AHMEDABAD: Tradition holds that tapping into elevated thoughts — say, of a deity — immediately upon waking up sets the day on a positive course. But a Gujarat survey reveals that the first thing seven out of 10 respondents do after opening their eyes is to stare meditatively at social media on their phones. The study, ‘Risk Analysis of Social Media Obsession in Gujarat’, also established that over 55% of the respondents in 21-30 age group admitted that they were spending over seven hours online.The exhaustive analytical study, conducted by Dr Priyanka Sharma, in-charge director (R&D), Raksha Shakti University (RSU), indicated that about 14% of respondents accepted they felt anxiety and 21% experienced mood swings — including anger — if they didn’t check their phones regularly.“The negative feeling is related to time spent online by the respondent,” Sharma said. “Over 23% of respondents in the 31-40 age group and 7% in the 11-20 age group spent over seven hours online. Over 50% of the respondents were spending one to five hours on social media sites/platforms.”The study, which included 4,000 respondents from cities, towns, and villages of Gujarat, was funded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). It took place over a year and sought to understand the who, what, when, where, why, and how of social media vis-à-vis Gujarat population.WhatsApp was found to be the most popular platform, followed by Facebook, Hike, Instagram and FB Messenger. One of the main reasons for users to frequent digital platforms was to share their experience, followed by getting opinions, commenting and keeping in touch with friends and family. The study also highlighted the ‘selfie’ phenomenon: 42% of the respondents in the 21-30 age group and 26.2% in the 31-40 age group reported that they regularly click selfies and post them online. Four hundred and forty male respondents and 511female respondents said that they took three to five selfies per day.Dr Hansal Bhachech, an Ahmedabad psychiatrist, said that the social media obsession has a number of implications. “We jokingly say that today copy+paste comes before toothpaste,” he said. “On a serious note, addiction to social media is a reality and one should regularly check for tell-tale signs. The person, typically, will feel low or irritable without any apparent reason. He or she will not get enough sleep due to long hours spent on phone, especially at night.” He said that such an addiction could shorten attention span and impair memory.

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