SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION
Shiwanthie Wijesuriya

What is Social Media?
Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and
ideas in virtual communities and networks.

Popular Forms of
Social Media
• Tiktok
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Snapchat
• Twitter

Social Media
Worldwide Usage
Statistics
• 56.8% of the world’s total population is active on social media.
• This is about 4.48 billion people
• Eligible audiences aged 13 years and above.
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
Users (in millions)

Usage of
Social Media
by Gender
Female User
(%)
Male User
(%)
Snapchat 60 40
Pinterest 78 22
Instagram 57 43
Facebook 44 56
Twitter 32 68
LinkedIn 49 51
TikTok 59 41
YouTube 45 55

Usage of Social
Media by Age
Age Group Percentage (%)
18-29 84%
30-49 81%
50-64 73%
65+ 45%

How Much
Time Do
People Spend
On Social
Media?

Social Media
Addiction is Like a
Poison
• It triggers the brain’s reward system to release
dopamine, the “feel-good” chemical.
• New tools and websites are being constantly being
created
• Information can be located with in seconds
• Easy affordability and mass accessibility
• Likes/ hearts/ comments/ notifications – you will feel
happy as brain receives a flood of dopamine and sends it
along reward pathways.
• This cycle of motivation, reward, and reinforcement is a
“dopamine loop” that gets users seeking, looking, craving
rewards and more of them.

Worldwide Social
Media Addiction
Facts

Advantages of
Social Media
• Connectivity
• Education
• Information & Updates
• Awareness
• Share Anything with Others
• Helps building in communities
• Charity
• Entertainment

Disadvantages
of Social Media

Disadvantages of Social
Media Addiction on Health
• Schizoprenia - The victim of this disorder could use
social media to create a disillutions perception.
• Insomnia - This person will suffer from sleep
disorder and stress
• Sexual Problems & deviation - Porn Websites can
cause negative on child mental stability
• ADHD
• Addiction- Negative State of mind due to obsession
of virtual world
• Anxiety & Depression - Isolating and avoiding
interaction with real world.
• Eating Disorder - It causes imbalance of diet and
irregular eating habits
• Sexual Problems & deviation - Porn Websites can
cause negative on child mental stability

Disadvantages of Social
Media Addiction on
Workplace & Education
• Employer – employee relationship
can be affected due to lack of
interest shown for work
• Reduction of productivity due to lack
of interest and motivation towards
work
• Diverting interest towards studies
due to addiction to virtual world

Disadvantages of Social Media
Addiction on Social Life
• Cyber bullying
• Can become a barrier for personal and social
relationships
• Can hamper the confidence about the real world
• May influence the individuals for cyber crime
• Unrealistic expectations about body image

Behaviour after
Addiction
• Compulsive users of social media tend to
isolate
• They start disliking and ignorant of live
environment, people and their behaviour
• They start feeling bad about themselves. To
escape that undesirable feeling, they double-
down on their social media behaviour for
relief.
• The level of psychological dependency on
social media increases due to above cycle

Future Challenges
• Cyber sex addiction
• Online Gambling addiction
• Video game addiction
• Buying addiction – ebay/ Alibaba

Thank you!