A Behavior Analysis of Technology and Social Media Reliance in Adolescents
Since the invention of smartphones, people can’t seem to put them down. Even individuals who did not grow up with the advanced technologies have trouble stepping away from the screen at times. This essay is a behavior analysis of technology and social media reliance that will focus on adolescent use. The majority of the current consumer population has adopted “smart” mobile devices the past fifteen years, and these new technologies have affected behaviors, interactions, and experiences (thematic exploration). Social networks have become one of the most crucial aspects of an adolescent’s social life (Tavares, 2013). They serve as a tool so adolescents can engage with their peers even when they are not physically with each other. There is increasing evidence to support that addiction to social media is a rapidly growing issue (Eijnden, Lemmens, & Valkenburg, 2016). According to the Pew institute, about 73% of people that responded to the survey were internet users – and this was back in 2006 (Young, 2007). It is a powerful thing to be able to be connected to your peers and the rest of the world at all times but when is it time to say enough? It has been concluded that the misuse of technology can be damaging to the development of an adolescent in a psychological, physiological and social way (Tekkanat and Topaloglu, 2015). The maladaptive use of technology will weaken “cognitive, behavioral, and effective functioning in an otherwise healthy person” (Hall and Parsons, 2001).
The majority of adolescents will admit that they are addicted to their smartphones and regularly participate in compulsive social media use. There are new studies that discuss the emergence of Social Media Disorder (SMD) (Eijnden, Lemmens, & Valkenburg, 2016), laying out certain criteria that must be met to be considered disordered and addicted engagement. Social Media Disorder is one of a few behavioral addictions that center on technology. In the early 2000s an internet related disorder was presented, called Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) (Hall and Parsons, 2001). The Social Media Disorder is extremely similar to IAD; it has modernized because of the explosion of social media over the past few years as smartphones came about. The Social Media Disorder Scale presents nine criteria: preoccupation, tolerance, withdrawal, persistence, displacement, problem, deception, escape, and conflict (Eijnden, Lemmens, & Valkenburg, 2016). At least five or more must be met to qualify for SMD.
An individual’s behavior of constantly being on their phone is learned through engaging with their social and physical environments. The more a person sees someone else on their phone, that individual’s problematic behavior is reinforced by their environment. The function of social media reliance is being burned by both ends of the candle. By an individual either getting out of their current task by distracting themselves with technology or receiving text messages and notifications from social media, their behavior is being reinforced. It is theorized that adolescents want to feel connected to other people and it allows them to feel current without actually having to physically or emotionally connect with another human being. With multiple social media platforms, there is always something for the adolescent to check up on. The “goal” of performing a problem behavior is allowing yourself to “postpone, avoid, or escape” anything – whether it be demands or social interactions (Ging). By engaging in the behavior of smartphone use they allow themselves to postpone other, less favorable activities like doing work, or avoid an awkward situation with an acquaintance by seeming occupied by their phone. What effect do these problem behaviors or events have on the adolescent? When the response behavior is performed, it produces negative consequences, such as engaging in compulsive engagement with technology and breaking one’s attention to another task. It’s important to remember that two adolescents have different reasons for turning to social media – one to escape academic work and one to stimulate their social needs.
What is problematic about compulsive social media use? The reliance on social media can create many problems and abnormal behaviors. These problem behaviors will be analyzed:
The compulsive use of smartphones and social media platforms.
Low self-esteem.
Multi-tasking and not being able to focus on one task (attention deficits).
The rise of smartphones and social media has caused many adolescents to use the platforms compulsively. The three term contingency model consists of an antecedent, behavior, and a consequence (ABC). THE ABC model is used to determine what elicits behavior.
In operant conditioning and respondent conditioning, the most important difference is that responding conditioning is when the “stimuli is presented regardless of the participant’s behavior” and for operant conditioning to occur “the participant must engage in a behavior in order for the programmed outcome to occur” (Ging, 2016 PPT). Operant conditioning includes behaviors that are produced voluntarily towards the environment. Operants are selected by their consequences. The antecedent is the situation that causes the behavior, which is followed by a consequence. Whereas in classical conditioning the stimulus was neutral before conditioning and will only elicit a response if they are conditioned to do so.
