Research Outline
I.
Introduction:
In the introduction paragraph, I will give a brief explanation about social media
addiction with some background information.
Thesis statement: Getting addicted to social media has a bad influence on people
especially the young one.
II.
Body paragraphs:
a. In the first body paragraph, I will be explaining the bad effect of social media
on children, and how the biggest foundation of social media limit or prevent
them children from using it. I will cite the article “The Argument kay Ada
by Alter.
b. The second body paragraph will be about the over use or the unnecessary use
of social media, and how people can be addicted to it. I will cite the article
WESLAME
enton Golbeck.
c. In the third body paragraph, I will be explaining how social media can lead to
teen suicide, and how it can be affect our health. I will cite the article “New
Study Suggests Link Between Teen Suicide and Social Use” by Newseta
Staff
d. In the fourth body Paragraph, I will explain how social media can affect on
users socially. I will cite the article “We're Not Addicted to Smartphones,
We're Addicted to Social Interaction" by Space Daily. Also, I will cite the
article Defining Addiction And Hts Many Forms” by Farai Chitova.
III.
Conclusion:
I will restate my thesis sentences. Also, I will give my opinion.
2k
m
THE ARGUMENT
By Adam Alter
have shared similar perspectives with
me. Several video game designers told
me they avoided the notoriously ad-
dictive game World of Warcraft; an
exercise addiction psychologist called
fitness watches dangerous - "the
dumbest things in the world" - and
swore she'd never buy one; and the
founder of an internet addiction clinic
told me she avoids gadgets newer than
three years old. Her favorite computer
game is Myst, released in 1993 when
computers were still too clunky to
handle video graphics.
Greg Hochmuth, one of Instagram's
first software engineers, realized he
was building an engine for addiction.
"There's always another hashtag to
click on," Hochmuth said. "Then it
takes on its own life, like an organism,
and people can become obsessive."
Instagram, like so many other social
media platforms, is bottomless. Face-
book has an endless feed; Netflix auto-
IRRESISTIBLE
matically moves on to the next episode
The business of technology is the business of addiction
in a series; Tinder encourages users to
keep swiping in search of a better op-
tan Apple event in January his home, “because we have seen the tion. Users benefit from these apps and
2010, Steve Jobs unveiled dangers of technology firsthand." His websites but also struggle to use them
the iPad:
five children were never allowed to use in moderation. According to Tristan
"What this device does screens in their bedrooms. Evan Wil- Harris, a "design ethicist," the problem
is extraordinary... It is the best brows- liams, a founder of Blogger, Twitter, isn't that people lack willpower; it's
ing experience you've ever had ... way and Medium, bought hun-
that "there are a thou-
better than a laptop, way better than a dreds of books for his two Tech isn't
sand people on the other
smartphone. It's an incredible expe- young sons but refused to
morally good
side of the screen whose
rience. ... Phenomenal for mail. ... It's a
give them an iPad. Walter
dream to type on."
or bad until it's
job it is to break down
Isaacson, who ate dinner
the self-regulation you
For 90 minutes, Jobs explained why with the Jobs family while
wielded by the
have."
the iPad was the best way to look at researching his biography corporations
These tech experts
photos, listen to music, take classes of Steve Jobs, told Bilton that fashion have good reason to be
on iTunes U, browse Facebook, play that "No one ever pulled
it for mass
concerned. Working at
games, and navigate thousands of out an iPad or computer.
the far edge of possibil-
apps. He believed everyone should The kids did not seem ad- consumption.
ity, they discovered two
own an iPad.
dicted at all to devices." It
things. First, that our
But he refused to let his kids use the seemed as if the people producing tech understanding of addiction is too nar-
device.
products were following the cardinal row. We tend to think of addiction as
In late 2010, Jobs told New York rule of drug dealing: never get high on something inherent in certain people
Times journalist Nick Bilton that his your own supply.
