• Addiction in social media is like researching drug addiction

• Want to watch the family's zodiac surveillance in this risk

• Drug addictions behave risky

A third year student of a private university has been sleeping late in the afternoon. On Saturday, the reporter gave a call on his mobile phone to verify the matter. The phone was off.

Eprothom Alo is also the same event in two. Later, it was known that at that time the student's sleep was broken at three o'clock. Because, on the previous night he slept at around 5:30 in the morning. Finally, on Monday evening, he was able to reach his mobile phone. He said, he went to sleep at six in the morning. Sleep was about two in the afternoon.

It's been a few months since the whole night, sleeping and going on social routine through social contact. One of his friends said in the first light, the girl is not coming to regular classes. Even the exams are dropped. Back to study Can not communicate with friends. The mood is irritable. The friend said, 'I see bad mood with me.'

The student, who is sitting in the social media on the mobile phone, told the reporter, "I understand it has become like a drug addiction. Can not leave I'm lagging behind. I was about to read now in the fourth year. '

A group of researchers from the United States, Canada and Australia, led by the United States Michigan University, researched the use of 71 students of one of Germany's largest universities. They spend a lot of time on Facebook. Researchers' decisions are very bad in the social media, like the drug addiction.

A brief report came out of the study on the journal of Behavioral Adjectives magazine published from the United States on January 10. Researchers have written that, drug addicts take risky behavior, make wrong or bad decisions. They have seen, students involved in social media take too much risky decisions.

Mohit Kamal, a psychiatrist in Dhaka, said in the first light, there are many similarities between these two addictions. He has long been a drug addiction treatment. Parents are regularly coming to his personal chamber in the social media for several days.

Mohit Kamal said, three things work on the subject of drug addiction - enthusiasm, desire and demand. In the case of social media addiction, this is also the case. Now the process of incorporating addiction into mental medicine as a psychological disease has started in the medical textbook. The World Psychiatric Association, an international organization of psychiatrists, has also formulated a draft policy for the detection of addiction as a disease.

Research information

Researchers say, 250 million people in the United States regularly use social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. With the expansion of the Internet, every day new people are entering into social media. In 2016, the Facebook authorities said that a user spent 50 minutes on a daily basis on Facebook.

The students who chose these researchers were mentally dependent on Facebook. This dependency is equivalent to addiction. Initially the researchers wanted to know the students, how did they feel if they could not use Facebook, whether they ever wanted to quit the habit and what effect they had on their work or study.

In the last stage of the study, a test known as the Iowa Gamble Task for the students' mental health trial was taken. In this examination, the participants have to choose the best card by deciding the losses of each donation. This is a recognized method for understanding people's decision-making process.

Researchers have seen, the most addicted students on Facebook chose the worst card. Few of the relatively less students on Facebook are wearing better cards. Generally, people who are addicted to cocaine, cannabis or any other drug in this test are seen to make harmful or risky decisions of the same type.

What is the remedy
The US researchers say the benefits of using social media are widespread. But the bad side of it is the risk of addiction.

The concerned ministry says that there are more than 9 crores internet connection in Bangladesh. And as a government information and communication technology department, around 300 million people using Facebook in the country. Increasing use of Facebook and other social media is increasing with the fear of addiction.

Mohit Kamal said, many teenagers and young people are wasting a great time of day due to interruption in social contact. Many of them are getting bad habits. This is due to study and daily work loss.

Mekhla Sarkar, associate professor of the National Institute of Mental Health and Hospital, said that parents or guardians should keep an eye on the use of children's mobile phones and laptops. Where to sit and how long the child will use them, it can also be fixed.

The psychiatrist said, "If young people get time to spend time with friends or play a cleansed environment, they will not be able to get mobile phones or laptops. That environment has to be ensured for them. '