Are we addicted to social media?

Over the bank holiday how many times did you login to your favourite social media platform to catch up on what your family & friends were doing over the long weekend? More and more of us are choosing to spend our spare time on social media rather than enjoying real life experiences in person. Many commentators including this Guardian journalist believe that social media platforms are deliberately building products which are addictive so that they are embedded into our every day life.

However, isn't there also an argument that we must "take back control" of our own lives and accept personal responsibility for how we interact with social media? We can and should set boundaries for how much time we and our children spend online. For me, the best part of the long weekend was spent lazing in the sunshine in my brother's garden watching our kids soak each other in a water fight. And no, I didn't share any images on social media - I was too busy enjoying the moment!

"Tech insiders have previously said “our minds can be hijacked” and that Silicon Valley is addicting us to our phones, while some have confessed they ban their kids from using social media.

However, the number of monthly active users of Facebook hit 2.13 billion earlier this year, up 14% from a year ago. Despite the furore around its data privacy issues, the social media monolith posted record revenues for the first quarter of 2018, making $11.97bn, up 49% on last year."

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The content above was originally posted on CMS DigitalBytes - CMS lawyers sharing comment and commentary on all things tech.