I notice many people turning up late for church, every week, at the start of the service the place is half empty (when it comes to tardiness, I'm a half-empty kind of guy). If you ask them why they were late, time or the lack of it would be in there somewhere! So where do they find the time to while away their day on social media . . .
How dependent we have all become!
I, like many others, got a little hooked on social media, mostly Facebook and, I guess, I like many others noticed it was consuming a lot of my time. I began to see that this time could be used to polish my skills and advance my knowledge of the human brain and or behaviour! So it was interesting to read this article because I am aware of some friends who seem to spend an inordinate amount of time on social media. This is not a judgment or criticism and hopefully, the research below will help to explain this?
Essentially the two most primordial emotions we have, are fear (fight or flight) and love (inner peace). The one we need the most is love and I'll explain why. Love, as an emotion/neurochemical experience is like placing our cells in the resplendent sea of tranquillity, that is why Yogi's and Zens seek this inner peace! To some degree, I think the birth of the industrial revolution is where we started to diverge from our intuitive, spiritual senses. However, religion was more used as a system of instilling fear and/or manipulating the masses, be it for political or religious gain. So, even then we did not have as much opportunity to discover this inner reservoir of inner calm and contentment. Of course, we can't spend all day at the beach having a dip in the sea of tranquillity! Someone has to work to pay for the guy who looks after the deckchairs, let alone the buses that ferry us too and throw! So, here we are, modern life with all its twists and turns. No doubt we have much more than I did when I was a kid but looking at people aimlessly walking around glued to their phones all day long, I'd go back to my simple lifestyle in an instant.
Today kids can get anxiety if they don't have the right type/brand of trainers. when I was a kid, I got anxious if I didn't have any shoes! Where I grew up we didn't have to worry about what anyone else had, most people had nothing anyway. I was taught to stand up and give adults my seat because I was taught to respect my elders. I was taught to say please and thank you to almost every social exchange that entailed a suggestion or request. I was taught to put my hand to my mouth when I coughed and I was taught always to allow a lady to go first, open doors for them and stand up when they go to the powder room when out dining. So, at this point, you may be wondering where I'm going with all this nostalgia? The point is, that the more and quicker we advance, the further back we go in what really counts in life; values, people, loyalty, integrity and trust.
So, learn to let go of a little of the virtual world, your 5,657 FB friends and engage with your real ones. Don't spend your time buried in your phone when out walking, take a moment and see the birds, the trees, smile at a few people, I guarantee many will smile back. Hold a door open for someone, look behind you when you go through a door, someone in need may be right behind you, Say please and thank you when you ask people for something and, most of all, do something every day to make someone's journey through life a little better. And, most important of all; learn to love your true self!
Just in case you don't actually know who that is, why not make an appointment for a free consultation because hypnotherapy can help you achieve a real and valuable connection to that inner peace we all seek because from within that; you will discover love!
Hypnotherapy (hypnosis) is an especially effective way to enhance this process of discovering love because it allows us to experience, neurochemically, what it feels like to have a good experience; in the same way a dream of falling allows us to have a fearful one? In both situations, the perceived reality is false but despite that, it is believable. The brain's defensive mechanisms will take what it feels is appropriate action and in the case of the falling dream, this could lead to anxiety, chronic stress or depression. Similarly, the empowering uplifting experience in hypnosis can lead to a boost in confidence, heightened self-esteem, more ability to manage your emotions, inner peace and self-love! Wouldn't that be nice!
Hypnotherapy stands out as one of the most effective strategic life management methods there is, especially in its ability to promote clear thinking and good states of mental wellness. The behaviours that make life challenging are often a result of too much stress, too little sleep and too little by way of clarity! So, to get or take back control of your mind and your life, it makes perfect sense to use a methodology that addresses the subconscious mind's role in perpetuating negative, vague and ambiguous states of mind. Hypnosis helps us to create calm relaxing states of mind that make life work better! If you would like to address any concerns you have in this direction, or, if you just want to make your life feel better, then why not make an appointment for a Free Consultation? Hypnosis gives you the ability to have a good life!
