Social Networking Addiction

by Audrey B. Jung, CPC, DCC, NCC

<You Have Mail>

Jef writes:  Care to write a 500 word essay on Facebook Addiction, Audrey?  Audrey thinks to herself, "No, I'd prefer to play Frontierville, Zynga's social highly engaging networking game."

Uh oh.

Generations of people have grown up and left their childhood homes, begun families and careers and often wondered what happened to the people they left behind.  Did his high school sweetheart marry the guy she kissed under the bleachers?  Did his neighborhood chum end up in jail?  Did her arch enemy overcome her tendency to bully and become a kind person?  These questions and many more existed in the dark recesses of their minds - until a young college student developed a program to help people reconnect, and co-founded Facebook with his buddies in 2004.  At the wise age of 20.  Barely old enough to have asked these questions himself.

Piggybacking on the energy generated by Friendster, Myspace and countless dial-up BBSs developed before there was a world-wide web, Facebook put long-lost friends and acquaintances back on the map - a cyber map, and allowed people to reconnect and interact with each other from the ease of their computers and hand held smart devices.  Although initially introduced to collegiate students, 41% of Facebook users are between the ages of 25 to 44, and the average user has 130 friends and spends over 15 hours a month reviewing content (www.kenburbary.com). InsideFacebook lists Zynga's Cityville game as the most popular app used, citing 80,867,023 users as of July 18, 2011 (www.appdata.com), and reports that the newest Android software will allow smartphone users to post to, search for, and tag pages they administer, indicating an increasing call for immediate satisfaction of Facebook cravings while on the go (www.insidefacebook.com).

The Facebook phenomenon has allowed people to reconnect and therapeutically resolve core conflicts, childhood traumas and innocent misunderstandings that have lead to adult insecurities and mood disturbances.  Social networking has provided a platform for individuals who struggle to assert themselves to adopt more extroverted personas.  It has provided opportunities for families to overcome geographical hurdles and not only stay in touch with each other, but actually regularly engage in family activities - by instantaneously posting, reviewing and commenting on pictures, chatting via instant messenger, or playing games with each other online.

Professionals and business people have jumped on the social networking bandwagon to market their services, to discuss current events and seek out employment opportunities.  Status updates can now be broadcast across a variety sites, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google buzz instantaneously through the use of helpful tools like Hootsuite (www.Hootsuite.com) and Tweetdeck (www.Tweetdeck.com).  Pop Idol Justin Bieber's entire career began when he uploaded some home-made videos of him singing onto YouTube, and a music producer happened to see them (www.socialmediatoday.com).  And, according to Never Say Never, Mr. Bieber's blockbuster documentary sighed-over by tweenagers everywhere, Justin utilized the momentum begun by his YouTube following to shove his way into a recording studio by tweeting his minor appearances creating a frenzy amongst his adoring fans.

LinkedIn recently went public as an IPO, and stock sales rose past $100/share within hours (http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article428298.ece). And, even as I write this piece, a new platform looms quietly within the click range of my mouse - Google's Google+ Project, "making sharing on the web feel like sharing in real life" (https://plus.google.com/welcome?hl=en-US).  How did I come to hear about Google+?  A Tweet from a high school classmate that she felt like she was cheating on Facebook by creating a profile in Google.  Imagine this!  The emergence of digi-guilt!

The rise of social networking hasn't been all positive.  Along with the therapeutic, social and occupational potential, digital social networking has provided an additional platform for misuse, abuse and compulsive behavior.  Couples have entered into therapy and marriages have broken up over the emergence of "emotional affairs" which have begun innocently online during email exchanges, instant messaging conversations and instant video contact.  Cyber-bullying has emerged amongst adolescents who have utilized the various social platforms to target victims and savagely destroy their reputations.  Online socially aggressive contact has been linked to suicide (http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-facebook-suicide-bullies,0,133841.story, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344281/Facebook-suicide-None-Simone-Backs-1-082-online-friends-helped-her.html).

Are we addicted to social networking?  Sociologically speaking, humans have simply devised a way to congregate utilizing technology as an additional modality for communication.  To put it simply, we are doing nothing now that we haven't done for generations - we are simply engaging with each other in a more pervasive, efficient manner.  But are there signs that individuals experience compulsions to utilize social networks at unhealthy levels?  Absolutely.  Psychologist Michael Fenichel, Ph.D. writes that he has spoken to adult professionals who indicate that they cannot envision an entire day without checking into Facebook (www.fenichel.com/facebook).  Multiple psychologists and lay people have written about Facebook Addiction Disorder, and Facebook itself has over 30 pages devoted to the topic.  All refer to a user's increased need for social contact as a tolerance incline, describe physical and mental withdrawal symptoms when disconnected (searching for cell phone when away from a computer, tremors and difficulty concentrating, etc.), reduction of typical social behaviors (going outside less, having cyber dates) and a difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy (the establishment of friends that an individual may have never met, or who may in fact not be who they say they are irl).

The question is not whether or not cyber social networking addiction exists.  It certainly does.  The question isn't even how do we tell if a person is addicted - we all are, thanks to current technological advances and a human's basic desire to congregate for emotional needs (Maslow).  The important question is - what kind of strategies can be implemented to promote a healthier balance in a person's daily life?  If nutritionists can come up with a food pyramid to balance healthy eating, can psychologists come up with a concrete model to encourage healthy social engagements?

Audrey B. Jung, CPC, DCC, NCC