Terms Of Service By Jacob Silverm An Analysis

In his novel Terms of Service, author and critic Jacob Silverman alludes to social media addiction by referencing the situation between social media and users. For instance, he employs the phrase “digital hostages” in order to concisely establish how social media seizes users and forces them to stay connected (206). In Silverman’s words, “Visibility is complemented by the threat of disappearing, of becoming irrelevant…[P]reserving our visibility…[is] a constant process of cultivation, like bailing water from a leaky boat” (206). By this, he means that when people fail to uphold their digital identities, they will slowly sink out of view from the online world. As a result, users become addicted to keeping hold of their online reputations. In today’s society, virtually disappearing from social media platforms will not go without questions, mainly because social media persists as such an integral part of the

Likewise, in his article, author Ray Williams summarized a published study about social media and human behavior, commenting, “Facebook is a mirror and Twitter is a megaphone for the cultural obsession with self.” Since users see their social media accounts as extensions of their identities, they strive to constantly update their profiles, hence why social media creates addiction. Aspects of addiction and self-esteem overlap in this case: Social media promotes focusing on oneself while simultaneously fueling the addiction. The Tenth Revision of the International Classifications of Diseases and Health Problems identifies “a strong desire or sense of compulsion” and “difficulties in controlling consumption behavior” as criteria of “dependence syndrome” (Pantic). These criteria apply to billions of social media users, thereby proving that social media does negatively influence mental health because of the formation of addiction. Dependency soon transforms into a blinding force; ergo, one cannot deny that addiction is not a detrimental