Symptoms of Social Networking Addiction: Is Your Teenager Addicted to Social Networking?

Do you have a teenager who spends every possible moment of his or her day on a social network? Are you having serious problems communicating with him or her? Perhaps he or she is excluding family and friends. Is your teenager acting secretive, fighting or screaming at everyone?

Does your teenager walk away from everything, even homework or other things that are extremely important and hide in his or her room with a computer or smart phone? Perhaps the problem has become such that you cannot converse without having an argument or winding up with him or her in a veil of tears. Are you wringing your hands and reduced to tears, as well?     

Your teenager may be addicted to social networking.

The socialmediaexaminer.com asks, “Are you addicted to Facebook or Twitter? As social media continues to grow, details are starting to surface about people’s behaviors and consumption of information in the social space.”

Communication with others is normally a good thing. Knowing how to use a social networking device and social networking site properly appear appropriate, as well as effective. This type of communication seems almost vital to human inter-action and survival in our era, but the tendency towards social network addiction is growing. That may not be a good thing.  

Much like teenage problems related to the introduction of the telephone years ago, teenage addiction to social networking creates friction between teenagers and parents. Do you recall arguing with your parents about how much time you could spend on the telephone? The advent of the computer resulted in the same kinds of problems; so did the introduction of cell phones.        

Who would have thought that grandparents, parents, teens, children and others would now become addicted to social networking?

Maybe you are a person who is hooked on social networking, too.

Try walking away from your smart phone and social network system for a few days and see if you feel a sense of loss, miss the contact with others or have social network cravings. Do you feel lost and lonely, frustrated or angry, when you do not have access to your social media website or smart phone? How do you feel when your Internet connection goes down and you cannot do social networking that day? Are you totally devastated when you cannot access family or friends on your social network?  

Does panic set it?

Perhaps you are like many others. You have grown accustomed to being able to communicate electronically with your friends and family, at any time, from almost any place. You have access to an exciting new tool and you are becoming addicted to using it.

The bottom line becomes that of still being able to function without it. Are you addicted to social networking?   

Globally, social network addiction is a growing problem. For almost anyone, there is a tremendous degree of fascination with social networking because it works. It is relatively new and unique. The cost of social networking is relatively low and it is affordable.

Even children quickly become addicted to social networking. Parents, in an effort to teach their children everything they possibly can, open the new horizons of possibility for them, not realizing that without setting some limitations, social networking may become a priority to them. Social networking becomes the new fix, the high of the day and the topic of conversation.

One might ask how communication devices like smart phones or a computer-based system like social networking could affect communication so adversely.

Identifying the symptoms and being aware of social networking addiction can help resolve the communication problem and restore peace in your home. Remember that computers and smart phones are only tools. How they are used is important. Social networking etiquette is vital.