The objective here is to help people understand how and why we become illogically trapped into irrational emotional experiences that may actually be happening for reasons different to that which we would imagine! If you want to know more about how Hypnotherapy can help you; why not make an appointment for a Free Consultation?
For more information on the Free Consultation - Go Here or to book your Free Consultation today, you can do so here
The Research:
Social network users risk becoming more and more addicted to social media platforms even as they experience stress from their use.
Social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook and Instagram are known to cause stress in users, known as technostress from social media. However, when faced with such stress, instead of switching off or using them less, people are moving from one aspect of the social media platforms to another -- escaping the causes of their stress without leaving the medium on which it originated.
Research into the habits of 444 Facebook users revealed they would switch between activities such as chatting to friends, scanning news feeds and posting updates as each began to cause stress. This leads to an increased likelihood of technology addiction, as they use the various elements of the platform over a greater timespan.
Researchers from Lancaster University, the University of Bamberg and Friedrich-Alexander Univeristät Erlangen-Nürnberg writing in Information Systems Journal found that users were seeking distraction and diversion within the Facebook platform as a coping mechanism for stress caused by the same platform, rather than switching off and undertaking a different activity.
Professor Monideepa Tarafdar, Professor of Information Systems and Co-Director of the Centre for Technological Futures at Lancaster University Management School, who co-authored the study, said: "While it might seem counter-intuitive, social media users are continuing to use the same platforms that are causing them stress rather than switching off from them, creating a blurring between the stress caused and the compulsive use."
Assistant Professor Christian Maier, of the University of Bamberg, who collected the data from the Facebook users along with Professor Sven Laumer, Schöller Endowed Professor and Chair of Information Systems and the Deputy Director of the Dr Theo und Friedl Schöller Research Center. said: "Because social network sites offer such a wide range of features, users can find they act both as stressors and as a distraction from that stress."
"Even when users are stressed from SNS use, they are using the same platforms to cope with that stress, diverting themselves through other activities on the SNS, and ultimately building compulsive and excessive behaviour. As a result, they embed themselves in the social network environment rather than getting away from it, and addiction is formed."
The research team looked at various different forms of technostress caused by using social media, such users feeling that SNS was invading their personal life, adapting their SNS use to conform to that of their friends, experiencing excessive social demands and too much social information, and facing constant changes and updates to the SNS platform.
They further examined two separate ways of coping with stress. The first included users creating a diversion by partaking in other activities away from social media, which is the more obvious path. They would switch off, talk to friends or family about issues they were experiencing and spend less time on the platform.
However, the other method consisted of diversion through engaging in different activities within the same SNS app itself and potentially moving on a pathway towards SNS addiction. This method was more prevalent among those social media users who used the sites more regularly.
Professor Sven Laumer said: "We found that those users who had a greater social media habit- needed less effort to find another aspect of the platforms, and were thus more likely to stay within the SNS rather than switch off when they needed to divert themselves. The stronger the user's SNS habit, the higher the likelihood they would keep using it as a means of diversion as a coping behaviour in response to stressors, and possibly develop an addiction to the SNS."
"Users go to different areas of the platform which they see as being separate and that they use in different ways. With Facebook, there are features that take you into different worlds within the same platform. You can be in many different places all from the same application, for example following friends' activities, posting pictures about daily activities, switching to a chat feature or playing games."
Professor Monideepa Tarafdar added: "The idea of using the same environment that is causing the stress as means of coping with that stress is novel. It is an interesting phenomenon that seems distinctive to technostress from social media."
Story Source:
Materials provided by Lancaster University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
- Monideepa Tarafdar, Christian Maier, Sven Laumer, Tim Weitzel. Explaining the link between technostress and technology addiction for social networking sites: A study of distraction as a coping behaviour. Information Systems Journal, 2019; DOI: 10.1111/isj.12253
Cite This Page:
Lancaster University. "Social media stress can lead to social media addiction." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 27 August 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190827125559.htm>.
