CENTRAL TEXAS — While social media can connect you to friends and family, having everything in the palm of your hand can sometimes do more damage than good.
“It can be really dangerous, obviously in a different way than other addictions,” Katie Chadwell, an adolescent therapist, said.
Around 40 percent of US online users aged 18 to 22 have reported feeling addicted to social media.
“I think it is really easy to compare it to something like a heroin addiction, and you’re like well I'm just scrolling through Facebook, it’s fine and I think it is really easy to right off,” Chadwell said.
According to TrueList.com, 55 percent of drivers have admitted to checking social media while behind the wheel and 71 percent of Americans log in to check Facebook on a daily basis.
“If we allow ourselves to go down that path and continue to say ‘okay just one more post, one more video mentality, it is really easy to get sucked into that,” Chadwell said.
Whether it’s Youtube, Twitter, Tik Tok or Instagram, the constant need to check your feed, post a video or photo has become a serious problem over the past decade.
“It feels good, it’s a good adrenaline rush when our picture gets a lot of comments and people are giving us that positive feedback, and I think that is what people get tied into and addicted to is that immediate feedback that immediate boost to their self worth,” Chadwell said.
Social media addiction can impact anyone at any age, but teenagers especially as most of the time that is how they connect with their peers.
“There is a difference between a teenager grumbling because they don’t want to put their phone away and a teenager who actually shows anxiety and that feeling of 'I have to get back to it," Chadwell said.
"Those are two very different things.”
If your child feels anxious or becomes irritable when they don’t have access to their social media platforms, then they may be suffering from addiction.
“I think the first step would be finding individual counselors so that you can get into an environment that feels safe, reestablish an in-person connection and relationship and then dive into the motivating factors behind the addiction,” Chadwell said.
