Jornal de Comunicação de Massa e Jornalismo

Mindfulness and the Social Media

Abstract

Edo Shonina, William Van Gordona and Mark D Griffithsa

The number of people engaging in and using social media has increased substantially over the past decade. Recent research has also suggested that a minority of individuals appear to be addicted to social media (e.g., socalled ‘Facebook’ addiction). Another area that has seen substantial growth during the same time period is the use of mindfulness. Following a brief overview of both excessive social media use and the basic concepts relating to what mindfulness is, this paper commentary briefly reviews some of the main issues in these two areas and suggests that mindfulness might be a useful therapeutic intervention that alleviates problems associated with social media use (given that mindfulness has been used successfully in the treatment of other behavioral addictions such as addictions to gambling and work). Given the few studies carried out on excessive social media usage, it is concluded there is a need for more methodologically robust research exploring the prevalence, aetiology, and correlates of maladaptive social media behaviour.