- those we label as addicts. The label
children had never used the iPad. This is unsettling. Why are the implies that they're different from the
We limit how much technology our world's greatest public technocrats
kids use in the home." Bilton discov-
rest of humanity. They may rise above
also its greatest private technophobes? their addictions one day, but for now
ered that other tech giants imposed Can you imagine the outcry if religious they belong to their own category. In
similar restrictions. Chris Anderson, leaders refused to let their children
the former editor of Wired, enforced
truth, addiction is produced largely
practice religion? Many experts both
strict time limits on every device in
by environment and circumstance.
within and beyond the world of tech These entrepreneurs know this. They
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July/August 2017
FROM IRRESISTIBLE BY ADAM ALTER, PUBLISHED BY PENGUIN PRESS, AN IMPRINT OF PENGUIN PUBLISHING GROUP, A DIVISION OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE LLC. COPYRIGHTO 2017 BY ADAM ALTER: SHUTTERSTOCK
EWSELA
THE ARGUMENT
recognize that the tools they promote
once, twice, a hundred times, or not professional careers, earning six
- engineered to be irresistible - will at all. When the benefits overwhelm figures, but deeply hobbled by their
ensnare users indiscriminately. There the costs, it's hard not to perform the addictions. "One woman has two mas-
isn't a bright line between addicts and act over and over again, particularly ter's degrees and she's a teacher. But
the rest of us. We're all one product or when it strikes just the right neuro-
she's addicted to online shopping, and
experience away from developing our logical notes.
she's managed to accumulate $80,000
own addictions
A like on Facebook and Instagram in debt. She's managed to hide her
Bilton's tech experts also discov- strikes one of those notes, as does addiction from almost everyone she
ered that the environment and cir- the reward of completing a World of knows." This compartmentalization
cumstance of the digital age are far Warcraft mission, or seeing one of was a common theme. “It's very easy
more conducive to addiction than your tweets shared by hundreds of to hide behavioral addictions - much
anything humans have experienced Twitter users. The people who create more so than for substance abuse. This
in our history. In the 1960s, we swam and refine tech, games, and interac- makes them dangerous, because they
through waters with only a few hooks: tive experiences are very good at what go unnoticed for years." A second pa-
cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs that were they do. They run thousands of tests tient, just as accomplished at work,
expensive and generally inaccessible. with millions of users to learn which "went through a horrible breakup, and
In the 2010s, those same waters are tweaks work and which ones don't. As then stalked her ex-boyfriend online
littered with hooks. There's the Face- an experience evolves, it becomes an for years. With Facebook, it's far more
book hook. The Instagram hook. The irresistible, weaponized version of the difficult to make a clean break when
porn hook. The email hook. The online experience it once was. In 2004, Face- relationships end."
shopping hook. And so on. The list is book was fun; in 2016, it's addictive. "The impact of social media has
long - far longer than it's ever been I spoke to several clinical psycholo- been huge," a second psychologist
in human history, and we're only just gists who described the magnitude told me. “Social media has complete-
learning the power of these hooks. of the problem. "Every single person ly shaped the brains of the younger
Tech offers convenience, speed, and I work with has at least one behav- people I work with. I could be five or
automation, but it also brings large ioral addiction," one psychologist told ten minutes into a conversation with
costs. Human behavior is driven in me. "I have patients who fit into every a young person about the argument
part by a succession of reflexive cost- area: gambling, shopping, social me- they have had with their friend or
benefit calculations that determine dia, email, and so on." She described girlfriend, when I remember to ask
whether an act will be performed several patients, all with high-powered whether this happened by text, phone,
on social media, or face-to-face. More
often the answer is, 'text or social me-
dia.' Yet in their telling of the story,
this isn't apparent to me. It sounds like
what I would consider a real,' face-to-
face conversation. I always stop in my
tracks and reflect. This person doesn't
differentiate various modes of com-
munication the way I do... the result is
a landscape filled with disconnection
and addiction."
Technology is not inherently bad.
When my brother and I moved with
my parents to Australia in 1988, we left
our grandparents in South Africa. We
spoke to them once a week on expen-
sive landline calls and sent letters that
arrived a week later.
When I moved to the United States
in 2004, I emailed my parents and
brother almost every day. We talked
on the phone often, and waved to each
other via webcam as often as we could.
