Social Media Addiction Essay

785 Words4 Pages

In the article titled “Biological and Physiological Reasons for Social Media Addiction” written by Suren Ramasubbu, “41% of cell phone owners say they would describe themselves as “addicted” to their phone”. Ramasubbu highlights the biological and psychological reasons for social media overuse quite frequently, stating that while using social media it triggers three networks in the brain,”the mentalizing network, the self referential cognition network and the reward network”. Ramasubbu argues excessive social media use is difficult to detect and classify as an addiction because it is not fully harmful. He states the withdrawal symptoms are not biological as in substance abuse and addiction. Ramasubbu notes that when the brain is not engaged …show more content…

Ramasubbu emphasizes that excessive use of social media can be dangerous because the prefrontal cortex, the space of decision making and social interactions, is still developing during adolescence. He states that if those portions of the brain are used constructively they will continue to grow and develop , but if they are misused they can grow in unhealthy ways. Ramasubbu identifies that passive social media use can lead to a loss of creativity and plagiarism of others art. He observes that the reward network of the brain is the most important reason for compulsive use of social media among teens. During adolescence pleasure and pain are felt very intensely, more than any other time in their lives and the need for social approval by peers is highly valued during this time. Ramasubbu points out that teens behavior based on the opinions of their peers has been linked to the reward network of the brain. He emphasizes that social media creates the teen with a constant supply of social rewards by peer recognition and approval. For example, the reward network of the brain is triggered when using social media, which attracts users to continually use these sites. Ramasubbu analyzes the surge of dopamine in humans when using social media and dopamine is cued by small bits of information and