Licking the Razor's Edge (2015)

And so we log on again … and again … and again … and again …
… and so is born our addiction to social media.
And while it may seem safer than drugs or alcohol or meaningless sex, social media
addiction has seriously damaging effects on all of our relationships as well. For the more
we engage life on-line, the more brittle our “real-life” friendships become, and the more
and we lose the ability to experience real Intimacy in our lives. In addition, several
studies have shown that people who use social media frequently are more likely to abuse
drugs and/or alcohol, two addictions that serve to distance us even further from intimate
interconnection in our lives.
Essentially, the more you “plug in” to the web, the more you “tune out” from your life.
“The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what make it so
powerful.” ~ Jonathan Zittrain
RECOGNIZING YOUR OWN ADDICTION
Are some of the points in this post hitting close to home? Consider answering the
following questions to help see if you might be addicted to social media:
*Do you ever feel anxious when you don’t have access to social media for a moderate
period of time (say, five days)?
*Do you ever wonder regularly over the course of a work day (say, more than three
times) about what you are missing online?
*Do you ever rush home (or elsewhere) in order to get online just to check your personal
profile(s)?
*Do you ever feel that your social media activity is one of the most pleasurable things in
your life?
*Do you ever check Facebook first thing in the morning, before you shower or have your
morning coffee?
*Do you ever turn your computer monitor away from your co-workers or bosses so they
can’t see you checking your personal email, Facebook, Digg and Twitter accounts?
*Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and check email, Twitter or Facebook?
*Do you ever feel like “something is missing” when you go on vacation and can’t access
your social media profiles?
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