Social Media Addictions: Reprisal (MCP Final Task)

As a final task for our Media Channels and Platforms journey we were assigned to choose a topic related to the course and create either a written or a practical work based on it.

Since I had already thought about social media addictions in my media diary (waaay way back in the beginning. Find the second post!☆) I decided to look into it more and try to approach the topic with a question:

How does a social media addiction look and feel like?

Why this question? Because I wanted to take a topic that I could explore through illustrations. Furthermore, I wanted to research the types and stages of social media addiction - if such specifications were to exist - and to produce illustrations based on...whatever I could find and use. I crossed my fingers and dived head first into the topic.

Social media addictions as a topic of research is still fairly young as the whole social media network as we know it now (read: Facebook, Twitter and all the rest) has been with us only a little over ten years. One of the earliest articles I came across was a South University blog post from February 2011 that addressed the question: Does social media addiction really exist?

The article called notice upon the term “addiction” and its usage, since not all overuse can be defined as an addiction, which is a serious psychological diagnosis. There was arguments both for and against the issue, but most importantly there was also the definition of when a social media overuse could be defined as an addiction: “An addiction will cause the individual to lose out on other things on life -- For example, spending so much time on social networks at work causes the individual to lose their job” (Fabbri, South University 2011). (source)

In 2014, the issue was already more addressed. A news article from Everyday Health in September 2014 spoke about technology addiction and listed social media addiction as one type, quoting David Greenfield, PhD, as follows: “[Social media addicts’] work performance or academic performance may suffer because they’re so distracted, tracking and broadcasting their lives on these social media sites.” His statement mirrored Fabbri’s earlier definition, noting that there however is not yet any formal criteria for the disorder. (source)

With the definition fresh in mind I dived deeper to find if social media addiction could be divided into different stages or types. Lindsey Wilder’s article on getcake.com divided the development of social media addiction in four stages, and while the source was not the most scientifically backed up, it did work as a good cornerstone of inspiration. The four stages listed were: Experimentation, Regular Use, Abuse and Addiction & Complete Dependency (source). A simple breakdown of the definitions of the stages could be done as follows:

Experimentation: The stage when everything is shiny and new, as you experiment with the new technology and their wonders. It’s the phase when you’re using Pinterest as the role model for a perfect life.

Regular Use: After the first stage has worn off it’s time to enter the lifestyle where you’re connected online on multiple devices - but worry not, it’s still only for a few hours per day. It’s a happy stage to be at as you feel connected on just the right level, feeling comfortable with the few Facebook notifications and emails you need to answer to without straining your eyes for hours on end.

Abuse: The fine line between addiction and not yet addiction. You can’t leave anywhere without your phone and the time you spend online is considerably more than the time offline. Your devices carry everything necessary to you from news to entertainment.

Addiction & Complete Dependency: You and social media are practically inseparable, as you can’t even start your day without browsing through a few pages first - given you even went to sleep from all the notifications. Hours are lost without notice online and any separation from your phone causes anxiety - it’s the stage where you finally may understand you have a problem but you can’t stop because you need your daily media fix. And if you don’t see it, people around you definitely do.

(source)

Initially my idea was to go for the second and fourth stage to mirror their opposing qualities and effects on a person, but as I sketched out the ideas I started tilting more and more towards the final stage, the complete dependency on social media and its effects on a person. In the end my work took the shape of the two sides of social media addiction: the look of it in the context of perception of surrounding world, and the feel of it when you are no longer able to cut the chain yourself. My goal was to create a pair of illustrations that would both support and mirror each other while depicting these two sides, not only through their messages but also composition and colour wise.

Social Media Addiction - The Look (2016, Adobe Photoshop)

The first part illustrates a situation where the addiction is present but not necessarily acknowledged by the addicted person. It shows not only through the multiple devices - a vicious cycle that may feel like excellent multitasking but that actually keeps you more and more away from physical world - but also through the view of their surroundings, which is just an extension of the online applications. What I want to bring out through this picture is the kind of mindset where you perceive your surroundings as perfect Instagram pictures, Facebook checkpoints or routes on Maps. It's a digital dome created around you that filters everything through the social media applications, and what fails to meet the needs of the social media presence fails to catch your attention at all. You blindly move where the map destination tells you to without raising your eyes to openly perceive the surroundings.

Every detail that exists outside of the carefully angled and chosen Instagram shot is grey matter, unnecessary. You live for the notifications - today's form of acknowledgement, or at least so it feels like.

It's a state that others will notice, sooner or later, and will notify you about but as said already earlier, it's not necessarily yet the state of self-recognition. For this reason the character is depicted as strong and independent, towering over the viewer. In their mind they feel powerful and a part of the social network. Every notification is a sign of popularity.

Social Media Addiction - The Feel (2016, Adobe Photoshop)

The second part illustrates the other side of the situation where the addiction has been acknowledged by the victim but where it also has become too great to resist - it's a chain binding the person to their phone all day long with little to no room for escape. Emails, messages and notifications keep the person up all night and even when they're desperate for rest they can't pull their hand away from the devices or clear their mind of the constant reminders.

The feeling I wanted to illustrate is the one where a person's life is so wound up around social media it affects their performance in real life and finally brings them to the breaking point where the constant notifications are too much. What stood as a sign of popularity now weighs them down as yet another unchecked prompt for their attention. The familiar glow of the screen has grown their eyes tired. With no other source of light their surroundings have grown dark and cold.

Aside from basing the illustrations on my research I also based them partially on my own experience and feelings and how my own dependency on social media feels like. In the process of the task I actually got to look deeper in the issue I am interested in and realize my own situation, which in part helped me create a concrete depiction of it.

I also challenged myself to work with strict, opposing color palettes and sharp lines when creating the illustrations as opposed to my usual detailed, real-ish style, and it turned out to be a bigger challenge than I had expected but in the end I'm rather happy with the outcome.

#finaltask #socialmedia #addiction #illustrations