There are a vast number of ways to get information on just about anything. With the fast rise of Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media sites, there is no surprise that the amount of information that passes through is overwhelming. Because of this, can social media be more addicting than say caffeine, alcohol, or cigarettes?
The statistics for these addictives varies day to day and even year to year. In addition to the statistics, there are costs as well. Between cigarettes and alcohol, both of them vary, but have an average cost of about $8.00. Even with these high costs, social media is still more addictive.
Think about how much you are on the computer or smart phone and looking up information all day long. It is easy to get distracted from work and instantly jump on social media to see what is going on. For example, when Joan Rivers was hospitalized, several people immediately put up a post about it on Facebook and shared articles from other websites. That is how fast information travels and it is easy to see why social media is more addictive. You can get the information in an instant, where as with alcohol and cigarettes are not as immediate.
For the other addictives, people use it as a way to cope and escape their problems. However, these can get out of control and much harder in a way to handle. Some people do recover, others unfortunately, do not.
Another argument that can be made is by seeing that Facebook can bury some people into a little bubble to a point where they do not have to interact with people. This is not good for the health because you lose the normal interaction between people and truly see what the world is about without having the company of a computer screen.
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