Maybe you feel lost when you leave your house without your iPhone. Or contemplate Facebook updates while stuck in an interminable work meeting. Social media, mobile devices, and online gaming communities keep us increasingly connected to the world around us. But for some, the thrill of connection actually leads to isolation and addiction.
“Social media addiction is real,” says Rusel DeMaria, author of Reset: Changing the Way We Look at Video Games and a career advisor at The Art Institute of Seattle. DeMaria, who has researched social media and gaming addiction, adds that addiction is far more severe than a “habitual use of social media.” In other words, checking a Facebook account every hour doesn’t constitute an addiction.
DeMaria asserts that the test of addiction is to look at the impacts on your life.
“Addictions usually are progressive and get worse over time,” he says. “They impact lives in a bad way. If you’re gaming and not getting your work done, then you may need to look at what you’re doing.”
While true gaming and social media addiction is a problem for a small number of people, DeMaria adds that those affected begin to disengage from relationships and shirk responsibility.
“It’s an escape from reality,” he says.
SIGNS OF ADDICTION
Dr. Kimberly Young, a licensed psychologist and founder of Netaddiction.com and the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery, began to study the topic of social media addiction in 1995.
“I put out a survey and then received such a demand from people who felt like they were suffering from this addiction that it blossomed into a full line of research,” she states.
She’s since expanded her studies to include addiction to cyberporn, online gambling, online gaming, and compulsive web surfing — along with eBay addiction. And she’s authored the book Caught in the Net: How to Recognize the Signs of Internet Addiction and a Winning Strategy for Recovery.
Young states that the warning signs of online addiction include “compulsive use of the internet, a preoccupation with being online, lying or hiding the extent or nature of your online behavior, and an inability to control or curb your online behavior.”
Like an addiction to alcohol or drugs, “the internet provides the high and addicts become dependent on this cyberspace high to feel normal,” she says.
Her treatment strategy involves teaching patients to achieve moderation in their online use, a challenging task when so many jobs require the use of a computer.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND GAMING REHAB
“There are no 12-step programs that offer help or support for gaming or social media addiction,” according to Hilarie Cash, PhD, LMHC, executive director of reSTART: Internet Addiction Recovery Program.
Cash explains that addiction causes stimulation in the brain beyond what is normal. As the addiction becomes more extreme, the brain goes through so many changes that it becomes difficult to achieve the addictive high.
“You become compulsive in your pursuit of the activity. Once you are caught in that cycle and your behavior is out of control, you begin to feel out of control. But you engage in this behavior despite negative consequences,” she says.
Cash asserts that social media and gaming addiction has now passed drugs and alcohol as a reason for college failure.
She has found that the highest population of social media and gaming addicts are young men aged 18-23. For these individuals, the negative consequences of addiction typically include failing out of school, lack of sleep and exercise, poor nutrition, eye strain, and withdrawal from friends and family.
Her reSTART rehabilitation program focuses on helping an addict to re-enter a world that’s inundated with technology.
“It’s hard to be a student or have a job without using a computer, but their hypersensitized brain is changed forever,” Cash asserts.
For these individuals, just opening a computer can create a craving. The rehab process involves helping patients to think through how they will reintegrate computers into their lives — and in many cases includes installing accountability software onto the computer that reports to a therapist or recovery buddy.