Social networking addiction

  Ask a person if they have a problem with Internet addiction and most of the time, without even being aware of the actual definition of the term, the person will answer no.

  Desktops in classrooms and dorm buildings, portable personal computers carried everywhere in their own special cases, and cellular phones with Internet and networking capabilities. People are a lot more connected than they think.

  "As someone who studies media effects and works with new media technologies I'm certainly aware of the negative consequences of people who have problems with the use of some kinds of technologies," said Professor of Communication Jeff Harman. "I don't know a whole lot about this area but it seems to me that there are people who, for one reason or another, spend unhealthy amounts of time and maybe other resources, such as money, with things that relate to the Internet."

  The dependence on Internet is becoming a social norm in younger generations.

  "Today's teens and young adults are what we refer to as ‘digital natives'," said Assistant Professor of Digital Media Design Tom German. "They've always had access to this type of technology so if you were to take that away from them they would be much more uncomfortable than if you were to take it away from someone in their 40s because people in their 40s, even though they might still have this perceived dependency on it, they can fathom what life is like without it."

  While social networking sites are not negatively based, there are aspects of these sites that can promote certain habits and influences that are not purely positive.

  "When I was in college if I had an issue with a teacher or an assignment or anything like that I could certainly go back to the dorm and complain about it to my friends," said German. "An interesting thing about what I notice with social networking now is that people seem to have their own personalized support systems where if you wanted to go complain about something all of your friends or a good deal of your friends would chime in and tell you how right you are and you might find no real resolution to that problem because you've got this network of people who are unqualified to give you the kind of help that you might need but you feel better about it."

  Another instance in which social networking has become a highly influential source of feedback is the recent exotic animal case that occurred in Zanesville in October.

  "Where was that information coming from," said German. "Just because it shows up on your social networking newsfeed doesn't make it true yet we still forward that information on to the next person regardless of it's veracity."

  While Facebook and other popular social networking sites are very useful, sometimes one must take a brief step back and not only observe how often they use these sites but also set limits on how often they access them in their day-to-day lives.

  "I think we've all seen evidence of people maybe in social settings spending more time with their face buried in their phone, whether they're Facebook-ing or texting or checking the football scores," said Harman. "We talk about things other than Internet addiction. We talk about perpetual linkage and needing to be connected and I think use leads to more use often."