Cyber Drug: social network as an addictive substance

Have you ever randomly looked at your phone and felt down because there is no new message? While you are working on your computer, have you ever opened Facebook for no reason? When your phone is somewhere unreachable or lost, have you ever feel the sense of insecurity? Nowadays, advancing communication technologies gradually merge themselves into our lifestyles and make us feel as if they are our very own body parts. People spend major parts of their time on social networks, and finally are unable to live without them. They somewhat have become addictive, and, from a certain perspective, can affect our lifestyles just like drugs.

Most of the time, drugs cause physical changes. For most narcotics, when the active substances enter our system, they will target the nervous systems, particularly the brains. The effect varies on the type of drugs, but most of them will cause disorders in the brain’s complex protocols, resulting in an overflow of pleasure hormones. As time passed, the body becomes addicted, craving for the same pleasurable effect at any time of the day. Sequences of events from this point on are quite predictable: just like those we saw in every anti-drug program.

Social networks, however, influence us not physically but mentally. Given that human is a social animal, even the most socially-awkward person craves companion. Thus, relationships with people can also be count as pleasure. In our CMC lecture, the concept of Uses and Gratification approaches was mentioned; and that was all there is to it. People are conscious to their media-related needs. When they are out seeking for gratification, they open up popular social networking sites like Facebook or Instagram. After surfing the sites, their needs are met and they are happy. In behavioral psychology, the concept is referred to as operant conditioning. If you do something and you get rewarded, you are likely to do it again. Given the fact that we are in need of acceptance and fame as a sociable entity should be, social networking is ideal. Have you ever been able to stay from your phone for just two to three hours? The last time you tried that, how worried and depressed were you? Have you ever uploaded a picture on Instagram and waited for likes? It’s frustrating, and you might complain to your friends about how your old profile picture got 200 likes in 30 minutes. Likes, good comment and shares become a factor that dictates our emotion. We want more likes and approvals from people, and the thing that delivers those to us quite readily is the social network. Well how does this look like now? Craving for drugs? Even though the effect of it is rather small, it definitely is a path to more extreme cases.

There are both good and bad in everything, depending on the way you use it. Advance technologies can grant great benefits to humanity, but at the same time they can also be the cause of catastrophes. Social networking allows us to ‘social’ anywhere and anytime we want, but it’s also gradually reducing our daily, face to face communication. This might be the reason why there are so many hysterias when an innovation is introduced to the public.