When time slows down: temporal distortion and addictive social media use

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Individuals exhibit inaccuracies in judging event duration and progression.
• Perception of time can be distorted, appearing accelerated or slowed.
• Temporal distortion is linked to cognitive and emotional biases in social media usage.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore factors influencing temporal processing in social media networking.
• To examine the role of cognitive and emotional biases in subjective time perception.
• To propose a cyclical model for understanding social media addiction.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical analysis of existing literature on temporal cognition and social media use.
• Discussion of cognitive and emotional biases affecting time perception.
• Development of a cyclical model illustrating the relationship between temporal distortion and addiction.

Main Results:

• Temporal distortion is a key factor in the subjective experience of time during social media use.
• Cognitive and emotional biases exacerbate temporal misjudgments.
• Individual predispositions interact with usage patterns to influence problematic use.

Conclusions:

• Temporal distortion plays a central role in the onset of social media addiction.
• A cyclical model provides a framework for understanding the progression towards problematic use.
• Addressing temporal processing is crucial for mitigating social media addiction.