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Study Finds Social Media Harder To Resist Than Cigarettes, Alcohol

Posted by samzenpus on from the friends-list-fix dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Checking a Twitter, Facebook or email account for updates may be more tempting than alcohol and cigarettes, according to researchers who tried to measure how well people regulate their daily desires. Researchers also found that while sleep and sex may be stronger urges than certain drug addictions, people are more likely to give in to their addiction to use social or other types of media."

8 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. best not to start... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...is what my mom told me about alcohol and tobacco.

  2. So... by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does this mean that social media will now be the blame for all the evils of society? Finally replacing D&D, and "violent video games."

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    Om, nomnomnom...
    1. Re:So... by causality · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Does this mean that social media will now be the blame for all the evils of society? Finally replacing D&D, and "violent video games."

      Man, don't give them ideas. Busybodies never seem to be busy enough.

      Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
      -- C.S. Lewis

      Usually that phony Puritannical "morality" is most visible when the subject is drugs, pornography, or controversial speech. At least on the Internet this sort of typecast personality is really going to have a hell of a time trying to enforce it, but still, I'd rather not see them try. I'd rather they do something more worthy of their limited time on this planet, like uproot their desire to run other peoples' lives by recognizing it as more evil than anything they'd rail against. Then maybe, just maybe, they can find their own fulfillment and witness the way that really living your own life magically takes away your undue concern for how others live theirs.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
  3. Disagree by cosm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Back when I waited tables in a restaurants to pay for college, I can promise you me and the other servers were not taking Facebook breaks outside the back door.

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    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
  4. Tax the hell out of social media and then see... by hal2814 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Tax social media to the extent they tax alcohol and tobacco and then see how easy it is to give up.

  5. Re:Tax the hell out of social media and then see.. by techno-vampire · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Governments have been taxing alcohol for centuries and tobacco for decades and it hasn't stopped people from using either one of them. Anybody who thinks that taxing something that people like is going to make them stop must be suffering from the Bullwinkle Syndrome.

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    Good, inexpensive web hosting
  6. Sleep is optional? by xtal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sleep is pretty hard to resist. If you don't do it, you die.

    Not really the same as cigarettes?

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    ..don't panic
  7. Re:Tax the hell out of social media and then see.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a money game, not politicians trying to help people.

    As a douchebag politician you get to stand in front of everyone with a straight face and say it's because those vices are bad for you and you want to discourage it. What you're really doing is using addictions to collect massive amounts of revenue. Even better, nobody can argue with you, or they're some monster supporting alcohol and nicotine addiction.

    This is why a $3 pack of cigarettes in a major city can cost $12, while people still smoke.