Hi! I'm Dave from Boyinaband. A while ago I made a Facebook post, in which I asked people to send over research for a topic they considered important. I was looking through the responses, until one of them made me double-take because I didn't think the research was real at first. It pointed me towards China, *Asian Music* I don't think that's racist, I think it just sets the tone. Specifically a chinese boot-camp, but not for the military, for recovering internet addicts. So I was like, "Woah! That seems pretty damn extreme," and not just because the military drills made this one kid so exhausted that he forgot his directions, but the fact that China declared internet addiction to be a clinical disorder. Some studies think over a third of people could have an internet addiction. And judging by the fact that you're currently on the internet, I'm guessing that percentage goes up a bit for you. The rest of the research clarified this in an article showing that up to 38% of people would rather have internet access than basic utilities, like water and heat. Which initially I scoffed at, and I'm English so I know how to scoff at something. (scoff) (scoff scoff scoff) (scoff scoff) And the scoffing was warranted when I noticed that I couldn't find the original source of the article used online anywhere. But then I thought, "Hang on, would I rather have Internet or basic utilities?" Like, genuinely ask yourself that question now. Which would you prefer? Internet or convenient heat and water? Because so much of my life is lived online through social media. It's how i keep in touch with friends, how I entertain myself, how I learn about the world, and honestly I think I would actually prefer to huddle up in blankets and take trips to the nearest well instead of giving up my internet access. Even though I can logically see how extreme it is to say something like that I still feel it, and this realization came as quite a shock to me. But "addicted" is a really strong word. Like, what medically classifies someone as an addict, as opposed to someone just really wanting to do something? Like, I enjoy maple syrup but I don't think that makes me a syrup addict, right? Well, the American Society of addiction medicine says It's a disease of brain reward, motivation, memory, and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social, and jesus christ, could you be more vague? Okay wait, it specifies what those characteristics are. So it looks like if you can't stop, you crave it, and you aren't rational enough to see the problems it's causing, then get weirdly angry when people explain that, the medical field considers you addicted. Well, the rubbish thing is, by that definition, I might actually be addicted! I find myself on social media all the fricken' time! To the point where I'm wasting time I could be spending being productive. Sometimes I'm not even happy while I'm on it. And being super honest, there have definitely been instances where people have talked to me in real life while I'm faffing about being online and I've snapped at them even though there was no reason to. But then I started to think, "Is it really that bad?" "Just how bad could it be?" I mean, I really like the internet. Is there any real reason to consider fixing this if I'm clinically addicted? That's pretty much exactly what an addict would say. Well, turns out, there are quite a lot of reasons. For starters, a study found it can make you hate how you look. The more participants used the internet and social media, the more likely the were to feel ashamed of their body, to feel dissatisfied with their weight, and to have lower self-esteem and we can actually go more specific and say which parts of the internet are the worst for your self esteem. Another study split participants and got them to use either Facebook, an online fashion magazine, or an appearance-neutral content control website and measured their mood afterwards Wait a second! What exactly is an appearance-neutral content control website? That just makes me imagine like, grey blocks, 90's HTML tables, and some text, describing the website they're on. "Welcome to my cool website!" Oh, they used a craft website?! This craft website?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I already wonder how I could live up to these unrealistic standards! I could never be as stunning as these "10 Stunning Floors That Will Knock My Socks Off!" This study is floored! But it found that while dissatisfaction with body shape was affected more by the fashion site, a desire to change their face, hair, and skin was affected mostly by Facebook. But then I noticed something, which meant I didn't have to worry. Both of those studies were entirely done on females, and do I look like a girl to you? ... NOO! One thing I've heard a lot is that using social media makes you narcissistic. And in a study of 13 000 people they found that there actually was a correlation between social media use and Grandio's Narcissism. But is there any way to be sure that the narcissists didn't exist already, and their egos aren't just gravitating towards Facebook? Well, another study showed that while it is correlated, Facebook use didn't significantly increase levels of narcissism. So that one actually is a myth. *MYTH BUSTED* Then, one of the big negatives comes when the relationships end. Facebook stalking, or if you want to sound unecessarily like a spy: 'Interpersonal Electronic Surveliance,' is