Facebook Addiction Among Students

FACEBOOK ADDICTION AMONG STUDENTS * “I’ll just check facebook once before I start studying” is what the students tell themselves and they end up online for hours. Every day, millions of students go on a social media website. To many of them, social media is like a drug. There’s a euphoric high that comes from having a new notification or post, like the high from a snort of cocaine or smoke of marijuana. The lows of not being able to check it when they want is like the draw of an addictive drug and the painful withdrawals of not knowing what is going on are just like the withdrawals of a druggie after quitting. Whatever the poison, it takes over the students’ lives and leaves a sense of empty pleasure in place of real stimulation. * This social networking website has over 900 million users and 500 million of them students. When certain teenagers were interviewed about their addiction to facebook, one of them was asked “What would you do if facebook crashed for a week” and the reply was “I would die”. Such is the addiction among students today. Is this use an addiction though? According to Medical News Today, an addiction is “a continued involvement with a substance or activity despite negative consequences associated with it”. Addictions do not just include things you consume (like drugs and alcohol), they can be almost anything that you do, such as gambling, shopping, watching television, exercising, eating, hoarding and, of course, using the Internet. There is a condition related to the use of Facebook called Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD). This condition was first named in May 2011, according to NBC Bay Area. Symptoms include confusion of the divergence of real life and Facebook, paranoia when someone does not message you back, staying on Facebook for more than an hour each day, excessive friend building and wall building, depression during withdrawal from Facebook, accessing Facebook from mobile phones and checking Facebook frequently during