https://medium.com/@gozdeberk1/the-linkage-between-social-psychology-and-social-media-use-ea8aea7371ab
This article was about the science and psychology behind social media and how it affects our lives. One of the biggest is how it increases conformity. Conformity is the desire to belong to a group of people and often leads us to project the most positive parts of ourselves or change ourselves to fit into a group. This is a social desire that as social beings we all have, and being part of a group isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It is when we must change ourselves to fit in that conformity becomes toxic. Social media induces this by getting us addicted to “staying connected” with our friends, liking posts, commenting, and staying updated on all the latest news and trends. We stay so addicted due to the increase in dopamine that social media has on our brains through the “reward process” of getting likes or interacting with others. Personally, I think that social media is a good tool for allowing people to connect and share information. However, it does have downfalls as it does become addictive and when you aren’t receiving likes or getting many messages, many people tend to fall into a more depressive state.
Two questions I have are:
Would we have been better off without the creation of social media?
If social media can be considered an addiction, should there be rehab programs in place for people to go to for help or should they have to break it on there own?