Blog Post #2 Project Outline

My inquiry question is: What makes social media so addicting and how can we break this cycle? 

The three steps I will be taking to answer this question are: 

1. How does social media hook us and make us attached?

First, I will look more closely at how social media works. How are the contents we view set up? Are our for you pages really traps which lure us into this cycle of dependence? Is this why we can’t stop? By taking a deep dive into how social media works, I will learn how it keeps us engaged and how they have managed to control everyone’s attention spans. I will also learn why these methods which social media uses have been successful thus far, and why they always seem to work time and time again? This will help me answer the first part of my inquiry question of what makes social media so addicting.

2. What makes teenagers more susceptible to social media addiction? 

It is often said that teenagers in our generation are the most dependent on social media. By researching a bit more into this topic, I hope to learn how and why people my age end up being hooked to social media. What makes us be more at risk? Is it our age? Is it because we are part of the first generation to be living in a world where we are all dependent on technology? Is there any way around it? Though my inquiry question is about the addictiveness of social media towards people of all ages, I believe that narrowing the question down towards teenagers and people my age will be very beneficial, as social media is very prevalent in every teen’s life in today’s world. I hope it will also be helpful for my peers and people my age as this is something which most of us go through and can relate to.

3. Breaking the cycle 

After learning about how social media works, I will look at ways in which we can beat social media’s tricks. If now we know how it works, we must find ways to make sure we don’t fall into its trap. Though as mentioned before, this is easier said than done, knowing how it works doesn’t stop it from succeeding time and time again. So, I will try to find various ways and methods which can help us to not fall down the rabbit hole of social media each time, or if we do end up getting sucked down the hole, what are some ways we can get out? I will do this by looking at various sources and different methods, as not all methods are effective for everyone. This will help me answer the second part of my inquiry question of how we can break this ongoing cycle of addiction which we have with social media.

5 sources which will help me in my research and addressing my question:

https://www.jeffersonhealth.org/your-health/living-well/the-addictiveness-of-social-media-how-teens-get-hooked

https://www.apa.org/news/apa/2022/social-media-children-teens

https://www.iberdrola.com/social-commitment/impact-social-media-youth#:~:text=Causes%20and%20profile%20of%20people%20addicted%20to%20social%20media&text=Adolescents%20are%20at%20the%20highest,to%20reaffirm%20their%20group%20identity.

https://medium.com/@happinetz001/breaking-the-cycle-understanding-and-combating-social-media-addiction-458381d7c6da#:~:text=Digital%20Detox%3A%20Consider%20a%20temporary,can%20reduce%20the%20constant%20pull.

https://buffer.com/resources/social-media-break