Socializing with Social Media: An Abridged Psychological Insight
Our smartphones have become an essential part of our lives, so much so we’re joined at the hip with them — especially us millennials. It would not be too wrong to state the same for the previous generation despite their claims otherwise! It’s not surprising many surveys have indicated that most of us would rather forget our wallets than our phones.
Smartphones have become the one-point platform which integrate all sorts of communication and interaction. However, we are not using them for its original purpose, verbal communication, but rather for texting and social media interactions.
This brings us to the question: why is digital communication so much easier that face-to-face communication? One of the answers lies in the fact that no cognitive or emotional involvement is required whilst communicating online.
During face to face communication, we unconsciously process non-verbal cues continuously — like facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body language, eye contact etc. These cues enable us to interpret the other person’s intentions. Online social interactions are facilitated virtually and we are saved from learning the social coping mechanisms needed to understand and react appropriately to others’ expressions and body language. This relieves our brain from the extra work, obviously meaning that it is happier communicating online! Think of it as your brain bench pressing 5kg instead of 50kg. The ease of it has led our brains to gradually become addicts.
The brain is the boss of our bodies as it produces different hormones which control just about everything we do, even when we’re asleep. This is very well visually represented in the Disney Pixar movie ‘Inside Out’
Any type of happy feeling like when you’re in love, experiencing success, eating pizza etc. can be boiled down to four hormones — dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. These are also known as happy hormones. Each are released after a different activity. Endorphins are released after exercise, oxytocin after a cute little cuddle and serotonin when we feel significant or important. Dopamine, on the other hand, is associated with feeling of accomplishment. Ever wonder why we love crossing off an item from your To Do List or why the mile markers during our runs make us feel energized and pumped up when we are about to reach the finish line? It’s due to the release of dopamine.
Putting it in a social media context, dopamine is said to be linked to ‘likes’. Once these ‘likes’ are received and noticed by those who’ve posted, dopamine is released from one nerve cell to another, producing a feeling of enjoyment. This creates motivation for us to go seek out those certain behaviors that release dopamine. It’s a vicious cycle. Brain hormones aren’t the only thing impacted. According to a first-of-its-kind study by University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) which scanned teens’ brains while using social media, the same brain circuits that are activated by eating chocolate and winning money are also activated when teenagers see a large number of likes on their own updates in a social network.
Developers of social media websites have used this biological processes to influence people to constantly remain active. The more popular these sites become, the number of advertisers flocking to them increases, generating more revenue. And this economic cycle goes on.
This makes me wonder: how can we have a healthy bond with technology? Many don’t understand that the messages and posts we see are not reality. Even though it is often suggested that we need to disconnect, the demands of our times do not allow us to completely divorce from technology and social media. I think the best solution is that each of us has to figure out how we can create our own healthy balance to socialize with social media.
