Are We in Need of a Digital Detox?

Is social media the new addiction? What is it about social media that causes people to spend so much of their time trading information with friends, family and a large network of companies? People are so obsessed with checking their social media circles throughout the day and even the night. This may be troubling to some and may affect their attention span. Media fanatics check their phone constantly throughout the day and may check for more than a half an hour at a time.


View the following video to learn about Social Media Addiction:




“Gemini Adams is a self-confessed addict. Not drugs, not alcohol, but Facebook.” Some people just can’t get enough of friending, tagging, poking, and posting. Facebook addiction is real and unhealthy. It’s to the point that people are spending a lot of time not only on Facebook But, thinking about what they will post on Facebook. It may be used to release the tension of current problems in their lives. Do you suffer when you are prohibited from using Facebook? If so, then you might suffer from Facebook addiction.

FORMER FACEBOOK ADDICT GEMINI ADAMS, SAYING:

"I'd signed up to every aspect of Facebook and was utilizing every sort of part of it. Checking in wherever I went and I remember just feeling really kind of revolting and just, you know, gnarled up inside physically because I hadn't been exercising. And I was just in this position, hunched over a computer and you know my eyesight was worse."

Gemini Adams is now a part of a digital detox. She won’t use Facebook for more than an hour at a time and can go a week without checking it for 24 hours straight. Can you do that? She is working on her sudden temptations to just comment or post something on Facebook. We normally hear about a cleanse detox diet in which someone is cleansing their body of chemical and harmful toxins. But, now there is such a thing as digital detox in which you disconnect you reconnect with yourself again. I find this so interesting because everyone nowadays has that “always on” mentality which can be overwhelming. I found a fascinating website that provides digital detox retreats: The Digital Detox. They host retreats for both private and intimate parties including corporation and employee engagement. Maybe we should take a look at this and see if we are in need of a digital detox ourselves.

 The underlying questions here is, how much is too much? As mentioned in the video, if we are plugged into media and check it excessively throughout the day then we have a problem! We need to treat ourselves and that begins with going cold turkey. But in today's connected world, unplugging may be a lot harder than it sounds.

Facebook & Twitter More Addictive than Alcohol?

Social media is indeed very addictive. This generation (Y) feels the need to constantly be plugged in. It’s hard for people to resist the urge to check social networking sites for updates, it seems more difficult than turning down a drink nowadays. You would think the top two things the young generation long for during the day is sleep and sex, But, social networks are the hardest to resist. 

According to a new research on people’s daily struggles withself-control and desire, Facebook and Twitter are harder to resist than alcohol and cigarettes.  The findings explore the thin line between self-discipline and addiction. The researchers gave BlackBerrys to 205 adults and signaled them seven times a day at randomly selected daytime hours for one week. When they were contacted the participants reported whether they were experiencing any desires or urges for something and what it was they yearned for.

The majority of the reports proved that some felt strong desires for sex and sleep but cravings for cigarettes and alcohol were unexpectedly low. But in terms of behavior the participants had the hardest time refraining from checking social media when they preferred not to, and from working.

When you think of an addiction, one may think of it as being located in a substance or perhaps an activity and displaces everything else. In this special case, an addictive drug is viewed as changing the brain to make it unable to resist social media. However, addiction is a matter of imbalance between your personal desire to engage in the addictive behavior and your conflicting desire to avoid the negative consequence of the said behavior.

The participants in the BlackBerry research were mostly college students and employed people between the ages from 18-55. Aha! So, it’s evident that the younger generation fall victim to the unhealthy addiction of social media.  

A co-author, Wilhelm Hofmann of Chicago University said:

“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, even though one wants to resist. With cigarettes and alcohol there are more costs — long-term as well as monetary — and the opportunity may not always be the right one. So, even though giving in to media desires is certainly less consequential, the frequent use may still ‘steal’ a lot of people’s time.”

All in all, social media is harder to resist because it’s easily accessible and doesn’t cost much like other addictions such as alcoholic beverages. When the opportunity presents itself which is often, people are checking their phones to be constantly updated.


Below are interesting results signifying how addictive Facebook and Twitter are:

How often do you check or update your Facebook or Twitter? Do you check it after you go to bed...?

Generation Y Addiction

Do you feel uneasy without your phone? Do you feel uncomfortable when your phone is no longer in network? Do you check your phone to see if it’s vibrating when it’s not? Does it bother you to turn your phone off or on silent?

If you answer yes to the above questions then you may be suffering from Nomophobia- the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. The term is an abbreviation for “no-mobile-phone-phobia.” It’s the plague of the 24/7 online Y-Generation. Your usual stresses such as getting married, going to the dentist, or searching for a job is no longer a source of stress, instead, being out of reach of your phone is. This generation of people are living in fear of being out of mobile contact. They have been so dependent on their mobile, that discovering that it is dying or misplaced sends stress levels soaring. Due to the rise of cellphone usage, psychological disorders have come up amongst the younger generation. It’s even said that students are losing their hearing or hearing false rings due to the high cellphone usage.

