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DO YOU FIND it hard to tear yourself away from your screen at night? You’re not alone – email and social media can be harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, according to a new study.
The study, in which more than 200 adults wore devices that collected reports on their daily desires, found that the urges to work and consume media were the hardest to resist.
Tobacco and alcohol, though addictive, proved much easier to refrain from in the study led by Wilhelm Hofmann of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He said the conflicting demands of modern life often make it hard to choose between different desires.
“Modern life is a welter of assorted desires marked by frequent conflict and resistance, the latter with uneven success,” he said.
Researchers for the study reported by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology also found that desires for sleep and leisure were the most problematic for participants.
This suggests a “pervasive tension between natural inclinations to rest and relax and the multitude of work and other obligations”, Hofmann said.
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And that’s why Facebook is worth more than the tobacco industry
It’s destructive to the very fabric of society so we should ban it!
Personally can’t see how.
In a related topic “Man with Animated Character avatar finds it impeccably hard to stop posting daft comments on thejournal.ie”…
:’( *Sniff*
Poor guy!!
Id well believe it!
Didn’t it all start out with radio receivers called “wireless”?
The next to interrupt family and social life as we knew it was the television.
And television has evolved into something serious.
A serious conversation killer.
And now the ultimate killer of direct social interaction.
SMART PHONES.
Don’t get me wrong.
I like the times that we live in and all the gadgets that enhance our lives.
Maybe moderation is the answer.
Vote for excise duty on social media use.
Less that our data streams are evil and addictive, more that we’re bored and disappointed in the other aspects of our lives… ( or maybe that’s just me :-( )
Perhaps people are more likely to resist alcohol and ciggarrettes more because of cost and health concerns?
Social media charge alert….
I never had any problems resisting work
They must have been surveying weekend smokers because Facebook, I could live without, cigarettes on the other hand are a battle…
I’d believe it. Smoking is much more harmful too.
Facebook Levy Enda??????
It beats watching RTE.
If only the govornment could find away to tax it’s usage! We’d all be laughing… well…..the government.
They are taxing it. Phat Rabbite is introducing a broadcast licence to replace the tv licence – it’ll cover Internet.
Addiction holds no boundaries especially when it comes to social sites and the technology that’s out there. People get obsessed with these new ways of communicating and socializing which affects there close relationships. It’s destroying people.
have your say