"More than any other behavior that people engage in compulsively, the digital version — from checking Facebook to texting — shows that just because you’re compulsive about something doesn’t mean you have a broken brain. To the contrary. As with other compulsions that fall well short of pathology, the allure of being online sheds light on some of the mind’s most salient, and utterly normal, operations, according to the latest research...
If we’re prevented from compulsively checking for texts, the anxiety that the compulsive behavior alleviates comes roaring back. Psychologists have found that people who are separated from their smartphone experience an elevated heart rate and other signs of anxiety.
In one 2016 study, volunteers who filled out a standard questionnaire about their smartphone use and emotions told researchers that they turn to their phones “to avoid negative experiences or feelings” and “to cope [with] or escape from feelings related to an anxiety-inducing situation.” Psychologist Alejandro Lleras, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who led the study, described it as a security-blanket effect, absorbing our bubbling-over anxiety."
FB: what seems like an "addiction" can also be read as an adaptive use of the internet as a mental health tool "By giving in to a compulsion to use their phone, many of the study volunteers were able to defuse much of their anxiety. “People seem to be less vulnerable to becoming stressed in anxiety-provoking situations when they have access” to their mobile phone, the researchers wrote."
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