Is social media addictive?

2-8-2012 Global:

(NECN: Brian Burnell) - Is this habit harder to resist than this one? Or this?

A Chicago University study suggests it just might be. That social media is harder to stay away from than nicotine or alcohol. Think about how often you interrupt a live conversation with someone to check a text or email on your smart phone. Could you resist that ring tone if you had to?

"It certainly is a habit. It's a bad habit. There is some question whether it rises to the level of an addiction," said Dr. Lawrence Haber with the Institute of Living.

Here's what they did: They got over 200 people between the ages of 18 and 85. They told them no social media for two solid weeks. No Facebook, no Twitter, no email and no texting. And then they check with them several times a day.

How were they feeling? Did they feel like sending an email? Respond to a text? They got more than 10,000, and almost 8,000 of them said, ‘Yeah, I'm Jonesin.'"

Smoking a cigarette or taking a drink releases dopamine into the brain and that feels good. Addicts have trouble resisting the behavior that feels good.

"To the affect that you get pleasure from having your email responded to, that somebody tweeted you back or like your Facebook posting that may give you pleasure. May, in fact, activate the dopamine system so in that sense it may very well be what we could call a true addiction," said Dr. Haber.

People we asked about it said they thought it probably affected the young more than the old.

Do you think its generational to a certain extent?

“I think so, yes, although I do know people my age that are pretty tied into it as well,” said Lillian Millette of Columbia, Conn.

And some pointed out one danger of social media addiction: We just don't talk anymore.

"I'm a person who went to college in the 70's and we were actually forced to talk to people personally. Forced to pick up the phone. Forced to as we're conversing, face to face,” said Rich Czaplinski of Meriden, Conn. “We don't do that anymore. Everything is done via an email." ..Source.. by NECN.com

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Twitter is harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, study finds

2-8-2012 Global:

People are more likely to give in to urge to tweet or check email than other cravings, say US researchers

Tweeting or checking emails may be harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, according to researchers who tried to measure how well people could resist their desires.

They even claim that while sleep and sex may be stronger urges, people are more likely to give in to longings or cravings to use social and other media.

A team headed by Wilhelm Hofmann of Chicago University's Booth Business School say their experiment, using BlackBerrys, to gauge the willpower of 205 people aged between 18 and 85 in and around the German city of Würtzburg is the first to monitor such responses "in the wild" outside a laboratory.

The results will soon be published in the journal Psychological Science.

The participants were signalled seven times a day over 14 hours for seven consecutive days so they could message back whether they were experiencing a desire at that moment or had experienced one within the last 30 minutes, what type it was, the strength (up to irresistible), whether it conflicted with other desires and whether they resisted or went along with it. There were 10,558 responses and 7,827 "desire episodes" reported.

"Modern life is a welter of assorted desires marked by frequent conflict and resistance, the latter with uneven success," said Hofmann. Sleep and leisure were the most problematic desires, suggesting "pervasive tension between natural inclinations to rest and relax and the multitude of work and other obligations".

The researchers found that as the day wore on, willpower became lower. Their paper says highest "self-control failure rates" were recorded with media. "Resisting the desire to work was likewise prone to fail. In contrast, people were relatively successful at resisting sports inclinations, sexual urges, and spending impulses, which seems surprising given the salience in modern culture of disastrous failures to control sexual impulses and urges to spend money."

The academics, who included one each from Florida State University and Minnesota University, said the subjective reporting of desire was relatively low for tobacco, alcohol and coffee, apparently challenging "the stereotype of addiction as driven by irresistibly strong desires".

They added: "Resisting the desire to work when it conflicts with other goals such as socialising or leisure activities may be difficult because work can define people's identities, dictate many aspects of daily life, and invoke penalties if important duties are shirked."

Hofmann told the Guardian: "Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not 'cost much' to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist.

"With cigarettes and alcohol there are more costs – long-term as well as monetary – and the opportunity may not always be the right one. So, even though giving in to media desires is certainly less consequential, the frequent use may still 'steal' a lot of people's time.".

Hofmann added: "We made clear to participants that answering the BlackBerrys did not count. Also people really did not feel a desire to use them – they only beeped once in a while and, if anything, that was more annoying than pleasing, I guess. And there was nothing else they could use the devices for."

Würtzburg had been the testing ground because he had worked there as an assistant professor until recently. ..Source.. by James Meikle

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Department of Defense Launches Social Media Hub Website

7-25-2010 Washington DC:

Hub offers links to 435,000 Marine Corps fans and 10,000 National Guard fans on Facebook

Social media at the Defense Department has gotten so popular it now has its own Web page “hub” to coordinate it all.

DOD today launched an updated Social Media Hub Web page to provide quick links to service-affiliated Facebook, Twitter and YouTube social media sites as well as policy documents, training manuals and other information and to provide a forum for discussion.

The military services have been active participants in social media. For example, as of today, the U.S. Marine Corps’ Facebook page counted more than 435,000 fans; the Army’s, 344,000; the Navy’s, 162,000; Air Force’s, 95,000; Defense Department’s, 38,000; Coast Guard’s, 19,000; and National Guard’s, 10,000. ..Source.. by Alice Lipowicz

From the DOD Site:
Social media is an integral part of Department of Defense operations. This site is designed to help the DoD community use social media and other internet-based capabilities to share responsibly and effectively, both in official and unofficial capacities. ..Source.. by DOD

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