Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore the addictive nature to being on social media, are young people on social media more than older people are on social media. The study hypothesized that younger people get more addicted to social media than older people.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the addictive nature to being on social media, are young people on social media more than older people are on social media. The study hypothesized that younger people get more addicted to social media than older people. The study found out that there was a correlation between social media addictiveness and age was not significant. This means that age does not determine whether an individual can get additive to social media or not.

Addiction to social media can be interpreted as a type of addiction to the Internet, where people are forced to use social media in abundance (Abbasi, 2019). People with an addiction to social media are often unnecessarily anxious regarding social media and are motivated by an uncontrolled desire to log in and use social media. Symptoms of exposure to social media may be expressed in personality, memory, physical and emotional responses, and interpersonal and psychiatric disorders.

Addictive being young and older on Social Media

The rise in social media use has coincided with a significant increase in the number of time people spent online over the past decade. Adults in the United States, for example, devote more than 6 hours a day to streaming channels. They will use applications and websites on their phones, laptops, computers, and other smart gadgets, including gaming consoles, to use social media. There is proof that people in other wealthy countries devote several hours a day online as well. Individuals, groups, and organizations can upload, co-create, address, partake in, and change user-generated or self-curated information shared online as users connect with any of these technological tools. Additionally, through the development of websites, podcasts, videos, and gaming pages, social media is used to record experiences, learn and discover topics, express oneself, build relationships, and grow ideas. The new field of techno personality focuses on the changing interactions between individuals and technology. This research aims to look at how people of different ages use social media.

Personal characteristics may certainly illustrate who uses social media and who does not the relationship between extraversion and openness is positive with social media, whereas the relation between emotional stability and social media is negative. Social media appear to be used more by people with greater social comparison alignment than people with less social comparison orientation. This literature review examines various factors affecting social media use by different groups and makes informed decisions on which age groups are most used in social media.

Social Media Usage Is Based on Appearance-Related Online Activity and Self-Esteem

Zimmer-Gembeck et al. (2021) looked at how attractiveness-related online behavior correlated with personality and appearance contrast. Self-presentation and presentation comparison, on the other hand, were more closely related. They discovered that younger generations used social media mostly to improve their looks. Midgley et al. (2020), on the other hand, correlated social media use by groups dependent on self-esteem. People who had poor self-esteem had severe upward similarities, which expected lower self-evaluations in between each correlation. Furthermore, people with poor self-esteem made more upward distinctions, implying that they would have lower self-esteem and satisfaction level during the session.