Doctors’ health fear over social media cravings

SOCIAL media has been found to be as addictive as smoking, with doctors warning it can endanger mental health.

Just the sight of the Facebook logo is enough to get some people online, researchers said.

A study of 200 people found showing frequent Facebook users the cue produced spontaneous pleasurable reactions that made it difficult for them to resist. But it did not affect the responses of less frequent users.

A second study replicated the first and added another dimension, measuring Facebook cravings among the participants.

This included statements such as “I want to use Facebook right now” and “I don’t need Facebook at the moment”.

There was a direct link between the level of their cravings and their reaction to the Facebook logo.

Dr Guido van Koningsbruggen, of Vrije University in Amsterdam, said: “The ubiquity of social media in people’s lives makes it difficult to resist the desire to use social media when its use conflicts with other goals and obligations.

“Desires that involve goal conflict are typically labelled as temptations. Failures to resist social media temptations may fuel feelings of guilt about one’s media use, decrease media enjoyment and eventually negatively affect wellbeing.”

The findings were published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking.

Dr Brenda Wiederhold said: “Findings in this study seem to be in line with previous research on cravings in foods such as chocolate and substances such as nicotine.”