Just a short excerpt of a reflection I made lately about social networks:
“The relation between peer pressure and addictions has always been a problem, but with the rise of social networks this has become even more visible. The dopamine released into the body with every like, retweet or mention that one receives, generates a soft kind of addiction that is hard to diagnose. This wouldn’t be bad if it wouldn’t change the way we live our lives. But, this ‘addiction’ corrupts our lives as the intrinsic end goal of living them as best as we can, has turned out to be an extrinsic motivation that is fuelled with the approval of our ‘friends’. Friends that –to a great extent– will not be there to hold your hand in rainy days. The socio-cultural ‘pressure’ to not give up your digital status might lead to a dangerous misuse of the social networks, in which users create an ideal showcase of their lives just to gain acceptance within their social network.”
At this point, my question is: “is this thing eventually a healthy “social” behaviour?”
Any opinions?