Further Research: 'Twitter is harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, study finds'

Intention of the Study (2012):

A team headed by Wilheim Hoffman of Chicago University's Booth Business school carried out an experiment using BlackBerry's to gauge the will power of 205 people aged between 18 and 35 in the German city of Wutzberg.

They were signalled over the course of a week, seven times a day during a fourteen hour period. In response to the signal they could message back whether or not they experienced a particular desire (up to irresistible) in the last 30 minutes, and the intensity of said desire, and wether they caved in or resisted. There were 10,558 responses and 7,827 'desire'responses.

What the study found

• People were good at resisting sports inclinations, sexual urges and spending impulses
• As the days wore on, will power deteriorated
• The highest 'self control failure rates' were associated with media
• The subjective reporting of desire was relatively low for tobacco, alcohol and coffee, apparently 'challenging the stereotype of addiction as driven by irresistibly strong desires'
• With cigarettes and alcohol, there are more long costs; long term as well as monetary. So giving in to media is supposedly less consequential. 

Hoffman told The Guardian "Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not 'cost much' to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist."

My Interpretation

People have become so addicted to social media because it is so easily accessible. Not costing much is a huge factor, as monetary issues are always going to create preventing boundaries in difficult circumstances. Also the fact that it is not a physical activity, that you have to 'get up and do' is a contributing factor, which is increasing the rise of multitasking.

Solution Options?

The solution for the problem of addiction will have to be something, that again is free and easily accessible, also powerful enough to inform people that there is a whole world out there to be appreciated first hand, and that we should start embracing it rather than experiencing it through others.