How many times a day do you check your Facebook? Do you often check it without even realizing that’s what you’re doing? Maybe you’re addicted — the results of a new study conducted by the University of Maryland’s International Center for Media & the Public Agency seem to say that addiction to social media is possible.
The study of 1,000 students from all around the world — including the US, Mexico, China, Argentina, and the UK — found that those who gave up the Internet (and all other forms of media) felt intense withdrawal symptoms within 24 hours. This led the researchers to believe that Internet addiction is real, although there is much debate about such an addiction as a clinical diagnosis.
Students from the US and from China reported feeling the highest incidence of feelings of addiction when they were completely separated from all forms of media, including cell phones, Internet, music, video games, and television — even though the separation was only for one day.
Students from 10 countries—including the US, Mexico, China, Argentina, the UK—all reported distress, isolation, confusion, boredom, and a feeling of addiction when they had to go 24 hours without any form of media, including Internet, music, games, news shows, and their cell phones.
However, the numbers were not all equal—students from the US and China (mainland and Hong Kong) showed the highest percentages of feeling addicted, at 23 and 22 percent respectively. Ugandans had the least trouble with the experiment, and Argentina had the highest percentage of students who failed to complete it.
Those who failed fell into two categories — those who needed media for work or school, or those who simply could not bear to go 24 hours without some form of media.
Readers, what do you think of the results of this study? Are you “addicted” to Facebook?
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[Ars Technica]
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