The Algorithmic Trap: How Social Media Addiction Is Rewiring Human Behavior, Relationships, and Mental Health

In today's world, social media has become a major source of distraction. Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube—we're constantly picking up our phones, checking notifications, scrolling through Instagram, looking at WhatsApp messages, or watching short videos on YouTube. This is gradually becoming a habit, and we don't even realize when a five-minute break turns into an hour. It becomes so addictive that we just keep doing it without even realizing how addicted we've become. This is a human problem because if you're shown short videos with constantly changing content, it can easily become an addiction.

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These days, we've become so busy that we don't even sit down with our family members or have conversations with them. We don't eat together anymore because when we sit down to eat, someone is scrolling through Instagram while eating, and someone else is watching videos on YouTube. In the old days, when people ate, everyone sat together, talked, and shared stories about their day, discussing problems and other things that happened. Things were very different back then; families would sit together and talk. But today, everything has changed. Social media has created such an addiction that we're always on our phones or laptops, constantly immersed in social media, from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep.

And social media platforms are designed in a specific way. Why? Because humans' maximum autoplay videos never end; the scrolling is endless, and the more you see, the less satisfied you feel. Likes, comments, and shares—all these features work through a reward system in our brains. We feel that if we comment or like something, it gives us a short-term feeling of happiness. But we keep repeating this feeling and constantly check our phones, and gradually, we start feeling incomplete without our phones. We find it difficult to live our lives without them. The impact of social media addiction isn't just wasted time; it significantly affects our mental health. It puts a lot of strain on our minds, and many issues like anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem arise because of social media.

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And now it's gotten to the point where even young children, three or four years old, have become so addicted to phones that they spend all day looking at them. They watch short videos, and without them, they become completely irritable and start throwing tantrums. They get angry at their parents. So you can imagine how harmful it is for a two- or three-year-old child, whose brain is still developing, to have that kind of screen exposure. Giving them a phone, tablet, or laptop all day long can be incredibly damaging. And this is exactly what happened with my niece. She was watching short videos on a tablet for many hours a day and became very addicted to it. If she didn't have the phone or tablet, she would become restless, angry, or start crying and even bang her head against the wall. So you can imagine how addicted she is to phones and tablets. This is a growing problem because if parents don't pay attention, it can become a huge issue in today's world.

For students like me, social media addiction is even more dangerous. During study time, we just scroll through social media. This wastes our study time, and we don't complete our studies. The consequence is that we don't get good marks. Our concentration power decreases, our patience level drops significantly, and it becomes difficult to focus deeply. Nowadays, many students have a screen time of 12 hours a day, and their productivity isn't very good. They spend all their time on social media, which leads to many addiction problems. They lose interest in studying and struggle to understand their lessons. Therefore, social media should be used in moderation. Excessive use can lead to addiction and other problems.

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The same thing happened to me when I started using Instagram. It gradually became an addiction, or you could say that my screen time on Instagram went from two hours to six or seven hours. I couldn't understand it. I wondered how I could spend so much time on a single app like Instagram. Then I did this: I used a screen time lock feature that limits my usage to one hour. It's only recently that my screen time on Instagram has gradually decreased, and things have improved a bit. But initially, it was very excessive, and that's a huge problem because you don't realize how much it affects you. It affects your eyes and your mental health, it causes headaches, and it can even increase your need for stronger glasses. There are so many problems associated with spending too much time on Instagram or your phone.

Posted Using INLEO