Over 60% of college students in the U.S. reported being addicted to social media in 2024, according to a study from Demand Sage.   

“I think social media can have both positive and negative effects on students,” said EIU social media coordinator Alyssa Osterday. “Maybe the most obvious negative is that it is distracting. It can easily consume a student’s time if not limited, and their time is a precious commodity.” 

Osterday said how between assignments, commitments and other responsibilities, time management is necessary for students to be successful during the semester. 

She also noted how social media has benefits for students by providing entertainment and a sense of community online and how social media is a way for students to blow off steam while, at the same time, being a place to connect with others of similar interests and experiences. 

Many students though can have issues with managing their social media time with college. 

According to Demand Sage, 82% of Gen Z adults believe they are addicted to social media, with over 210 million people globally being affected by social media addiction. 

For EIU students, social media is used for many different purposes, whether it be for keeping up with what friends are doing or watching for entertainment. 

“Social media is definitely a large part of my daily life. It’s usually the first thing I check in the morning when I wake up and the last thing I do at night before bed,” said junior early childhood education major Lindsey Beals. 

Beals said she uses many social media apps such as Snapchat, Facebook and TikTok for different purposes. She is on Snapchat for communication with friends and classmates, TikTok for when she is bored or looking for entertainment and Facebook for shopping on marketplace and keeping up with her family and other local groups she follows. 

She admits that her social media use has caused her to procrastinate tasks that she has to do. 

“So much of my time is wasted on social media,” she said. “I think it’s a large reason why I procrastinate on schoolwork, but it is also a nice break or reward for completing an assignment or task.” 

Beals said she feels she misses out on real life experiences and conversations due to her social media use. 

She explained by talking about the time she was on a road trip with others. Instead of talking with them or looking out the window, she said she was likely on her phone. 

She said she has tried to stop using social media many times but has often given up because she feels like she is going to miss out on not getting invited to an event or a big announcement from being inactive. 

For senior early childhood education major Kyrah Estacio, social media creates a similar predicament. 

Estacio uses Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram, but she does not get on her Facebook and Instagram as much as her Snapchat. 

“Social media is an easy way to make broad scale announcements and stay in contact with people you don’t see often, it creates the opportunity for online learning and continued education training,” Estacio said. “On the other hand, it can be easily a distraction from work or homework. Someone can really need to get something done but they want to see how this video ends first and before they know it another hour has passed by.” 

Senior digital media technology major Ethan Brown uses both Snapchat and Instagram to keep up with his friends and see what they are doing. 

He admitted that he posts infrequently yet finds himself frequently checking on posts his friends make. 

“It’s nice to be able to check in on what friends are doing when they post things. I get a lot of campus news just from my friends sharing things,” he said. 

Brown went on to explain that one of the biggest reasons that social media can be so addictive is because there is so much of it out there. 

The number of posts and comments on every site and app is limitless and the content on every app is specifically tailored to the preferences of the user to the point where it’s almost guaranteed that every time you open a social media app, you’ll see something new or interesting. 

For Brown, the younger generations were the first to be stuck in this trap at an incredibly young age which makes it harder to escape. 

Brown’s take on the addictiveness of social media is like Estacio’s, who expressed that from what she sees, one of the reasons for addiction is the exposure to social media at a young age. 

“You see a young child begin to cry they are given a screen, a phone, tablet or TV,” Estacio said. “That is all that they know, entertainment through media. If kids are given toys to play with instead of a phone, they become more creative in their play and develop more interesting things to do throughout their lives as well. Having that young influence toward social media influences them for the rest of their lives.” 

Osterday had some advice for students struggling with social media addiction.  

“What works for one person when it comes to limiting social media intake, may not work for others,” she said. “Things like deleting apps or logging out for a while to take a break could be helpful, as well as setting up daily time limits in your phone’s settings. The most important thing is to be honest with yourself.” 

Osterday continued to say that it’s easy to ignore limited time settings for social media or just simply redownload the app. But she recommends setting up dedicated times on a smartphone for social media to limit use or to just turn the phone off when it is not in use while putting it somewhere out of sight.  

She has found that personally scheduling things that don’t involve her phone, like reading or completing a task, helps her keep from reaching for it in the first place and scrolling out of boredom.  

According to a 2022 article by the American Psychiatric Association, there are six main options for people struggling with social media addiction.  

The association recommends turning off your phone, turning off notifications, temporarily or permanently downsizing on social media use, working with a partner to stop using social media, setting aside a limited amount of time for just social media use, setting offline times and taking a temporary break.  

Michelle Doty can be reached at 581-2812 or at mrdoty@eiu.edu.