The University of Chicago Booth School of Business conducted a study which led to a conclusion that people give in to the urge to check social media more easily than they feel the need to smoke a cigarette or alcohol. The motive of the study was to measure willpower, it included asking 205 participants of varying agrees different questions related to their desires, how strong the desires were and whether they resisted or gave in to them before even staying away for a week.
Twitter or email turned out to be the highest causes of “self control failure” as told by Wilhelm Hofmann, head of the team performing the research. Other desires and urges like urges for exercise , sex and spending were also brought to light, but far less than social networking urges. Also, the desire to have alcohol and cigarettes was also comparatively low. According to Hofmann people give in more easily to these desires because there’s no direct downside to excessive use of media. Also, sneaking a look at your smartphones is easier than finding a place to smoke. Hoffman however also warns us that, t “even though giving in to media desires is certainly less consequential (than drinking or smoking), the frequent use may still ‘steal’ a lot of people’s time.” The full research paper is expected to be published soon in the Psychological Science.
