Wednesday, March 11, 2015

problem-solving essay draft 2

In today’s society there is an increasing trend that social media websites are causing anxiety among users. It’s normally to notice that when people posting a cute photo on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or other social media websites, they will keep on checking every few minutes or hour to see whether their posts are been liked or shared. This phenomenon reflects that the social media actually makes people feel inadequate and creates excess fear and pressure. Additionally, social anxiety that is a syndrome of social media anxiety disorder will be gradually acquired when an individual frequently using social media, and this in turn, will adversely affect one’s mental health. While the most vulnerable group would be teenagers and young adults who are usually not very self-disciplined and not always being capable to control themselves.

Such phenomenon is especially prominent in the U.S. where half of the adults and three-quarters of all teenagers are active SNS users (Hampton, Goulet, Marlow, & Rainie, 2012), and it has been highlighted that after alcoholism and depression, social anxiety disorder is the third largest psychological disorder in the U.S. Today’s society is shifted to be technology and internet dependent, people will be shocked if someone never use social media at all, and a recent study released by non-profit Anxiety UK, indicated that people do feel anxious and uncomfortable if they are unable to log in to their social networking accounts (Fitzgerald, B. 2012).

To minimize and address this negative impact of using social media, one possible solution is that people should focus on limiting the time of using social media and consciously unplug for extended days. If one is getting no substantial return from using social sites like Facebook and Twitter throughout the whole day, he should cut ties with social media websites purposely for certain period of time, so as to limit the usage of social networking sites. A study conducted by the University of Bergen in Norway released that people who are more anxious and socially insecure are more likely to use the social networking site. (Andreassen, 2012) while another study, conducted by Dr. Rauch found that social interaction on social media sites, may create a higher adverse impact on face-to-face encounters for those already with high levels of anxiety. These two studies reinforce the viewpoint that social media websites do cause social media anxiety and may worsen the situation continuously. Currently, there are some applications and tools available to assist people in controlling the time of using social media networks. For instance, Rescue Time’s website is designed to control the time that users would have spent on social media to be within 4 hours per week. This program is also capable to ban certain websites, and track and log how many times one spend on particular websites that he specified. Additionally, another useful application is Facebook Limiter, which is created to disconnect users with Facebook and YouTube. It is especially beneficial for parents who have children with problem of social media anxiety, since with assistance of this software, they are empowered to block Facebook entirely, restrict the time of using Facebook or make it accessible only at a specific time in a day (Frence, A. 2012). Social media anxiety can be progressively treated if one can control himself very well and unplug into the social media websites for extended days.

There is no denying that applications designed to limit the time of using social media websites serve to assist people to be better self-controlled and so as to achieve higher realization in solving social media anxiety. However, this may not be effectively conducted, as not everyone has the equal power to control and discipline themselves routinely. Whether the social media anxiety can be effectively solved or not is mainly depending on one’s awareness and self-control capability. Therefore, education and cognitive methods can be applied to address this problem through a more effective manner.


Cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT), is used to guide people by understanding and being aware of adverse consequences of adequately using social media websites and knowing that emotions, like waves, are temporary and fluctuated. CBT permits changes within addictive users’ brains, so that people can think and treat social media differently and gradually release themselves from over participation in social media sites. A recent study obtained results that forty-five percent of respondents felt uneasy and worried when they were unable to log in to their online networking accounts, while 60 percent of them reflected that they have to switch off their phones and computers so as to ensure a full-fledged break form social media (Fitzgerald, 2012). This shows that people do feel anxious if they are not being on social networking sites, leading to negative impact on their mental-health. While, through fully carrying out cognitive behavioral therapy, people who have similar social media anxiety issue are engaged in practical activities that are normally anxiety-causing, and proceed in a flexible and scheduled way. (Richards, T.). By continuous practicing and repeating, the anxious feeling will be gradually reduced, better outcome obtained. CBT affects one’s brain operating processes, making people feel, think and behave differently. People can be released from social media anxiety disorder by keeping on practicing and developing this method which treats people mentally and cognitively, and this is the root that can lead to behavioral control in using social media websites. Therefore cognitive strategies should be approached so as to address the problem of social media anxiety effectively.

In conclusion, social media is indeed creating anxiety among users with an increasing trend. To effectively minimize this problem, people can conduct cognitive therapies, strategies and concepts to train themselves to be more self-disciplined and controlled in using social media websites.

(Words 948)


References

Fitzgerald, B. (2012, December 7). Social media is causing anxiety, study finds. The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/10/social-media-anxiety_n_1662224.html

Social Media Anxiety Disorder. (2015, February 7). Retrieved March 5, 2015, from http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/Social_Media_Anxiety_Disorder

Farfan Jr., G. (2012, November 18). Running Head: SOCIAL ANXIETY IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS Social Anxiety in the Age of Social Networks. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from https://www.academia.edu/7234612/Running_Head_SOCIAL_ANXIETY_IN_THE_AGE_OF_SOCIAL_NETWORKS_Social_Anxiety_in_the_Age_of_Social_Networks


French, A. (2012, April 3). Boost your productivity by blocking yourself! Retrieved March 6, 2015, from http://www.sheknows.com/living/articles/955407/programs-that-limit-your-time-on-social-media

Richards, T. (n.d.). Comprehensive Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy For Social Anxiety Disorder. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from https://socialanxietyinstitute.org/comprehensive-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-social-anxiety-disorder


Whiteman, H. (2014, April 16). Social media: How does it really affect our mental health and well-being? Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275361.php


No comments:

Post a Comment