You will be surprised to know the relationship between social media and drugs

In a world laden in technology, social media is usually the order of the day. But did you know that some practices on social media can have the same effects as smoking or drinking?

The millennial generation is almost synonymous to selfies and social media. That said, it is not unusual to literally know the entire life story of someone simply by scrolling through their Instagram page.

From the moment they graduated to throwback pictures of one in his heyday, social media highlights it all. The older generation (and some much old-school youth) find this absurd, even abnormal. But what makes one completely ‘hang’ their entire life story on social media?

The answer lies in false gratification. The false feeling of ‘instalove’ and Facebook likes. The contemporary generation somehow feel a whole lot of content when they post a picture of a cute baby, a hot selfie, or even one of life’s milestones to the public for some positive ‘feedback’ from the world in terms of likes and a few comments.

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What they fail to realize is the fact that it is all superficial. That social media is one big digital jungle where everyone crosses paths every once in a while. The thing called ‘likes’ buttons which people push when they happen to come across a post that slightly raises their eyebrow. If there was the perfect synonym of the ‘like’ button, it would be ‘I’ve seen your post’.

Here is the science behind it. When teenagers and young adults are stressed, they are most likely to resort to social media, simply because they can literally add filters to their problems.

Once they upload a photo of themselves and the likes start streaming in, they almost immediately start feeling elated. They soon feel a false sense of satisfaction as the number of ‘likes’ grows.

Engagement in social media and our cellphones produces a chemical in the body called Dopamine. Incidentally, it is the very same chemical produced by the body when people smoke or drink that make drug users feel good.

This would explain why people count the likes on Facebook. Because every time another like notification pops up, the body experiences another dose of dopamine.

Hence you will find a girl post photo after photo on social media. Others will post their own children right from infancy because they know very well they are bound to get hits. Soon after, they feel obliged to ‘update their fans’ on their happenings. It becomes unusual when they go a day or two without posting on social media for likes.

In the long run, their solid relationships run out, as they value them less and less. Depression can soon kick in, but the posting will never stop.

There you have it. Addiction is not only down to physical drugs. How much dopamine do you produce?

Check out the video below to see the signs you should watch out for if you do not want to have a heart attack: