social media addiction essays

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Stanford University School of Medicine blog

Addictive potential of social media, explained

The curious title of Stanford psychiatrist Anna Lembke 's book, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence , pays tribute to the crucial and often destructive role that dopamine plays in modern society.

Dopamine , the main chemical involved in addiction, is secreted from certain nerve tracts in the brain when we engage in a rewarding experience such as finding food, clothing, shelter or a sexual mate. Nature designed our brains to feel pleasure when these experiences happen because they increase our odds of survival and of procreation.

But the days when our species dwelled in caves and struggled for survival are long gone. Dopamine Nation explains how living in a modern society, affluent beyond comparison by evolutionary standards, has rendered us all vulnerable to dopamine-mediated addiction . Today, the addictive substance of choice, whether we realize it or not, is often the internet and social media channels, according to Lembke, MD.

"If you're not addicted yet, it's coming soon to a website near you," Lembke joked when I talked to her about the message of Dopamine Nation , which was published in August. This Q&A is abridged from that exchange.

Why did you decide to write this book?

I wanted to tell readers what I'd learned from patients and from neuroscience about how to tackle compulsive overconsumption. Feel-good substances and behaviors increase dopamine release in the brain's reward pathways .

The brain responds to this increase by decreasing dopamine transmission -- not just back down to its natural baseline rate, but below that baseline. Repeated exposure to the same or similar stimuli ultimately creates a chronic dopamine-deficit state, wherein we're less able to experience pleasure.

What are the risk factors for addiction?

Easy access and speedy reward are two of them. Just as the hypodermic needle is the delivery mechanism for drugs like heroin, the smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine for a wired generation.

The hypodermic needle delivers a drug right into our vascular system, which in turn delivers it right to the brain, making the drug more potent. The same is true for the smartphone; with its bright colors, flashing lights and engaging alerts, it delivers images to our visual cortex that are tough to resist. And the quantity is endless. TikTok never runs out.

What makes social media particularly addictive?

We're wired to connect. It's kept us alive for millions of years in a world of scarcity and ever-present danger. Moving in tribes safeguards against predators, optimizes scarce resources and facilitates pair bonding. Our brains release dopamine when we make human connections, which incentivizes us to do it again.

But social connection has become druggified by social-media apps, making us vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. These apps can cause the release of large amounts of dopamine into our brains' reward pathway all at once, just like heroin, or meth, or alcohol. They do that by amplifying the feel-good properties that attract humans to each other in the first place.

Then there's novelty. Dopamine is triggered by our brain's search-and-explore functions, telling us, "Hey, pay attention to this, something new has come along." Add to that the artificial intelligence algorithms that learn what we've liked before and suggest new things that are similar but not exactly the same, and we're off and running.

Further, our brains aren't equipped to process the millions of comparisons the virtual world demands. We can become overwhelmed by our inability to measure up to these "perfect" people who exist only in the Matrix . We give up trying and sink into depression, or what neuroscientists called "learned helplessness."

Upon signing off, the brain is plunged into a dopamine-deficit state as it attempts to adapt to the unnaturally high levels of dopamine social media just released. Which is why social media often feels good while we're doing it but horrible as soon as we stop.

Is there an antidote to our addiction to social media?

Yes, a timeout -- at least for a day. But a whole month is more typically the minimum amount of time we need away from our drug of choice, whether it's heroin or Instagram, to reset our dopamine reward pathways. A monthlong dopamine fast will decrease the anxiety and depression that social media can induce, and enhance our ability to enjoy other, more modest rewards again.

If and when we return to social media, we can consolidate our use to certain times of the day, avoid certain apps that suck us into the vortex and prioritize apps that connect us with real people in our real lives.

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Social Media Addiction Essay

How it works

As a part of our daily life, social media shows a significant impact on society and has become a strong way to stay updated. Nothing spreads information faster than social media, which helps many people keep informed about the world’s current affairs. It has changed the way the world interacts by presenting many useful tools, namely, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. These technological advances assist those who are socially isolated to feel more connected to society, such as socially anxious citizens, since “More than 25% of teens report that social media makes them feel less shy, 28% report feeling more outgoing, and 20% report feeling more confident” (Are).

It also has proved to contribute to education in schools. , Its continuous use and high adherence rate made the world a powerful and better place to live in. However, even with many benefits, there are a lot of negative effects that come with this technology. Not only is social media made for personal use, but it also is a benefit for the catching and prosecuting process of criminals more efficiently.

According to “73% of federal, state, and local law enforcement professionals surveyed think social media helps solve crimes more quickly” (Are). Considering how easy it has become to find people on the internet due to the high online exposure, it is possible to track down almost anybody on websites nowadays. People may post pictures of criminals to alert others, as well as share a criminal’s last location when spotted. The fast share of information among the community can lead police departments to add tracking units to arrest criminals more effectively. Not only the population facilitates the task, but also some outlaws may contribute for their own detention by boasting about their crimes online, as in the case of “A gang charged with the beating of a gay couple in Philadelphia in 2014.” (Are).

Besides, social media has allowed students to work with new technologies. It helps them do research on topics that they have trouble understanding or use it to discuss educational topics when needed. Furthermore, these technologies assist those who are absent from school to catch up on missing assignments or even discussing group projects by contacting one another efficiently and needlessly of an in-person meeting. According to studies, “59% of students with access to the internet report that they use social media to discuss educational topics, and 50% use the sites to talk about school assignments” (Are).

