Among the most recognized causes of addiction to social networks are low self-esteem, personal dissatisfaction, depression or hyperactivity, and even lack of affection, a lack that adolescents often try to fill with the famous likes, feeling restless if the smartphone is not at hand, feeling the need to share anything from daily life. In fact, many young people look for them almost compulsively to experience an intense—but always brief—sensation of satisfaction that, however, can be counterproductive by making them dependent, in the long run, on the opinion of others.
The majority profile of the addict is that of a young man between 16 and 24 years old. Adolescents are the ones most at risk of falling into addiction, according to experts, for three main reasons: their tendency to be impulsive, the need to have a broad and expansive social influence and, finally, the need to reaffirm the group identity.
As with all addictions, prevention is easier than cure. In this sense, there are some simple practices that are very effective in preventing excessive use of social networks from triggering dependency. Among the most effective are the following:
- Establish a minimum time of 15 minutes between connection and connection.
- Do without the mobile at key times of the day (breakfast, lunch or dinner).
- Disable push notifications.
- Put the mobile on silent and do not use it as a clock or as an alarm clock to avoid temptation.
- Set aside a minimum time each day to do completely disconnected activities —such as playing sports, reading or listening to music—.
- Reduce the number of friends on social networks.
- Delete applications and leave expendable WhatsApp groups.
