You open your phone to check one message. Five minutes later, you’re watching a stranger’s vacation vlog, reading heated comments under a political post, comparing your lunch to someone’s “clean eating” meal prep, and wondering why your thumb is still moving. Sound familiar?
That tiny moment — when a quick check becomes a 45-minute scroll (or longer) — is not simply a failure of discipline. It is the result of carefully engineered platforms colliding with ancient human needs: connection, curiosity, validation, novelty, belonging, and status. The social media platforms are designed to track what interests you and continue to bombard you with content, making it difficult for you to stop scrolling.
Not everyone is addicted to social media. The psychology behind social media addiction matters because social media is no longer just entertainment. It shapes how we work, date, shop, learn, argue, relax, and see ourselves. For many people, the problem is not that they use social media. The problem is that social media starts using them.
Next time you're at a restaurant, look at how many people are on their telephones scrolling or using some other electronic device. Your family and/or friends are sitting at the supper table with you, and no one is talking to each other as they focus their attention on other places. While oftentimes forwarding an interesting topic to one of the individuals sitting at the table with you, instead of talking and sharing the topic aloud.
We are now seeing a generation of people who spend so much time “gaming” and utilizing social media that they have a hard time communicating and expressing themselves with others. In many, it disrupts their sleep, distracts them from exercise and family activities, exposes them to online predators, and exposes many to cyberbullying.
If you're going to allow your children to utilize the internet and other social media platforms, consider limiting their exposure through monitoring apps and limiting the amount of time they use the devices. Like the old Brylcreem commercial used to say, “Just a dab will do ya.”
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Steven Jeter is Chief of Police for Trinity.
