Social media has become more than just a message in a bottle. “The medium has become the message.” Communication theorist Marshall McLuhan had observed within our commercialized society. In today’s technology, the medium of the message has become more relevant than the message itself. The medium which now with today’s technology, is social media has taken a toll to negativity that has created themes of perfection, success and ideas that corrupt realistic values. This has impacted communication and behavior all over the world. With social media and communication mediums comes negative effects that impact mental tranquility. Technological determination, which is media shaping the way people feel, think, act and how a society operates, has become one of the biggest issues influencing a person’s general perspective as well as affects their emotional behavior. These shifts of emotions and way of thinking due to the excessive use of medias has caused social media to become addicting, and has become what seems to be a gateway drug to other addictions such as drug and alcohol abuse. Social media has also contributed to mental issues such as depression, stress and anxiety. The dependence of technology has increased tremendously over the past decade and has lead to scary effects in the behavior and mental reaction of individuals due to the pressure of seeming perfect through a computer screen. People’s perception of technology has shifted creating the image that the use of technology is a norm and its effects are insignificant. It is important to see what social media takes away from individual’s mentality of themselves and what emotional appeals of face to face communication are slowly being replaced. A synthetic reality has become more appealing to newer generations, leading to a decrease of actual interaction. Social media has replaced healthy communication and necessary interaction creating isolated behaviors and addictions. The addictive traits that social media causes results in mental illness. Social media has contributed to addictions to alcohol and drugs as well as has become a factor in causing mental illness.

Social media along with other forms of communication and advertising has created an addictive and consuming reality altering the perception of views and users. The use of these social networking sites advertise things people want to know about themselves creating almost a different synthetic reality that most people consume to believe. This reality affects the users, making the pedestal of perfection even higher than it already is. Self-esteem, personality traits and emotional behavior are affected by the way people see others on the internet which can cause mental illness to vulnerable individuals. In TIME Magazine 2012 article by Megan Gibson, social media and the image of the body was studied and concluded to be a reason behind the synthetic reality online. These images on sites like Pinterest and Tumblr, have created an image for perfection that should be the way young adults and teenagers should look. These posts are called “thinspiration”.

The ideas of these images and “inspiration posts” causes eating disorders, lower self-esteem in younger women as well as psychological trauma. This also contributes to why young adults are so addicted to the internet and social sites. Individuals feel the need to show off progress, success and even create a whole different identity to feel better about themselves. Another site has a psychological effect on individuals is Facebook. Dr

Catharine Paddock, writer for Medical News Today, wrote an article about the use of Facebook (and other social media sites) that have lead to negative feelings and negative mental states. A small study was conducted in 2012, by Salford University Business School, where researchers surveyed 298 people about their use of social media and how it affected them. Anxiety was linked to many individual’s use of social media as well as “the increasing feel of inadequacy and worry” (Facebook Use Feeds). Many who were surveyed stated that they the use of social media had “changed their behavior” as well as felt “worried or uncomfortable” when users could not access their social sites and email accounts. This is very important, relating to the broad portal social media opens when used excessively. Slowly becoming dependent on social media can cause emotional and phycological distress when not able to access these social sites. How serious social media addiction is has been overlooked. This type of addiction and dependence is not like any other addiction. These social networking sites are in our everyday use in communicating as well as work settings, educational institutions, etc. So rehabilitation to this type of addiction is harder than it seems now with so much technology overcoming the basic lifestyle from before. Basic communication has become more complex creating a next level of first world problems and negative effects.

Many people in the tech-savvy world believe that the overuse of social networking is not even considered an addiction or categorized with other addictions, but it is. Social networking has been classified as an addiction and forms other addictive traits by its similarities in arousing and satisfaction.This article “Social Networking Addiction: Emerging Themes and Issues” by Mark D Griffins, a Psychologist from the International Gaming Research Unit in Nottingham Trent University, stated that social networking was considered an addiction through a series of definitions which are salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, conflict, and relapse which are behaviors associated closely with social media.

Social media is and can be classified as an addiction when used excessively, that it can lead to mental illness through its core components of addiction. Addiction can be a leading factor to a negative mental state leading to some mental illnesses. Such as depression; being isolated on a computer for so long or any social media, can cause an impact on a person’s mental health. What causes the addiction to social media is the artificial satisfaction a person gets when they excessively use social networking. Griffin said “The resulting problems may then exacerbate individuals’ undesirable moods. This then leads such individuals to engage in the social networking behavior even more as a way of relieving dysphoric mood states. Consequently, when social network users repeat this cyclical pattern of relieving undesirable moods with social media use, the level of psychological dependency on social networking increases.” This shows how people relatively become addicted to a social site. This shows almost a way how people become addicted to other similar forms of satisfaction such as comfort foods, drugs and alcohol; things that alter the emotional state of an individual. The mind becomes trance by artificial satisfaction. This seems to tie into other addictions. Social media can be a sort of gateway “drug” into other addictions such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs, etc.

Social networking, the use of Internet, and what is on the internet is already known to affect internet users causing positive effects as well as negative mental effects such as anxiety, depression and other emotional distress. But there is such a thing as a mental illness that deals with the addictive state of an individual and the internet. The realm of mass communication and languages has expanded with a new verisimilitude of networking. This addictive medium of communication affects individual’s emotions as well as their mentality. Growing with the ideas that are spread across the world in seconds, the generations to come will depend on social media and websites for knowledge. Who is better? What is the style? The cultural norm? Why should you buy this? Many behaviors and actions will be based upon what was just suppose to be an easier medium of communication. Now synthetic identities are created when individuals are unsatisfied with their lives and people will be prone to form addictions and mental illnesses with obsessing over seeming successful to others online. A great debate has sprung over the matter of health and the use of internet and how a simple addiction to social networking can lead to a dangerous disposition to all users of technology.

The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health

Beard, Keith, and Rebecca J. Frey. "Internet Addiction Disorder." The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health. Ed. Kristin Key. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2012. 829-833. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.

Huffington Post

Gregoire, Carolyn. "Research Links Addictive Social Media Behavior With Substance Abuse." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 Dec. 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.

Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy

TIMES Online Magazine

Gibson, Megan J. "Thinterest? When Social Networks and Body Image Collide." NewsFeed Thinterest When Social Networks and Body Image Collide Comments. TIMES, 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 07 Apr. 2015.

Griffiths MD (2013) Social Networking Addiction: Emerging Themes and Issues. J Addict Res Ther 4:e118. doi: 10.4172/2155-6105.1000e118BiYaGo Blogspot

BiYaGo Blogspot

Fernando, Mary. "Excessive Social Media Usage Contributes to Addictive Behaviors and Mental Health Issues." Excessive Social Media Usage Contributes to Addictive Behaviors and Mental Health Issues. BiYaGo Blogspot, 22 Jan. 2015. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.

Medical News Today

Paddock, Catherine. "Facebook Use Feeds Anxiety." Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, 10 July 2012. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.

Communication Theories in Action

Wood, Julia T. Communication Theories in Action. 3rd ed. Belmont: Holly Allen, 2004. Print.