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Social Media Platforms and Your Mental Health - Coggle Diagram
Social Media Platforms and Your Mental Health
Biological Effects
Social Media has a direct correlation to dopamine levels in the brain
73% of cell phone users claim to experience an unique anxiety when losing their phones.
The release of dopamine when receiving a successful social interaction is similar to activities such as drugs or sex.
How dopamine works
Four different dopamine pathways that connect different parts of the brain.
3/4 are reward pathways
A successful social interaction can even be a single like on Instagram.
Social Effects
Online communication in social media has replaced real time relationships for large online communities
20% of gamer patients that are signed up of psychiatric treatment say they've been harassed online
44% of world population owns a phone, which proves that billions of people are connected, however there are higher rates of loneliness reported.
Techniques and mechanisms
Social media applications expand the criteria for notifications
Scheduled reward system
Dopamine mediated feedback signals in our brain trains our dopamine receptors to be alert when expecting a reward
Used in casinos; especially in slots, where the anticipation of the spinning slots provide a cue for reward.
This allows our brain to feel dopamine, even though we are not engaged in pleasurable activities
More interaction on social media, directly increases alerts from smartphone
Introduced by BF Skinner, he noticed that mice respond most frequently to reward-associated stimuli when the reward was randomly provided
Our dopamine driven desire for social validation makes us check our smartphones for any notifications.
The reason why social media is highly addictive is because there is no downside in checking your phone for any notifications or messages.