super common. In one study, 88% of people creep on their exes post break-up And even creepier than that, 70% of people who no longer had access to their partner's profiles, said they tried to creep using other means, like logging into a friend's account. That one frikin' shocked me! And the problem is, Facebook stalking is actually illegal. No, it isn't I'm lying.. But has a really high correlation with people's current distress. Sorry, I didn't mean to worry ya. Now, correlation is not causation, just because a lot of people on wheel chairs are disabled, doesn't mean wheel chairs go around breaking people's legs. That'd be horrifying! But it is super interesting to know that people who were doing the Facebook stalking were more distressed. And longed for their ex partner way more. Again, correlation, not causation. You'd have to do a study where you encourage half the participants to stalk the hell out of their exes to find out wether it was causative. Well, one thing that made my jaw drop when researching this, when you change a relationship status, Facebook itself actually prompts you to erase the person from your life. Either there are some really considerate Facebook employees, Or they just don't want to see a 'Daily Mail' article reading: ''Man kills ex-girlfriend after repeated stalking on Facebook.'' totally Zuckerberg's fault! *sarcasm* And perhaps the biggest one, Facebook could potentially cause depression. One study found there was a definite linear relationship between depression and increased time on social media. Compared with those who checked least frequently, participants who reported most frequently checking social media throughout the week, had 2.7 times the likelihood of depression. Again, not a 100% sure it's causative, but it is a pretty frikin strong correlation. Another issue is to do with sleep. A study monitored the devices of 76 under graduates, (God help the scientist that had to look through the list of sites they visited!) and found a clear correlation between heavy Facebook use and lack of sleep, poor mood and disengagement. Well, look all this data, but, how certain could I be of how addicted I am? (music) *I MUST BE OUT OF MY MIIIND* How has the scientific community chosen to measure internet or social media addiction? This is Kimberly Yang [Yang] Drugs, alcohol and sex... She was the psychologist who published the first paper on internet addiction, and developed the ''Internet Addiction Test.'' [Yang] So I posted a small survey online, I took the same clinical criteria that one would use to define pathological gambling and then just substituted the word 'internet.' and I just wanted to see what I would find. Well back when I probably had two emails a month, I had over fifty emails. All from people telling me how they lost their jobs and their marriages. Students across the country having problems with the very tool they were being encouraged to use. It made me wonder, if people could get addicted to the internet, the same way we talk about drugs, alcohol and sex. You can take the 'IAT,' at the link at the description and get your score, to get a feel of how addicted you are. I got 67 out of a 100, which means I got problems *God damn it* But then, I'm probably gonna be higher when it comes to the internet because so much of my career relies on using it. Is there anything more specific? YES! The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale, also called the ''BFAS'' by no one, is used in a bunch of studies. Including this one, which showed Facebook use correlated with lower happiness. This one, which found Facebook addiction was negatively related to satisfaction with life. And this one fom Turkey, which has loads of little squigles on the letters *HEHEHEHE!* I got 11 which means, I just scraped in there this time. Some super interesting things, come from comparing the personality test, used commonly in academic research. And no, to all the ENFP-s out there, it's not the Myerrs-Briggs, that's a popular test with the kids these days but it's not really used in academic research. The test that is used academicaly is the NEOPETS test, which measures 5 aspects of personality. It's actually NEO-PI-R But wouldn't it be great if there was just a widely used academic personality test, which page you with a Neopet? I'd be a Scorchio! You'd be a Jab-Jab. But yeah, there's 5 personality traits, each relate to different Facebook inhabits. As mentioned in this study by Cecilie Schou Andreassen, and Torbjørn Torsheim It's TORBJÖRN Yes, I included that bit for the Overwatch drew. For instance, those with high extroversion joined over as twice as many Facebook groups, And interestingly tended to be slightly higher on the BOFAS, I would have guessed it was introverts that would be more addicted to Facebook but, nope. And high conscientiousness led to a much lower addiction score. Probably because they are too busy doing work and meeting deadlines. PFF GEEKS! If this is all from surverys, is there a phyiscal way to be sure of how addicted you are? YES! And it's frikin cool as hell! There's this one study where participants, navigated Facebook while scientists measured physiological indicators of emotion, from people's frikin skin! Because it turns out, Skin momentarily becomes a better conductor of electricity, when people are physiologicaly aroused. People say when they are exited, they are buzzing, turns out they litteraly are! And guess what they called the