Aren’t we getting addicted to social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp etc.? Well, studies show that social media is acting like a sort of strong addiction for a lot of people.
Rise of Twitter, the microblogging behemoth, ushered in the era of saying things in just 140 characters. This need to be precise does not bother users much. In fact most are happy for it’s easier to write 140 characters instead of a lengthy post. But has this ease become an addiction? Let’s find out.
To much of addiction? Want to delete all your tweets?
A study was conducted in 2010 in which college going students were asked to go without social media for 24 hours. After this period, they were asked to describe their feelings using certain words, the results were:
- 23% felt addiction
- 21% felt physical or mental distress
- 12% felt failure
- 8% felt confusion
- 8% isolation
At least 50% of the 100 million Twitter users log into the service on daily basis and post about 250 million tweets. Which means about 5 tweets per logged in user per day. Now you can imagine how many tweets some of the users might be posting! I am guessing that there would be users out there who post hundreds of tweets every day.
According to the following infographic the research showed that Tweeting is harder to resist than caffeine, alcohol, cigarette and even sex and sleep!
Twitter is not only making common man addicted. Celebrities also appeared to be hooked on to it and find it too hard to quit tweeting.
So, do you also feel addicted to Twitter? How many tweets do you make every day? I have written an article on how to simplify your Facebook life, but the same rules also apply of Twitter or any other social network. I would suggest that you should take immediate and serious steps to “de-addicted” yourself from virtual life. Such an addiction takes heavy toll on one’s real life and one may not be able to utilize his/her full potential.
Please let me know your comments on this issue.
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