“As early as 2010,
psychiatrists were
arguing that social
network addiction should
be classed as a disorder”
Behaviour
science
68check their updates – tantamount to opening
a beer during an AA meeting. It essentially means
cutting off all other forms of social contact
to focus solely on social media, to the detriment of
your overall existence.
There are explanations for this. A successful
social interaction means we experience a real-
world reward in the brain. Oxytocin release gives
a general sense of well-being and connection, and
the mesolimbic reward pathway, buried deep in
the centre of the brain, releases dopamine, giving a
rush of pleasure. Some argue – and a few studies
even provide some evidence – that a successful
social interaction online, such as a popular
Facebook post or widely shared tweet, can also
produce this positive response in the brain.
Unfortunately, these social ‘hits’ are a lot easier
to get online, without all the effort of ‘normal’
social interactions. Drugs operate on similar
principles, triggering the reward pathway, but
without the hassle of actually doing the action that
the brain would consider deserving of a reward.
Over time, the brain adapts to expect these
pleasurable signals, and does things like disrupt
the areas responsible for inhibitions or conscious
self-control to keep them coming. Indeed, a 2013
neuroimaging study at the University of Zurich led
by psychologist Dr Katrin Preller revealed that
cocaine addicts have diminished activity in areas
like the orbitofrontal cortex, resulting in reduced
emotional empathy and willingness to socialise.
So, if social network addiction is exploiting similar
mechanisms to cocaine addiction, social networks
may well be having an ironically negative impact
on individual’s ability to socialise, rendering them
more antisocial. More research is needed.CONTROL FREAKS
Another issue is that people have a greater deal
of control over their interactions online, meaning
they can decide, to a much greater degree, how
others experience them. You can put up only good
photos, delete unwise comments, spellcheck,
share smart memes, and so on. This satisfies
an underlying process the brain engages
in known as ‘impression management’, where
we’re constantly compelled to present the best
possible image of ourselves to others, in order
to make them more likely to approve of us.
A 2014 study led by the University of Sheffield’s
Dr Tom Farrow looked at impression management.
Using scanning technology, the team asked
subjects to choose behaviours that would make
people like them, and that would make people
dislike them. Activation was recorded in regions
including the medial prefrontal cortex,
the midbrain and cerebellum, suggesting that
these brain regions are involved in processing
the image of ourselves we want to present to
others. However, these areas were only noticeably
active when subjects tried to make themselvesWe are social creatures – isolation is used as a form of torture
and can warp the mindSocial networking can trigger reward pathways in the brain,
and may lead to addictiono_O