Is Social Media Addiction a Company Success?

I recently read an excellent article, Addicted to Your iPhone? You're Not Alone by Bianca Bosker. Bianca has a great point of view on the addiction people in today's society have with their phones. It's amazing to me how companies know how to get us consumers to actually become "addicted" to their apps and websites. Bianca talked to Tristan Harris, who is working on trying to convince companies that they can design tech that prevents us from distraction instead of being the source of our distraction. Watch his TedTalk on this subject here. 

"That itch to glance at our phone is a natural response to apps and websites engineered to get us scrolling as frequently as possible". 

When I finished reading this article, I realized that I am addicted to my phone and many of the social media apps on it, including Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. I've never really thought about how I immediately reach for my phone whenever I'm bored. It's become a habit, and one that I need to work on eliminating.

Facebook
"Checking that Facebook friend request will only take a few seconds, we reason, though research shows that when interrupted, people take an average of 25 minutes to return to their original task".

This statistic in the article hits home in my life. I get one notification from Facebook, and open my phone with the full intention of only checking that one read pop-up, and find myself watching a funny video 30 minutes later after scrolling through my newsfeed. Then once Friday rolls around, I'm stressed trying to finish homework so I can enjoy my weekend. If I would have stayed focused on it rather than checking my Facebook, I would have been able to start my weekend 3+ hours earlier. I found it interesting how all apps use red as their notification color, because it grabs our attention the most. Like in the article, I also feel socially obligated to respond to people's messages, comments, and friend requests immediately to show that I am in the loop and know what's going on at all times.

Snapchat
Snapchat has become almost as popular as texting anymore, as it adds more personality and facial expressions to conversations. One way Snapchat has begin to keep people snapping on a daily basis is adding a snap streak element that counts how many consecutive days you and one person snap back and forth. I'm not big on the snap streaks, and it's almost a sense of relief to me when they are broken, because I don't have to have anxiety about keeping them up.  I have friends that will get angry with friends when they "break the streak", and friends who even will give their friends their login information to snap themselves when they know they will be on vacation or out of service for longer than 24 hours. It's crazy how something this irrelevant can have that type of pull on you.

Instagram
"'Rewarding someone with an instantaneous 'like' after they post a photo can reinforce the action, and potentially shift it from an occasional to a daily activity".

Instagram is one of my biggest addictions. When I get bored, I immediately go to scrolling through my Instagram feed. I've also become addicted to making sure my posts are ones that I will get the maximum likes on. In the past when I would post a picture, I would keep track of how many likes per minute I get, and would get worried if I didn't have a certain amount of likes within a certain time. I would waste more time on trying to make my life look impressive instead of actually relaxing and enjoying it. And this is what the people who work at Instagram want, however unhealthy it is.

SO WHY DO WE STRESS OVER THIS KIND OF STUFF!? 

When you truly think about it, it's unproductive and a big waste of time. 

And yet, we all still participate in it. Why are we so obsessed with making sure everyone else knows exactly what we're doing at every minute of every day? It's become a way of communicating without actually communicating. It's sad that I know what's going on in the daily lives of many of my friends because of their Instagram posts and Snapchat stories, but might not have personally communicated with them one on one in a couple of months! All of these social media sites program us to need to constantly be in the know. I cannot tell you how many times a day I hear "Did you see her Instagram post?" or "Did you see what happened at the game? It's all over everyone's snapchat stories!"

Don't get me wrong, I believe that social media is an excellent tool to keep in touch with those who matter to us, but it shouldn't consume our lives the way it does. We live in a three-dimensional world, and therefore need to stop focusing so much on the two-dimensional screen of our phones and computer screens. 

We will not gain any experiences by scrolling through our newsfeed. Instead, we will be vicariously living through everyone else's. 

At the beginning of this blog, I mentioned Tristan Harris, founder of Time Well Spent. Time Well Spent is a website that encourages technology users to support the creation of better tech that could protect us from distraction.  I advise everyone to check it out and focus more on only using your phone when it is truly necessary, and not to use it as your main cure for boredom. Try limiting yourself to checking your social media only once or twice per day, and focus on the real world around you in between. 

Starting today, stop scrolling through everyone else's memories. 

Go out and make your own.