(Image source: Mobiledia)

BY BRICE SANDER

Social media addiction is real. Well, so say researchers from The University of Chicago.
They gave 205 people – ages 18 to 25 – BlackBerrys and prompted them seven times a day for a week, asking if they were feeling any urges.  

Researchers recorded more than 7,000 “desire episodes,” reporting the need to log onto social media sites like Facebook and Twitter topped the desire for sex, sleep, alcohol and cigarettes. (YouTube/Revision3)

Mobiledia tries to explain the serge in the urge to log on.

“Users find it easier to justify glancing at a Facebook page than having a drink at 2 p.m. …The stigma, as well as the dangers, surrounding alcohol and tobacco don't exist with social media, so users are able to rationalize their actions as harmless.”

A writer for The Atlantic Wire says it makes sense, but it’s a sad fact to face.

“Less fun and more addictive ... a sad combination. Not that we don't enjoy some Twitter time, but it's fun as a work distraction, not as a Saturday night activity … Basically, if drinking had zero consequences (i.e., hangovers) we'd booze all day long.”

When word of the study hit the web, the guys at The Hour put together a tongue-in-cheek self-help video, “Five Steps to Beating Social Media Addiction.”

“Recognizing that true friends never address you by your screen name.”
“Hey – great blog post last night, FuzzyPants24!”

Forbes joins The Hour in poking fun at the study’s findings.  

“There’s also the argument to be made that social media is just as harmful, forcing someone to recede from the world ... But it’s a little easier to make the harm argument with cigarettes.”

A Gawker blogger agrees, but raises some follow-up questions he’d like answered.

“ … it's hard to imagine a ‘rock bottom’ for checking one's phone too frequently … If anything, the study is something worth thinking about … What are the long-term effects of this dependence? How does the constant impulse to check our phones affect our attention spans? And why do I care how many Twitter followers I have?”