What is Addiction?

     With so many people especially teens spending a large part of there time on social media websites, some would consider that we are becoming addicted to it. Danah Boyd would argue that there are many constraints placed on teenager that cause a large consumption of social media. One of these constraints would be their parents over scheduling them to the point where 95% of there day would already be planned leaving no time for hanging out with friends and doing what they want. This situation then causes them to use their phones and computers in order to compensate with the communication avenues consisting of social media. I believe it is not an addiction because once the user joins in on a real life social event, usually social media is pushed to the back burner and used to a lesser extent. The user is most likely with the people he or she is looking up on the web so it is unnecessary.If you were truly addicted, you would be struggling every minute you didn't have it out.
      It appears to me that the main culprit is convenience that is causing the massive overuse. I don't think addiction is the answer. People are finding numerous different ways to communicate with people, and it is technology that is providing more pathways to fulfill the need. I agree with Boyd about there being many different conflicting factors that lead to the large usage in today's society. Boyd also mentions how having a productive talk about the priorities a teenager should have will be more beneficial than calling all social media devilish. Furthermore Boyd mentions how parents are become less trustworthy with other children just based on the content children are growing up with so they isolate their children from the rest of society. In order to fill this void in their life, they are forced to turn to social media. Society is the main driving force to massive social media consumption; therefore, I don't necessarily agree that social media is a terrible problem that all parents should have their kids avoiding. Addiction is out to the question for me. Critics should first look at the underlying problems before they make judgement on social media.