Slashdot Mirror
Study Finds Social Media Harder To Resist Than Cigarettes, Alcohol
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."
Do people generally view social media as more destructive than other addictions such as cigarettes or alcohol? Some may regulate their addictions to cigarettes or alcohol because of their destructive effects on health or general productivity. Does the overall decrease in productivity from social media such as facebook, youtube, or twitter count for more than the decrease in productivity from drinking or smoke breaks? What about the effects of liver/lung damage?
After using Facebook for 3 years I recently deleted my account.
They require you to wait 14 days before the actual cancellation takes place, maybe most people who try to resist to the temptation to use FB are felled by this grace period.
It obviously acts as a secure way to make deletions, in case someones account is hacked, but still.
Anywhere retail related where I've worked in the past six years had employees always using their phones to do that. The manager at a fast food place I worked for had his phone attached to a charger and would constantly check his texts and FB while doing stuff like slicing onions. One of the girls working there would always be using her phone for the same purpose as well as taking cigarette breaks outside the back door. From that alone, I'd say some people have an addiction problem to social media.