In the case of the first problem, the compulsive use of technology, the antecedent is the smartphone lighting up or vibrating, resulting in the behavior of the individual checking their phone. The consequence is engaging in compulsive use of technology. The individual is conditioned to know that the smartphone lighting up or vibrating means that there is a notification waiting. The stimulus, the phone screen lighting up / vibrating, produces a response, the individual thinking they have a notification and picking the smartphone up to check it. The more the stimulus-response action happens, the more it becomes an impulse. The antecedent is the phone vibrating, ringing, or lighting up. This situation produces the thought in the adolescent’s mind that there is a message or social media notification waiting for the individual on their smartphone. Behavior analysts suggest that human behavior includes private thought (Pierce and Cheney, 2008). The situation presenting itself causes the individual to reach for their smartphone and check said notification, resulting in compulsive interactions with their smartphone. The smartphone will receive the notification regardless if the adolescent chooses to engage with it or not. Checking the smartphone becomes a reflexive behavior that the individual cannot break because it becomes reinforced by the “socializing” factor and feeling included.
In this case, abstinence recovery is not ideal because technology and increasingly, social media has become a large part of people’s daily lives – in more ways than for connecting with peers. It has become a platform for news stations to release information on current event and for companies to advertise. How does an adolescent cut down on their technology use when it is so prevalent?
The desired behavior is for the adolescent not to pick up their phone immediately when their phone vibrates or the screen lights up, signaling that they have received a notification. The goal is to be able to go for periods of time without having the desire to check the smartphone. The current behavior of compulsive use should not be reinforced. Reinforcement is about strengthening the behavior. The desired behavior of not engaging with the smartphone or keeping it stored away without looking at it should be reinforced. The desired behavior is about being able to control use (or misuse) of technology while still being able to use it for daily life. Which type of reinforcement would be most effective for the adolescent? Positive reinforcement tends to be preferred, which is the addition of a negative stimulus that is added for consequential purposes. Negative reinforcement is removing the stimulus (Healy).
A favorable outcome is for the adolescent to go to a class without looking at their phone or to simply not disengage themselves with their current task to read the notification. When the adolescent’s phone vibrates and they go to pick it up, or even want to (depending on the severity of their reliance) this action should be followed up with an immediate consequence. The consequence could be a period of time where their phone is taken from them or for them to receive an unpleasant stimulus, which will be the reinforcer. Some adolescents still compulsively check their phones even when a stimulus has not been displayed. If they can go for a duration of time without picking up their phone they will be given something pleasant or have a negative reinforcement removed. An unpleasant stimulus is the best option to increase the behavior of not engaging with the smartphone. The individual can set a schedule that slowly reinforces the behavior of not compulsively checking their phone. If they can go five minutes, ten minutes, etc. without thinking about their phone that behavior will be reinforced.
A critical part to stopping the undesirable behavior is for the adolescent to figure out and recognize why they reach for their phone immediately. Is it an escape mechanism to avoid the task they were currently doing? To escape boredom? If it is one of these reasons then the individual can turn their attention to more desirable activities when they are seeking a break or stimulation.
The key is for the adolescent to be able to control the stimulus. The concept of stimulus control is “behavior continues to occur in situations in which behavior has been reinforced in the past, and stops occurring in situations in which it has not been reinforced” (Healy). If the adolescent realizes that the setting could prevent their compulsive behavior, they should use that to help them control the stimulus. For example, if the individual realizes that they are more likely to check their phone if they are isolated in their bedroom with no one to punish them, they should change locations. Smartphone use is prohibited in the majority of libraries, making it a place that reinforces behavior of staying off of technology and punishing the opposite behavior.
The use of technology and social media can cause a myriad of behavior problems other than compulsivity. The second undesirable behavior in the misuse and abuse of technology that this essay will look at is self-esteem – low self-esteem in particular. This behavior will be analyzed in terms of classical conditioning.
