Is Social Media Everyone’s Identity Disorder?
After having a long conversation with one of my best friends about social media, which escalated to talking about DID, I questioned how a person may be different in real life compared to their appearance on social media platforms.
As social animals, communication has been our most important trait. We communicate via talking, pictures, blogs, music, etc. Since the beginning of life, this constant- communication has not changed. What HAS changed is the medium of communication. In the past, we used to communicate with letters or a direct conversation.
As the technology began evolving, new modes of communication were introduced, starting with telegraphs, which gradually shifted to telephones and finally to chatting via the internet. Presently, in the 20th century, we use social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and many more exotic apps. What is common amongst these apps is that once you log in, there’s a whole different world that you can explore; a never-ending world brimming with possibility.
As of 2019, Facebook has more than 2 billion users, followed by YouTube with 1.90 billion, Instagram and WeChat with 1 billion users each. These numbers keep on growing. Why so? It’s fair to say that the virtual world has been and always will be tempting. A large number of social media platforms are designed to solely appeal to a vast number of different age groups.
For some platforms, the gender differences are very large. The share of women who use Pinterest is more than twice as high as the share of men using this platform. For Reddit, it is the other way around — the number of men is almost twice as high.
“Social media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.” — Brian Solis
It is a marketing strategy used to attract a large number of consumers. For example, apps such as Snapchat and Instagram have widely engaged with youths between the age group of 13–24 the most.
The way we project ourselves on these social media platforms is influenced by many factors. We are influenced by the way apps are designed, our environment, thinking patterns, the people we interact with, etc. These are some of the parameters by which the founders of each platform tend to attract the attention of the market. Which is the very base of today’s world — if you are not unique, then you will not receive attention.
Similar to how everything has a limit, where do we draw the line and realize that social media is casting a negative influence on our minds. The addiction to social media is called Problematic Social Media Use. This made me wonder- is the way we project ourselves as required by the app any part of a behaviour disorder? Can it be even named as behaviour disorder?
I believe that we portray ourselves differently on social media platforms. Perhaps it’s part of the desire to be the best. We agree to share certain parts of our lives to show off how unique we are. It provides an opportunity to make use of our distinct skills.
But the question is — how much is enough? Can we say that social media is more than addiction and a behaviour disorder?
Some of the warning signs of Problematic Social Media Use are:
1. You feel anxious when you do not check your phone for a while. There are many workplaces and schools that have a strict policy against the use of phones and social media. But this does not stop you from sneaking a text.
2. Your family and friends start to notice that you are distant. They say this because subconsciously, you spend more time on your devices than with your loved ones.
3. Your heart starts to throb whenever you hear the notification bell sound from your phone. Whatever the current circumstance maybe, you just HAVE to check your phone.
You are a different person when you are on social media. On social media, nothing is more. You always want to scroll a little further, swipe a bit more, watch a few minutes more. It’s like that advertisement of Snickers chocolate bar. It says — ‘You are not you when you’re hungry” and “Are you grumpy when you are hungry? Grab a snickers”. So, when you are not in charge of your social media, electric devices, you start to go insane. If this is not a sign of addiction, then what is?
