Students are liable to becoming media addicts

Addiction has become a huge part of society. According to Medical News Today, addiction is “habitual psychological or physiologic dependence on a substance or practice that is beyond voluntary control”. Addiction can range from a large variety of objects such as drugs and alcohol to food and television. There are a lot of things that one can become addicted to. All it takes is an obsessive passion for a certain thing and it affects your psychological state, thus controlling the way you go about other things.

             The debate on whether people can become addicted to media has been argued for quite some time. I believe it is possible for people to get addicted to media. For those that argue that one cannot become addicted to media bring up that people are heavily dependent on media as society has migrated to a more technological based culture, thus needing to keep up, they must be heavily involved with the internet. Most people are like this in today’s society and classifying everyone as an addict to the media would be ridiculous. Though there are people that are dependent on media, there is a difference between being dependent or addicted to something. Once a person allows the media to dictate every little thing they do, they have become addicted. If a person has the urge to constantly check their social media applications such as Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook in unideal situations like during a test or a meeting, that person is a social media addict. That example ties in with the definition of addiction given earlier as they have psychological dependence on social media beyond their control.

I would like to see limits put on the amount of time one spends with media determined by their needs of it. For example, schools should only allow internet access during school for necessary class related assignments. Using my device in class is more helpful in class than distracting because it provides me with additional help to understand certain information in class that is being discussed I’m not quite sure on. If one is disciplined, using devices can be very beneficial and pay of dividends.