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vides a sense of engagement that feels real, and is on our time, and our terms—a safer and more economical alternative to actu- ally socializing. We take willing part in this process, applying glamorous filters through which we selectively share our lives.


"God Only Knows What It Is Doing To Our Children's Brains"


What if all the “feel good” we get in


this virtual interaction comes at a price— that we are unwittingly addicted to social media? According to Sean Parker,


the


founding president of Facebook, that was the company’s intention all along. When referring to Facebook's earliest mission, Parker said: "How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?" Parker, who came clean about his former company’s agenda at the Axios conference in November 2017, described the Facebook founders conscious exploita- tion of “a social-validation feedback loop” that plays on inherent vulnerabilities in human psychology. "The inventors, cre- ators — it's me, it's Mark [Zuckerberg], it's Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it's all of these people — understood this consciously. And we did it anyway. "When the makers of the machine expose its underpinnings, look away at your own risk. It’s time for a wake-up call: every user of social media should know what happens when our brains get stuck in this loop, and what we can do to get unstuck.


A New Type of Psychiatric Condition? In the early 2000s, members of the


psychiatric profession were faced with a new breed of disturbance: young people, primarily middle-class boys, who had become dangerously addicted to Internet gaming. Parents were increasingly con- cerned with the disturbed behavior and in some cases, declining health of their chil- dren.


The symptoms of Internet gaming ad- diction, or IGA, are certainly cause for concern: social withdrawal, decline in interest in outside activities, distorted perception of time, guilt and obsessive behavior, depression and anxiety, loss of weight, change in complexion or pallor, changes in sleep patterns, and increased bouts of illness. While not considered an official psychiatric condition, a child dis- playing these symptoms, particularly in concert, cannot be considered healthy, nor


to be developing normally. Studies on internet gaming addiction


reveal that “excessive use of the Internet [is] linked to a variety of negative psycho- social consequences.” IGA alters brain wave patterns in ways that mirror other addictive disorders, such as addictions to drugs and alcohol. The somewhat broader Internet Ad-


diction (IA) is defined as “problematic or pathological use of the Internet” and is another non-recognized but increasingly common social disease. Excessive time spent in online networks rather than with real-life social groups, has been linked to increased levels of loneliness, depression, academic, social, and occupational im- pairment, and suicide ideation. This is the darker side of this sea-change in how we are connecting: more people feel discon- nected than ever before. Obviously, creating a new psychiatric


disorder has its own dark side: justification would now exist for 'treatment' using psychiatric medications, which are argu- ably some of the most dangerous sub- stances the pharmaceutical industry has ever created. But the essential point -- that social media has the potential to create behavioral addictions and distortions on par with other DSM-V categorizable dis- orders -- is taken. This is actually not the first time we have reported on Facebook- related psychospiritual problems. You can read our 2012 article to get more insight into this issue: Do You Have Facebook Affective Disorder FAD?


Are You Addicted? Researchers are aware of this overall


uptick in negative effects, and generally agree that overuse of Facebook and other SNS constitutes a real problem. To that end, they have begun to develop concrete ways to measure the presence, pervasive-


ness, and potential consequences of Face- book addiction. In 2012, a group of Nor- wegian researchers developed the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale, which asks six basic questions related to your Facebook use. Answers are scaled one to five, from “very rarely” to “very often,” with regards to your Facebook activity. If you answer “often” or “very often”, on four of six ques- tions, you might have an addiction to Facebook.


(1) Very rarely, (2) Rarely, (3) Some- times, (4) Often, and (5) Very often


• You spend a lot of time thinking about Facebook or planning how to use it.


• You feel an urge to use Facebook more and more.


• You use Facebook to forget about personal problems.


• You have tried to cut down on the use of Facebook without success.


• You become restless or troubled if you are prohibited from using Face- book.


• You use Facebook so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/ studies.


Try a Digital Media Fast If you scored highly (or higher than


you’d like) on the scale of Facebook ad- diction, do not despair. The awareness that you are being programmed is often enough to snap a person out of the digital fog. Another sound method of reprogramming our attention is to take an extended media fast. Choose a period of time that makes sense for your lifestyle and connectivity


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