The internet is quickly becoming an important part of Singaporean's lives especially in a fast developing country such as Singapore. From the daily activities we partake in, it is clear how dependent on the internet society has become. This over dependence has brought about many issues, ranging from spreading of false rumors to the increase risk of our personal information being vulnerable to online hackers.
Because Singaporeans are currently too dependent social media platforms that will result in social media problems, the government, namely the minstry of health and the media literacy council, should promote awareness among the people, to look out for signs for social media addictions.
One of the major problem experienced among the people in society is social media addiction. A person is considered by Walker(2012) to be addicted to the social media if there exists a compulsion to use social media for hours. This is especially prevalent among the people in a country such as Singapore, where the internet is easily accessible and peer pressure, when Singaporeans are commonly interacting with each other, worsens the situation.
Being addicted to the social media may seem harmless to many, but there exist various problems this addiction will ultimately cause. One of them is the lack of real communication among the people in society. Given how easily it is to communicate over social media platform due to the internet, there is no doubt that anti-social behaviour has developed among the people addicted to the social media. This will result in the lack of social skill among the people in society.
Another problem is that social anxiety might develop among the addicts. Rosen(2014) debated whether participating in social media activities is because we seek pleasure or due to social anxiety. Pleasure from sharing one's daily life and seeing the ‘likes’ pile up will give one a sense of accomplishment or a disillusioned reason to be conceited. There exists a fear that what social media addicts do on the social media might not garner popularity among their friends. This fear might ultimately lead to social media anxiety being developed. This is a growing problem in our society. Anxiety when not given the proper attention and treatment will lead to depression among the working population and eventually lead to a weakening work force.
One solution already implemented by Singapore is the setting up of counselling centers for social media addiction. Singaporeans are advised by the ministry of health and the Media Literacy council to reduce the usage of the social media, and are encouraged to partake in normal social activities such as picking up a new hobby, or maybe attending more social gathering instead of using the social media platforms for hours. However, this approach is not effective in solving this problem mainly because Singaporeans are unaware that such a problem even exists. Singaporeans are unaware that they are addicted to the social media platform. Even more people are unaware that spending too much time on the social media, like every other addiction, will bring about problems. A survey was conducted by the George Marsh Cognition Lab to study the awareness of Singaporeans towards social meida. The results showed a large number of people spent large amount of time on the internet1. If these people believe that there is nothing wrong with themselves, not many of them will seek help., the “If its not broken, don’t fix it” mentality.
\Another possible solution is that the government, namely the Ministry of Health needs develop and implement campaigns to raise awareness among Singaporean to look out for symptoms of internet addiction. Such campaigns could be implemented via talks by professional counsellors in schools to raise awareness among the students. It could also be held in community centres for parents to look out for signs in the family. People need to know the risk and dangers of spending too much time on the internet. Prevention should be prefered over cure. If the people are able to release that they or their loved ones are exposed to the risk of social media addiction, they could slowly refrain from accessing the internet and social media platform. And if they are unable to do so, then they could seek help from counselling centres as mentioned above. This solution may still be ineffective. This is because the social media has become an intricate part of society. It is where people share their daily lives, their pride and joy and they sorrows and problem. Having people admit that they are addicted and request that they reduce their usage will seem difficult.
To conclude, the social media scene is currently more prevalent than ever, and it is still growing bigger and becoming more influential. More and more Singaporean are using it, for entertainment and for a living. Social media addiction is a real and growing problem, especially in our society, where the internet is easily available. Being addicted to the social media may seem harmless on the outside, but to some, it corrodes the character and the mind. It develops anti-social behavior in people and may eventually weaken the workforce and students. It It is essentially for the government, namely the ministry of health, to implement solutions that should mainly raise awareness of the risk behind this addiction, tackling the problem at the roots, prevention over cure.
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Walker, L 2012, What is social networking addiction?
Retrived from: http://personalweb.about.com/od/socialmediaaddiction/a/Social-Networking-Addiction.htm
Rosen, L, Our social media obession.
Retrived from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/rewired-the-psychology-technology/201407/our-social-media-obsession
Media Literarcy Council, Online safty - internet addiction,
Retrieved from: http://www.medialiteracycouncil.sg/online-safety/Pages/internet-addiction.aspx
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