Technology shrank the distance be-
"Ease up on the lighter fluid, and let me know when the grill lands."
tween us. Continued on page 88
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July/August 2017
PRODUCE
Rist
THE ARGUMENT
Continued from page 14
Tech isn't morally good or bad until school, and the goals that drive people
it's wielded by the corporations that to exercise addictively might also drive
fashion it for mass consumption. Apps them to save money for retirement.
and platforms can be designed to pro- Addictions are damaging because
mote rich social connections, or, like they crowd out other essential pur-
cigarettes, they can be designed to ad- suits, from work and play to basic hy-
dict. In many respects, substance ad- giene and social interaction. The good
als
dictions and behavioral addictions are news is that our relationships with be-
very similar. They activate the same havioral addiction aren't fixed. There's
brain regions, and they're fueled by much we can do to restore the balance
some of the same basic human needs: that existed before the age of smart-
social engagement and social support phones, emails, wearable tech, social
mental stimulation, and a sense of networking, and on-demand viewing.
effectiveness.
The key is to understand why behavior-
Behavioral addiction consists of six al addictions are so rampant, how they
ingredients: compelling goals that are capitalize on human psychology, and
just beyond reach, irresistible and un- how to defeat the addictions that hurt
WOT
predictable positive feedback, a sense us and harness the ones that help us.
of incremental progress and improve- A decade ago, who could have
"Forget the nutritious superfoods. We
ment, tasks that become slowly more imagined that Facebook would attract
can't afford to live that long."
difficult over time, unresolved tensions 1.5 billion users, many of whom say
that demand resolution, and strong they wished they spent less time on between midnight and five the next
social connections. Despite their di- the site? Or that millions of Instagram morning. Games, like books with
versity, today's behavioral addictions users would spend hours uploading chapters, can be built with natural
embody at least one of those six in- and liking the 60 million new photos stopping points. Social media plat-
gredients. Instagram is addictive, for the app hosts every day? Or that more forms can "demetricate," removing the
example, because some photos attract than 20 million people would count numerical feedback that makes them
many likes, while others fall short. Us- and monitor their every step with a vehicles for damaging social compari-
ers chase the next big hit of likes by small wrist-bound device?
son and chronic goal-setting. Children
posting one photo after another, and These are remarkable statistics, but can be introduced to screens slowly
return to the site regularly to support they represent an early waypoint on and with supervision, rather than
their friends. Gamers play certain a long climb. Behavioral addiction is all at once. If app designers can coax
games for days on end because they're still in its infancy, and there's a good people to spend more time and money
driven to complete missions and be- chance we're still at base camp, far on a smartphone game, perhaps policy
cause they've formed strong social ties below the peak. Truly immersive ex- experts can also encourage people to
that bind them to other gamers. periences, like virtual reality devices, save more for retirement or donate to
So what are the solutions? How do have not yet gone mainstream. In 10 more charities.
we coexist with addictive experiences years, when all of us own a pair of Our attitude to addictive experienc-
that play such a central role in our virtual reality goggles, what's to keep es is largely cultural, and if our culture
lives? Millions of recovering alcohol- us tethered to the real world? If hu- makes space for work-free, game-free,
ics manage to avoid bars altogether, man relationships suffer in the face of screen-free downtime, we and our
but you can't apply for a travel visa or smartphones and tablets, how are they children will find it easier to resist
a job without an email address. Hardly going to withstand the tide of immer- the lure of behavioral addiction. In its
any modern jobs allow you to avoid us- sive virtual reality experiences? place, we'll communicate with one
ing computers. Abstinence isn't an op- We can't abandon technology, nor another directly rather than through
tion, but there are other alternatives. should we. Some technological ad- devices, and the glow of these social
You can confine addictive experiences vances fuel behavioral addiction, but bonds will leave us richer and happier
to one corner of your life while court- they are also miraculous and life en- than the glow of screens ever could.
ing good habits that promote healthy riching. And with careful engineering
behaviors. Meanwhile, once you un- they don't need to be addictive. It's Adam Alter has written for The
derstand how behavioral addictions possible to create a product or experi- New York Times, New Yorker,
work, you can mitigate their harm, or ence that is indispensable but not ad- Atlantic, and WIRED, among other
even harness them for good. The same dictive. Workplaces, for example, can publications, and is author of The
principles that drive children to play shut down at six - and with them, New York Times best-seller Drunk
games might drive them to learn at work email accounts can be disabled Tank Pink (Penguin, 2013).
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