Our Correspondent
Kohima | March 24
Vice Chancellor, ICFAI University, Dr CP Alexander said social media affects us physiologically, psychologically & culturally.
Speaking on the topic “Social media- Its implications and perspectives” during the 28th biennial general conference of the Angami Students’ Union (ASU) at Piphema village on Friday, Dr Alexander said there is estimated to be about 3 billion active social media users around the world.
Users between the age of 15-19 spend about three hours a day on social media and users between the age 20-29 spend around two hours on social media.
“This significantly affects Dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain that is critical in all sorts of brain functions such as thinking, communication, moving, sleeping, mood, attention, motivation, reward, seeking behaviour,” he said.
On addition to social media, he said it reduces our decision-making ability and the ability to feel and express emotions. Technology seems to rewire the human nervous system; he noted adding, “Today, we seem to use less of our cognitive faculty- (cognition, conation, volition).”
He said that the effect of social media on human life has become so powerful that, every two minute we need to check for new messages. Human have created machine and we have become addicted to machine, he said.
He said that the active members of social media are about 18 to 24 years. Several studies have shown that high levels of anxiety, stress and depression are associated with people who are hooked to social media.
It increases conspicuous consumption and competitions, he added.
“We tend to value ourselves on the basis of social currency (in the form of likes and sharing). In this sense, we become the product and we wait for others to value us. If people do not like what we share then we get into depression,” said Dr Alexander.
