British teenagers feel addicted to social media
Approximately half of British teenagers reveal a sense of addiction to social media, expressing a perceived loss of control over their usage, according to a report by the Guardian. The revelations stem from the Millennium Cohort Study, an ongoing examination of the lives of approximately 19,000 individuals born in the UK between 2000 and 2022.
Approximately 7,000 participants engaged in the study, and 48 per cent strongly concurred with the statement, “I think I am addicted to social media.” The newspaper reports that 57 per cent of girls agreed, in contrast to 37 per cent of boys.
In an interview with the Guardian, Georgia Turner, a graduate student involved in the study, emphasized that individuals stating they feel addicted may not experience addiction in the traditional sense associated with drugs and alcohol. Turner stated, “Social media research has largely assumed that [so-called] social media addiction is going to follow the same framework as drug addiction. But it’s not a nice feeling to feel you don’t have agency over your own behavior. It’s quite striking that so many people feel like that, and it can’t be that good.”
Kerry is a Content Creator at www.systemtek.co.uk she has spent many years working in IT support, her main interests are computing, networking and AI.