An example of behavior that can elicit low self-esteem is if the adolescent posts a picture on a social media platform, for instance Facebook, the compulsive use of their phone and social media may increase directly after because they will wish to check how many “likes” / “favorites” and comments they have received. The adolescent sets the scenario by posting on a social media platform. When they start to receive notifications, this may elicit a “feel good” response, resulting in high self-esteem. Some adolescents believe that how well-liked they are as a human being comes from the amount of rewarding feedback they receive on a social media post. If they do not get the results they are expecting (i.e., less amount of “likes” and comments) they may question their status with their friends, their physical appearance, or question how well-liked they are. These thoughts cause negative thoughts and consequentially, negative behaviors. By engaging in social media they are putting themselves out there and are hoping for their peers and friends to respond in a certain way. A lot of the time these insecurities can result with low self-esteem, a distorted view of themselves, and a damaged self-concept. Social acceptance in an adolescent’s age group and gaining approval from peers are critical to self-concept development and self-esteem. This feedback on an individual’s post can become negative or positive reinforcement for them, making them more or less likely to engage in social media posting depending on the outcome of their contingency behavior and consequence. This problem tends to be classical conditioning because the adolescent would only elicit the response (positive or negative feedback) if they chose to engage in the stimulus (posting on social media platforms).
For the case of this problem, positive and negative punishment can be the most effective for an adolescent struggling with low self-esteem from the abuse of smartphones and social media. At first, negative punishment will be the most useful. For example, an adolescent might find themselves scrolling through social media platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, and start feeling badly about how they might look in comparison to other people online. Adolescents may compare themselves to their peers but in addition to that, many adolescents follow their favorite celebrities on social media. There has been a significant increase in posting about fitness, healthy choices, and an increase in “lifestyle” bloggers. These types of accounts on social media make it increasingly difficult for adolescents to stay satisfied when they see people they do not know traveling the world or with the ‘ideal’ body type.
The goal is to decrease the behavior of them compared to others because the behavior elicits low self-esteem. To reduce this behavior, an option for negative punishment could be for the adolescent to remove all social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) from their smartphone altogether. Removing what is causing the bad thoughts and behavior to happen is the first step. By removing the social media platforms, it may start out as negative punishment (taking away a positive stimulus) but could end up being a negative reinforcement – removing an adverse, negative stimulus to strengthen the behavior of positive thoughts for the adolescent. Next, the adolescent can use positive punishment to ease themselves back into social media. For instance, if the adolescent is scrolling through their social media feeds and they start to feel negative thoughts, a negative stimulus can be administered to them. On the other hand, when they feel positive emotions while on social media a positive reinforcement can be added to strengthen the desired behavior.
The individual can self-administer stimulus controls by changing their situation. In stimulus control, context is critical – the people around, the setting, and words exchanged. The adolescent trying to stop negative thoughts can start by removing the people that are eliciting these undesirable thoughts. For example, a female individual follows a beautiful, fit woman on Instagram. This woman posts pictures and videos of her working out, of healthy foods, and of her on the beach in a revealing bathing suit. The account makes you feel negatively about yourself because you start to think you could never look like that. Unfollowing her on Instagram would help the individual to control the adverse stimulus.
In terms of setting, the individual notices that when they are scrolling mindlessly through Instagram they are in their bedroom, not interacting with any friends or engaging in active behavior. The individual should change settings – going to hang out and interact with their peers or participate in a sport or activity. Not only is the individual putting a stop to the negative thoughts, they are engaging in non-media related activities which reinforces their behavior of not using technology.
In terms of words, the individual could change the words they use when interacting with social media platforms. For example, the individual sees the same fit female on Instagram and sees a post about them in a bathing suit. Instead of turning to distributing negative feedback saying “I will never look like that” they can condition themselves to say positive words and comments instead. They can say “Wow, she looks great!” and use the post as motivation to increase their own self-esteem and confidence.
The next problem behavior that this essay will be looking at is the inability to focus on one task and attention deficits caused by the abuse of social media. In a study, The Social Media Disorder Scale, Eijnden, Lemmens, and Valkenburg look into the “relatively strong link between SMD and attention deficit corroborates the public concern that the use of social media, particularly when used via smartphones is distracting adolescents’ attention from their everyday activities and obligations” (2016). Media multitasking (MMT) has become widespread in the use of technology (Hadlington, 2015). This is mostly being seen in the age group between eight and eighteen years of age. Participants in the MMT focus group had cognitive function difficulties when presented with more than one set of information.