electrical impulse data tracker? The ''Buzzfeed.'' Ok, no they didn't but they should... And they found something pretty specific from this, Participants experienced more pleasantness, during the course of social searching, than they experienced during social browsing. (silly voice) BUT DAVE, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN... *laughs* The difference being, social browsing is looking for general information, about friends and strangers. And social searching, is looking for specific information, about offline acquaintances, with the goal of knowing them better. The study showed that ''buzz'' diminished, during the course of both social browsing and social searching. They even have a graph of how quickly it went. LOOK AT IT! (Nickelback) LOOK AT THIS GRAPHHH... Sorry. So this study actually found something useful. If you want to use Facebook healthily, decide to use it by picking a specific friend, you know you want to check up on. You'll statistically be happier, than if you just scroll through your feed, and share some video of some edgelord rhytmically complaining about the school system. I WASN'T TAUGHT How did this happen? Why am I and so many other people potentially addicted? One of the strongest hooks is to do with the thrill of unpredictable rewards. A super famous psychologist, whose name sounds like a bloke would start a fight at the local pub, B. F. Skinner. *Yo I pay you gonna go to pub later?* *Yes, sound mate.* *Wait! Is that B. F. Skinner fella gonna be there?* *Yeah mate I already heard he's goin' down tonight from point.* *Then nah mate, I'm gonna hang about for a five ticket caugh* *I'm just gonna go home and watch Hearthstone videos.* *ON YOUTUBE* *Hah, when Dave went into Twisting Neather, what would this bloke think of next?* B. F Skinner did a bunch of studies, on how a behaviour that is reinforced, tends to be repeated. And behaviour that is not reinforced, or is punished, tends to die out. Yeah, that seems bloody obvious, but the less obvious part was where he discovered that having an unpredictable reward made people more motivated to do something, than a predictable one. Isn't that frikin wierd? If you 100% know you are going to get a cookie, if you pull a leaver, then you'll get bored of the leaver more quickly than if you have a 50% chance of getting a cookie. I now want a cookie... Because you never know whether you'll be rewarded with likes or messages, or your exes posting depressing Facebook statuses. Facebook is making you want to return to the site out of curiosity, WAY more than if you knew every time you went there you'd get 3 likes on the last post. Like, that was it, just 3 likes, every time. Kinda nice. But, just 3. Another hook is called 'FOMO.' Which is not an ASCII monster face holding a baseball bat with nails in it. Can you see it? Really? :( Just me? Okay. Fear of missing out is a psychological phenomenon where pe... oh, I don't need to explain this. you are not an idiot! And one of the things that could be good, could be bad, is how some people who lack social skills, who struggle to meet people in real life, are able to interact more safely and easily online. You could help them learn how to talk to people, or you could lead them to downroad spiral, because they'll become so hopelessly addicted to social media, that they don't even consider going out and interacting with the single other human being, as a viable option for the rest of their life. You know, swings and roundabouts. Well, some people aren't sure it exists at all. One study found internet addiction often appeared in people affected by other mental health issues. So, maybe it's not an addiction to technology, but instead a sympthom of some other issue, like depression. That manifests by spending a metric crap-ton of time on technology. They found the time sequence between internet-related problems and other mental health problems varies from person to person. Like some people might spend 7 weeks straight looking at sexy League of Legends fanart before they depressed, whereas other people look at dafter. And this could be dangerous! If it turns out internet addiction is just a sympthom of depression or something, then all this effort going towards treating internet addiction directly might not be solving the root issue. Another reason it might be so popularly called an addiction is because it's frickin' fantastic CLICKBAIT. Something titled: ''My son is an internet addict,'' is way more clickable than ''My son has crippling depression!'' I mean, when would something involved crippling depression go viral? [Idubbbz] ''I have crippling depression!'' Okay, well, what's the most specific proof that this is a real thing? Turns out, internet addicts have abnormal white matter. Not to be confused with gray matter, or Black lives matter. Gray matter is where all the cells and synapses are. You know, the ones you see in those old school dodgy CGI brain zoom-ins. Whereas white matter, is the pathways connecting those together. Apparently in internet addicts, those pathways are disrupted in areas relating to; emotions, decision-making and self control. So we can see the brains are physically different. I think someone just lying being different, to have an excuse to watch more meme compliations. [Idubbbz] ''I have crippling depression!'' HA! ... Classic meme! And this disruption is powerful. Researchers found in a study of MRI's of people's brains, the Facebook ques