Social Media is Attention Alcohol by Derek Thompson Article Analysis

Social media has slowly integrated itself into people’s daily life. In Derek Thompson’s article, “Social Media is Attention Alcohol” he delivers a strong view as to how social media has slowly become an addiction for some. Thompson allows his readers to understand how social media can be viewed as an addiction that can affect their lives. This article is persuasive and successful at bringing awareness to his readers by providing real-life examples, statistics, and uses a monotone to show his side on the issue.

The article itself is about persuading the audience that people have a love/hate addiction with social media and are thriving on the attention that they need. Thompson begins by informing the readers that the social media platform, Instagram, is affecting young women. Along with the few other social media platforms, women have been struggling with their body images. Though it is found to be interrupting their mental health, they still find themselves stuck. It seems as though they have become addicted. Now other platforms such as Facebook explain to have more of a newspaper view, while still allowing millions to connect all over the world. These platforms are considered to be “attention alcohol” as Thompson calls them, he is referring to the users as being attention alcoholics. In an effort to prevent it, Thompson suggests that the government should assist in the strict structure of social media. Though he admits the government has other things to do, he finds the main source of stopping the addiction to be the user themself. They can ask for assistance to avoid this deep downfall of addiction.

One of the ways that Thompson can persuade his audience is by explaining how some of the younger teen girls had found themselves struggling with body image issues, however, refused to stay away from social media. Instead, they had found themselves back to where they started. Many times Thompson had referred to social media platforms as attention alcohol in which he stated, “ Like booze, social media seems to offer an intoxicating cocktail of dopamine, disorientation, and, for some, dependency.” This statement allows the readers to see how the idea of an addiction to social media can be compared to alcohol addiction. While of course, both are different this shows the clear similarities that are shared.

Throughout the article, Thompson seems to keep a neutral, but informative tone as he explains how social media can be seen as an addiction. While he does show that he also struggles with social media, he tends to only show how his experience is informational. The language that he uses is stern but friendly as he is trying to inform but also explain what can be done to help.

Thompson also uses statistics to show how some people can view the idea of social media addiction differently than others. While Thompson chooses to label the addiction similar to alcohol, a Facebook executive by the name of, Andrew Bosworth, sees the addiction to be minor as to those who are addicted to sugar. Thompson can explain that Toiewing the addiction as alcohol allows people to see that they need to limit their consumption as some alcohol companies do when they state to Drink Responsibly.