What is the impact of media - GOOD, BAD OR SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN?

(Originally Published on Careersinpsychology.org)

....Rachel Ritlop, M.Ed, Career and Business Coach, holds a Master’s degree in Vocational Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling. She asserts that there are three big reasons why social media is all-consuming:

• Boredom - People have grown so accustomed to over-stimulation that when they are bored, they begin scrolling. Or, they feel insecure in the fact they have nothing to do, so they begin scrolling.

• Positive reinforcement - People have grown accustomed to positive reinforcement with "likes" and "follows" being the measuring stick. This can feel great, and it reinforces the behavior to stay on social media and continue trying to get more "likes" and "follows".

• Instant gratification - I see this happen at the dinner table all of the time, a family gets into a debate about who the actress was in a movie, so one of them whips out there phone to Google it, and all of the sudden that person has been on the phone for five minutes because they got distracted by other things. We like having all of the answers at our fingertips, but it often leads to disconnection on other levels.

Read the full article here.