Boundaries
In apps like Instagram and Facebook, you can turn off the number of reactions or likes each post gets. By doing this, you can see the names of those who liked or reacted to your post, but you can’t see how many people liked or reacted. You are then able to cut back on the gratification of feeling popular, liked, or in competition with other users and their number of likes.
You may also set boundaries for certain situations to help you stay off social media. This could be not using any social media when you are with friends, family, or at work. This could also look like not using social media until all homework or chores are completed.
Reviewing Social Media Gratification
Social media provides instant gratification that makes us feel appreciated, happy, popular, and involved. The “likes”, the colors, the new newsfeeds every couple of seconds keep us glued to our phones to make sure we don’t miss out. While having all of this at the tips of our fingers sounds amazing, it can have negative impacts on our mental health and should be addressed sooner rather than later. Start tackling your social media addiction with limiting your daily screen time and creating healthy boundaries for when social media usage is appropriate.
About Therapist Bethany Winter, MA Barnum Counseling
References
Alsop, R. (2019, August 15). Instant gratification & its dark side. Bucknell University. Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://www.bucknell.edu/news/instant-gratification-its-dark-side
Hillard, J. (2022, November 21). Social Media Addiction. Addiction Center. Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://www.addictioncenter.com/drugs/social-media-addiction/#:~:text=Social%20media%20addiction%20is%20a%20behavioral%20addiction%20that%20is%20characterized,impairs%20other%20important%20life%20areas
Marshall, R. (2020). Smart phones with notifications. Decan Herald . Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/panorama/social-media-addiction-and-democracy-892611.html.
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