Social Media Addiction. Where And What To Do?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Many of us in the modern world are "caught up" by addiction to social networks (in particular, from likes, comments and feedback - and often we want to see only the positive). Are you familiar with the situation when, after posting with a photo, you constantly check the number of likes and rate the comments. Where does this addiction come from, what is behind it, what to do?

Addiction to social networks is similar to addiction to computer games, but the level is much lower. Everything here can be correlated directly with your addiction to likes, comments and feedback that you receive on your social networks. If you check your photos every hour, it suggests that you are highly addicted. In fact, you yourself can determine within yourself the level of your neurosis, some kind of neurotic inclusion.

What is behind this behavior? First, boring real life. Secondly, the inability to relax in real life. Perhaps this is how you are trying to move your anxiety to social networks (for example, if it were not for checking every hour of likes and comments, you would just walk around the room in circles or become isolated in a state of compulsion or obsession), or this is how your obsessive neurosis manifests itself. However, most often this is due to a lack of feedback in early childhood (the age of about 3 years, when our ego, our self, our awareness of ourselves as a separate person) is formed. Accordingly, if you did not receive enough information about what is valuable, important and needed, that you are a special and unique person (many of us really did not receive this), then social networks come to our aid to satisfy somehow our neurosis. The problem is that he is not satisfied in any way! If you have one like or 1,000,000 likes on your photo, you will still be nervous, twitchy and anxious ("What have I got there with the likes? How did you react to that post?").

What is the reason for this? You have not formed a part of the soul, the psyche, into which this value falls. Conventionally, in this place in your consciousness there is only soil, which has been trampled down heavily, and the grass no longer grows there; all and sundry people walked here, but no one threw a single grain, dug up the ground so that it sprouted. In other words, no one helped you begin to form your opinion of yourself and your inner self-esteem. Accordingly, you do not have this inner right to value and respect yourself, to take something from life for yourself. This is the base where every like goes, confirming that you are great. If constant daily confirmation is important for you (I am a fine fellow, handsome, everything is fine with me), this indicates that you are not confident in yourself and do not consider yourself a normal person. All that good that you know about yourself, about your self-esteem and importance, as if written in the sand and is constantly washed away by the wave. Perhaps in life you now do not have significant relationships in which you would feel important and needed, so everything is replaced by likes and regular phone checks (Who wrote to me? How did they answer me?).

What to do in this situation? You need to regain your size, especially if you're chasing a lot of likes, comment followers, etc. Admit that you are an ordinary person (the same as most), and you do not have mega photos. Recognize that things are not going very well in your life right now, which is why you are trying to replace everything with going to social networks. Another option for leaving social networks is scrolling through a million other people's feeds, as if a person is trying to get enough of someone else's life. This is also due to the fact that you are missing something important and valuable right here and now. Perhaps lacking in a sense of power.

How is this related? Often this feeling is associated with hyperresponsibility in childhood (a lot of responsibility was thrown on you at a time when you were actually not ready for it yet, but at the same time did not give any power and did not even say "thank you", as if there was no feedback). Accordingly, now, through a large number of likes, you are trying to regain power. Power in the context implies the same intrinsic value - inside I will feel that I am doing well.

As a rule, in childhood, people dependent on social networks had a powerful, important maternal figure for them (mom, dad, grandfather, grandmother), and the child thus formed a simple association - the one who has power is in high esteem (that person can be loved, and be afraid, and “bring everything to your feet”). This is a story that in childhood there was a substitution of power for love, but in reality our psyche wants love. We receive confirmation that we are all right only when we receive love.

From personal experience, I remember well how my supervisor supported me when I went to certification. At such moments, it is very important that you have a person who loves next to you. And even if you fail, you will hear: “It's okay! I still love you! . It is this attitude that is important that any person who often hangs out on social networks in anticipation of likes wants to get. If you hang around waiting to see something beautiful and interesting, then this is a lack of beautiful and interesting things in your life. Try to switch to creation, not consumption. Try to do something beautiful, enjoyable and wonderful in your life and just live. Learn to understand your needs, be here and now, return to yourself, accept your flaws and advantages, do not be afraid to see some part of yourself that scares you. Recognize your right to be who you really are, and you can return love, gratitude and approval to yourself, feel that everything is fine with you.