Psychologists, psychiatrists and experts from Silicon Valley warn that the use of social networks can be addictive and its consequences, the same as those of any other addiction: anxiety, dependency, irritability, lack of self-control… Faced with this situation every time more voices are asking: are social networks a real problem?
Five years ago, a study carried out by the Chicago Booth School of Business pointed out that Facebook, Twitter and other social networks have a greater capacity for addiction than tobacco or alcohol because, among other things, accessing them is simple and gratuitous. In addition, if the very father of the iPad, iPod, iPhone, Steve Jobs, did not let his children get too intimate with technology – he limited the time they used it – it is that, probably, he intuited something about how social networks affect children.
The truth is that, in the opinion of many experts, the use of social networks —including instant messaging applications— can generate serious addictions with their consequent consequences: anxiety, depression, irritability, isolation, estrangement from real life and relationships. relatives, loss of control, etc. But what do we really mean by addiction?
An addiction is a dependency on substances or activities that are harmful to health or mental balance. Among these activities are, for example, the use of video games —already cataloged as a disease by the World Health Organization (WHO)—, compulsive work, online and offline gaming and for many, also, the excessive use of social networks which, by the way, already have more than 3,000 million active users in the world. Despite the large figures, experts consider that only a small percentage shows a true dependence on social networks.
