Evaluation of The Advantages Associated with Social Media Dependency

Benefiting from an Addiction

Smart phones are carried by almost everyone these days, adults, teenagers, and even children! They offer people an easy access to worldwide information while being anywhere in the world. By using social media, people can sort through different posts concerning different topics that interest them. However, just like it is with everything, using smart phones too much will lead to addiction. Even though it is a growing problem, it has a simple solution. Being addicted to social media can be solved by making good use of the addiction.

Social media addiction is becoming a worldwide problem especially among teenagers. The problem is that it has become too common and many people live in denial of admitting their addiction. It has become a serious issue because teenagers are no longer satisfied doing everyday activities unless they share it online. Facebook is a platform for people to publish everything about their daily lives. Everyone is hooked on this website and they involuntarily check their accounts every few minutes. Normalizing the problem is becoming easier day by day where people are more shocked that someone doesn’t have a social media account than a person that spends more than eight hours online. This addiction causes people to be distracted and unable to perform obligatory tasks.

The solution that will be more likely to benefit the majority of online addicts is making good use of the addiction. To begin with, people can learn different things online. For example, most users spend their time online viewing artwork of others, so, instead of only looking at the art, they may as well take notes and start learning it themselves. Many users picked up skills such as writing or drawing from looking at tutorials online and by the influence of people they follow on social media. Social media is the perfect place to develop these skills especially with the growing number of tutorials that websites offer. In addition, the person that already has a skill in embroidery for example, can show off their skills online by teaching others using their platform. Furthermore, job applications and even establishing an online business has become easier than ever. Now, If someone is capable of creating a personal business from the comfort of their home, it is very easy to do so online. Similarly, jobs that are looking for employees can do so by advertising online and even interviewing possible employees, while simultaneously, a person searching for a job can easily find help to construct their CV and even find jobs that are comfortable and fulfilling to the persons desires.

Another solution that pops up when the problem of online addiction is brought up, is changing the lifestyle of the addict. Unfortunately, although it is very appealing, the solution is hard to apply to every online addict. To begin with, facing the problem and deciding to do something about it is easier said than done. Many people as mentioned before, do not admit that they’re addicted. So this becomes a secondary problem, how does one fix a problem they don’t admit to having? Moreover, many people cannot simply ‘change their lifestyle’, if someone follows a certain routine with a specific schedules that can’t be changed –this could mostly be found with teenagers at school or adults who work jobs with specific schedules- it is hard to change their lifestyle. Furthermore, many aspects in one’s life could be dependent on their smart phones and the usage of social media. For example, a new mother who has no one to help with her new motherhood experience needs to consult other mothers who know more than she does because of their experience. Social media provides people with similar problems and struggles online support groups of some sort. When someone finds a person they can relate to, their problems become smaller and easier to fix and social media provides that.

In conclusion, social media exists in everyone’s life, and it's very difficult to simply ban it from people’s life. Making use of a habit is the smartest thing to do in this case, especially when the solution can be implemented in everyone’s lives no matter of the different variables. However, changing lifestyle is usually the solution that many people think is the best, which isn’t true, simply because it can’t be applied to everyone. In the future, social media should be treated as a helpful platform that helps people even the ones that are addicted to it, there should be awareness that prevents bad usage of it and people should be encouraged to learn to benefit from their daily usage of their smart phones and the social media.