Addiction To Social Media Encourages False Lifestyles - Expert

People have been advised to tread cautiously while using social media as it encourages fake lifestyles.

Mr Blaise Aboh, a Lead Trainer for CodeforAfrica, says addiction to social media encourages false lifestyles and  other vices.

Aboh, who is  also the founder of Orodata Science,  said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja. According to him, many young people especially ladies have adopted false lifestyles because of the social media.

“Instagram is filled with a lot of fake people living fake lives; a lady would travel to Dubai with a whole lot of clothes and take pictures in different places.

“When they are back in Nigeria, they post these pictures week in week out and they post certain things that are out of the way to show the  fake lives.

“Many of their friends not knowing that it is all lies go into unholy things in order to meet up with them;  this is another negative aspect of the social media.

“Another thing is the way we have some conversations  where people based  on their own opinion say things just because they have the platform.

“They are not experts in that area but because they have so many followers, and some people who don’t know any better would take that information and begin to live their lives that way," he said.

According to him, people’s addiction to the social media through mobile devices also exposes them to health hazards that otherwise could have been avoided.

The expert said another negative aspect of the social media is that it could lead to insomnia.

“You find a situation whereby people are staying up late at night because of this endless scrolling syndrome.”

“Instagram is the worst because they scroll and scroll and they don’t even get to sleep”.

“Apart from that, when people scroll on their phones, they are slouched and bent toward  the phone;  so over the time, it causes a strain to the back and this causes back pain.”

“So there is an increased back pain due to the use of mobile devices,  so in as much as we have the merits of social media and mobile devices,  the development has its consequences," he said.