The use of social media is extremely distracting to users. It can be hard for an individual to step away from their smartphone because that is one of the main ways they stay connected to their peers and friends. On average, individuals can be interrupted up to forty times when attempting to complete a task and can take up to twenty five minutes for them to return to cognitive function (Brooks, 2015). This makes multi-tasking or allowing distractions to occur from smartphones while attempting to complete a task very inefficient. For students, tasks they have to perform include listening attentively to a lecture, participating in class, completing chapter readings and assignments. A survey from Cengage Learning (2014) found that a total of 59% of students were using social media while they were in class. It is not efficient to half listen to the professor while scrolling through a Facebook feed.
Adolescents are on their smartphones constantly – during the time they should be spending on homework, class, and even conversations with friends. An adolescent has the free will to check their phone – or to not – at any given time. Some adolescents engage even when they are doing homework creating a conditioned response of disrupted attention to the task at hand. This can only take place if the individual chooses to interact with their smartphone at the time of another task. How do adolescents keep themselves focused?
An individual can only be distracted by their smartphone if they keep it near them or allow themselves the opportunity to engage with technology. Adolescents must learn that there is a time and place for technology for entertainment purposes. Once they learn this, it makes it possible for a change in their behavior.
The stimulus of feeling a phone vibrate or see it light up is what triggers the individual to respond. The vibration or glowing screen elicits the behavior of picking up the phone. The individual is conditioned to want to respond to the notification immediately when they see it no matter where they are.
The most effective way to reduce this behavior is to remove the stimulus. The desired behavior is for the adolescent individual to be able to focus on a task from beginning to end without giving into the distraction of their phone. This can be considered a negative punishment because the individual will not be able to use their phone. Taking away the phone’s ability to vibrate by turning it on silent or removing its ability to light up by putting it on ‘Do Not Disturb’ is one way to remove the adverse stimulus of distraction.
Social media is usually used as an avoidance mechanism. “Avoidance conditioning occurs when a behavior increases in frequency if it prevents an aversive stimulus from occurring” (Healy). By engaging in the behavior of using technology and engaging in prolonged use of social media the individual is avoiding the unwanted stimulus such as, having to listen to a dry lecture or reading a chapter in their textbook.
Using negative punishment is an effective way to reduce bad behavior. The individual could set short-term consequences for themselves if they display the undesirable behavior of being distracted by their phone. Most individuals are aware of the long term consequences; they can include bad grades, if they do not pay attention in class or procrastinate on an assignment due to social media use. Adolescents need something that will affect them immediately. For instance, negative punishments include locking away their phone in a timed box not to be opened until the time is over. Another negative punishment that could happen is they receive less time with friends because they spent too much time engaging in social media platforms and now are behind on schoolwork.
The individual can administer stimulus control to help with the process of extinction of the unwanted behavior. In terms of people, the individual can make a pact with their friends that they all have to place their phones in a designated spot so none of them disengage from the group to check their phone. By having other people by a part of stimulus control, it holds the individual responsible for following through. This can be helpful in terms of study groups or relaxing hangouts.
The setting is important when it comes to avoiding the stimulation of a phone notification. As mentioned earlier, being in the library while doing work instead of home will hold the adolescent responsible because the use of cellphones is usually prohibited while in the library. The adolescent could also leave their phone in another room which forces them to remove themselves from the adverse stimulus and reinforces their good behavior of completing the task with no distractions. Eventually, this stimulus control becomes positive reinforcement for the individual. For example, if the individual is completing a homework assignment and completes the task without using their phone (the desired behavior) they are rewarded with more time to participate in what they desire to do because they completed the task more quickly with no distractions.
If the individual creates environments where they are able to control the unwanted stimulus they will be able to stop the unwanted behavior of compulsively checking social media and online app notifications. Using these reinforcement and punishment techniques helps the individual to self-administer and reach the desired behavior more quickly and efficiently. The goal of not engaging with compulsive technology use is to avoid the problems that occur. It helps adolescents build self-monitoring skills, more self-control, higher self-esteem and positivity towards oneself, and helps them to be able to focus on one task.
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