were more potent triggers in people's brains, than traffic signs. But when it comes to defining a real life mental disorder, the holy grail is the DSM, which stands for: ''Da Super Manual.'' The DSM is what most psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists use to define what disorders exist. It's basically, the closest thing we have to consensus on mental health issues. The latest version released is the DSM-5, which came out in 2013. Which after much heated debate, did not class internet addiction as a thing. So, your average psychiatrist isn't likely to diagnose you with internet addiction disorder. HOWEVER As you've heard, there's a crap ton of data, which shows how the internet and social media, when used in a wrong way, can be seriously disruptive and addictive. Just because it's not in the psychiatric bible now, doesn't mean it won't be eventually, and it doesn't mean it's not a real, potentialy dangerious thing. But this doesn't mean it can't be treated. (silly voice) *So how do we fix it???* There's a bunch of way that studies have shown can help with this kind of addiction. First is the more obvious step of setting boundaries, reducing your intake and replacing it with something else. Especially important since the average 18 to 36 year olds, spend 17.8 hours a day consuming media. WAIT! Hang on! What the hell?! That leaves 6.2 hours for food and sleep, how is that even possible? Okay, let me check the source. Oh, this study comes from a marketing company, who has an incentive to make people think that people consume a ridiculous amount of media. And they don't explain beyond saying it was a survey what questions they asked. And if I google the company who did this study, during the month it was supposedly done, with the number of people in the study, it just comes up with the bunch of irrelevant French crap! God damn It, does anyone check their frikin sources before posting oh my god?!? Okay, well, let's go back to that whole: ''Social media is strongly correlated with depression'' thing. So, how about this one? Yep. Funded by Natinoal Institute of Mental Health, controls a bunch of factors, strong data with an explanation how they got it, boring-ass layout with no consideration for the readability, yep this looks like some proper science to me! So, setting bounadries is worth doing. This can be done with willpower, by just saying: ''Oh, I'll just use my internet on a set schedule.'' But, if you're anything like me, LOL that will not work! There are some great apps designed for parents, to restrict their kids phone and tablet usage. I used this one, ''Screen Time,'' and I got a friend to come up with a password, so I can't just turn it off. Or on your PC, there are apps like ''Rescue Time,'' which I use, and ''Cold Turkey'' which I've also used. which automatically close sites, after using them for a certain amount per day, or during certain times. Or on your Mac, I don't know man, google that, I'm not your dad. This study examined the treatment outcomes of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) for internet addicts. They evaluated the patients on the 3rd, 8th and 12th sessions, and apparently, most people could manage their addiction by the 8th session. And not only that, they still hadn't relapsed six months after the therapy ended. So yeah, therapy is effective. Medication can also be an option. ''Burpropion'' is a generic form of the drug, ''wellbutrin.'' That drug apparently reduced severity and duration of internet addiciton, and significantly reduced depression in those individuals. I found a study showing passive Facebook use, like, just scrolling through the news feed, decreases effective well-being. The decrease was not found in people using Facebook actively. Like, posting and commenting and messaging. And my first thought was: ''Oh, maybe it's just the people who feel like using Facebook passively are already depressed.'' But the scientists said they already thought of that. The study was causative, not correlative. FINALLY something frikin causative! And the reason this is so useful is; We spend more time passively using Facebook, than actively using Facebook. The people in the study used Facebook passively about 50% more than they used it actively. when they were just doing what they wanted. So, people spend most of their time on Facebook, engaging in a behaviour that reduces their effective well-being. It kinda sucks to have to tell you this, since I've made a bunch of money from people who found me, by scrolling aimlessly through the internet. But it comes down to this: If you interact with social media, you are chosing to make yourself happier. If you are not interacting with it, you are chosing to make yourself unhappier. Every individual scroll through your Facebook feed, you are voluntarily flicking away a small piece of your happiness. So if you are anything like me, right now, you'll have temporary burst of motivation to be like: ''Yeah, I'm gonna do something about it!'' So GRAB the HELL out of that before it goes! Find a partner to hold you accountable, Install something that blocks the sites after too much usage, delete the bloody game, that's how I quit wasting time on League of Legends two years ago. I'll put the links to the programms I mentioned in the description, and let me know how it goes. Because letting me know would count as an active, healthy use of social media. Cheers for watching and have a nice day! :)