I know for one of my classes, my professor suggest that we turn our phone off or switch to silent mode. Honestly, the silent mode makes people uncomfortable NOT knowing if they are receiving a phone call, text message, or e-mail. Even if a ring were to go off, students would look at their phone to see if it was their phone receiving the incoming notification. Is it addiction that has this generation on edge? How long can you go without checking your phone?

Check this interesting chart out:

Not using your phone is one thing but imagine losing your phone! Just the thought of it drives me crazy, how about you? I know when my close friend lost her phone she simply stated, “Oh my god, I lost everything, my phone is my life”. Now that statement is so sad yet so true nowadays.  That’s the moment you realize how big of a role your phone plays in your life. Without it, you feel so removed from the world. With it, you feel so connected.

But, to avoid feeling that void in your life, you might want to walk around with your charger handy. If you were to ask any FDU student if they're carrying their charger, I bet it’s a high chance they’d say yes! This might even be a great question for the survey I plan to conduct later in the semester. Anywho, having a low battery can also be a shocking experience for some. I know some of my friends may post on Facebook or Twitter from their laptop or tablet, “Don’t worry if I don’t answer, my phone is dead/off”.  This is to notify friends to not get tense over the not so immediate response.

I think it’s safe to say that our dependency on technology has more downfalls than advantages. The Y-Generation uses their phones to remember loved ones phone numbers rather than memorizing it as the old days. They even forget about birthdays and anniversaries because they depend on their phone to remind them. Back then, people genuinely remembered numbers and special dates.

A Life Without A Cellphone

A life without a cellphone. Imagine that? I bet you can’t even begin to imagine life without it. But think about a time before cellphones. How did people survive? There was a time only doctors and drug dealers used cell phones until just about 1995. Then an outbreak occurred in which everyone had a cellphone. Simply because it’s convenient! You can call anyone in your phonebook at any given moment. But whose convenience is that, yours or theirs? The contacts stored in your phone can call you at any moment knowingly, wherever you are, you will pick up and if not they had a presence in your day.

Before the cellphone age, people use to stand around each other and actually engage in intellectual conversations! *GASP* People actually interacted several years ago. If you were to take a trip to a nearby restaurant and take a look around the waiting area, you are guaranteed to see everyone facedown staring into their phone. You would most likely be the ONLY one looking around and not looking at a phone. Cellphones continues to remain a craze among the human race. It’s scary!

But, staring at your phone isn’t the only possible way to wait for table, a friend, appointment, or whatever the case may be. Listen up! There are other things out there to do besides starting at your crotch and into your phone. Here is a list of things you can possibly do instead:

(They may sound challenging but give a try)

• Make eye contact- honestly, it’s not that hard. People do this all the time. You may have the opportunity to share a moment with an attractive stranger, you never know. You want to wait until the person looks away from the phone for a few seconds to actually lock eyes. After this is done, just simply smile! If you master this you may want to put it on your resume under skills.

• Talk about the weather- this is a classic introductory and conversation starters. You may want to open it up with a simply, “This is some rain, don’t you think?”, or “They say it’s supposed to snow all week long!” Now this may be a little harder than the first because you have to catch someone else who ISNT staring at their crotch. I know, I know. BUT- it’s not impossible. I still have faith in humanity.

• Be observant of your surroundings-now, if you take some time away from your phone and take time to look around you may find some interesting things. It’s important to live in the moment. You may miss all the amazing things that are happening around you.  A cowboy dancing for change, an older man doing cartwheels, a dog wearing a tutu, you just never know. Then once you resume to your phone, your observations can make excellent tweets or statuses on Facebook!

• Or, see what other people are looking at on their phones- take this time to simply examine why others are glued to their phones. You may want to look over your shoulder and see what your neighbor is looking at. You may come across some interesting things. Shiny gold case with an incoming call from “IGNORE”. A blackberry with 100 unread e-mails. A HTC, reading NY Times, “Church helps fill a void in Africa.” This exercise can be quite fascinating and endless.

• Last, but no least, you can read a book- rather than risking the chance to get cancer or carpal tunnel. You can pick up a book and turn the pages of a good oh story. But you might just be staring into your nook or kindle instead.

The preceding items are useful and free things to do when you're not using your phone. But, hey you may be reading this post from your phone who knows.

world UN-PLUGGED

The world we live in is very media driven. Especially young students who NEED it to construct and manage their friendships and social lives. If you were to ask a student "Can you go a day without using social media?” they might respond, "Oh No!". This is the generation that we live in now, where students are so plugged into their devices that they are no longer connected to the world. It's not just an addiction, but it's a way of life! It's sad how someone can be deeply involved with social media 24/7. Students are constantly on their phones whether its in between classes, during class, in the bathroom, and etc. Today's generation has definitely pushed the limits on the use of media and its importance. Imagine not being able to function correctly without logging into Twitter or Facebook. The moment the young student feels unplugged they grow cravings. This blog will discuss our high dependency on media. In specific, the blog will examine college students and how they are constantly plugged in. Look around any college campus and you will be sure to find students connected to one another via media outlet. Are you plugged-in?