Comparatively, a school in Oregon introduced an educational program that encourages kids to learn, “grades went up by 50%, chronic absenteeism went down by 33%, and 20% of students school-wide voluntarily completed extra-credit assignments” (Are). Educational programs make studying more entertaining by inserting a daily element on a youngster’s life, which includes the chance of writing in digital media over the traditional paper and pencil. The educational programs that are created now also allow teachers to understand the student’s struggles and work on them. In other words, social media can and should be used for educational purposes since it is intrinsically connected to students nowadays.

As research appears to show, “Social media users have been responsible for reporting events before traditional media outlets, including the Paris attacks in France on Nov. 13, 2015” (Are). It is correct to affirm that it is common nowadays to consider the internet a fundamental font of breaking news for professionals and casual users. It also plays an important role when it comes to alert people in emergencies, such as the Ebola outbreak that has happened in Nigeria and Sierra Leone in July 2014.

Despite all the benefits of social media, it is important to clarify that most of the bullying that happens nowadays takes place on the internet. Students, and even adults, have experienced cyberbullying. This unfortunate situation not only affects the self-image and esteem but also can cause, or worse, psychological pathologies, such as depression and anxiety. Indeed, in terms of negative effects caused by the unceasing use of these technologies, the mental health damages, mainly in the youngsters is the principal concern of neuro-physicians. Not only the negativity shared in the social media can be a reason for the disadvantages, after all, this is an essay on social media addiction.

As per analyzed, “With 91% of young people using the internet for social networking and rates of depression and anxiety in young people having risen by more than 70% in the past 25 years” (this.). But why is social media addictive? Studies portray that social media’s effects on the brain include a rush of dopamine, the hormone responsible for pleasure and satisfaction. The high and fast rushes created by the use of those media generate a pattern that ends up in an addictive cycle.

Overall, there are many positive effects that social media has on our society today. As revealed in the thesis statement, it has become essential for social interactions, educational purposes, access to the news, criminal investigations, and many other situations behalf of people’s lives. However, it can not be ignored that it also has a negative impact on the mental health of thousands of users. So it is important, for all intents and purposes, to pursue ways to minimize the damaging impacts and prevent future users from repeating the same negative cycles that lead to unhealthy relations with the technology. And undoubtedly, it is hard to imagine how society would be today without all the technologies acquired until now; besides, as common sense, these technologies only tend to be even more present in daily life. So it is important to be aware of the conscientious use of it. With all things considered, social media networking sites will continue to grow, play a fundamental role in our lives, and affect human life, whether positively or negatively.

• “Are Social Networking Sites Good for Our Society.” socialnetworking.procon.org 2018 ProCon.org, 17 August 2018. Web. 26 October 2018.
• Hatcher Patrick, Jon “20 Pros and Cons of Social Media.” www.sucess.com 2018 Success Magazine, 6 December 2017. Web. 3 November 2018.
• Errington, Keith “Social Media Pros and Cons: The Top 10.” www.equinetmedia.com 2018 Equinet Media Ltd, 21 September 2018. Web. 3 November 2018.
• Moreau, Elise “The Pros and Cons of Social Networking.” www.lifewire.com 2018 Lifewire, 19 November 2018. Web. 3 November 2018.

Social media addiction can have both favorable and unfavorable effects on an individual’s life. Benefits may include staying connected with loved ones, discovering new business opportunities, and accessing information. On the other hand, it can result in negative consequences such as feeling disconnected from the real world, excessive screen time, and missing important life events.

Determining the cause of social media addiction is complex, as it can result from a variety of factors. Individuals may develop an addiction due to the need for approval from others, while some may struggle with separating their online and offline lives. Moreover, some individuals may have a greater propensity for addiction based on their personality traits or impulsivity levels.

The influence of social media on mental health is a multifaceted and intricate matter. While some specialists argue that social media can positively impact mental health by providing a community of support and aiding individuals in staying connected, others claim that it can lead to negative effects such as loneliness, anxiety, and depression.

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Essay on Social Media Addiction

Students are often asked to write an essay on Social Media Addiction in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Social Media Addiction

What is social media addiction.

Social media addiction is when someone spends too much time on apps like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok and it starts to hurt their life. They might check their phone a lot, even when they should be doing homework or sleeping.

Why It Happens

People get addicted because these apps are fun and they like getting likes and comments. It makes them feel good. But sometimes, they start needing more and more of this to feel happy.

Effects on Life

This addiction can make people less happy and even lonely. They might stop spending time with family and friends in real life and not do well in school.

Breaking the Habit

To stop, try setting limits on how much you use social media. Spend more time doing other fun things like sports or reading. Talking to someone you trust about it can also help a lot.

250 Words Essay on Social Media Addiction

Social media addiction: a growing concern, impact on mental health.

Spending too much time on social media can lead to feelings of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Constantly comparing oneself to others’ idealized online lives can result in low self-esteem and a distorted body image. The fear of missing out (FOMO) can also fuel anxiety and lead to compulsive social media use.

Academic Performance

Social media addiction can also harm academic performance. Students who spend excessive time on social media may neglect their studies, resulting in lower grades. The constant notifications and distractions can make it difficult to focus and concentrate on schoolwork. Social media addiction can also lead to sleep deprivation, further affecting academic performance.

Relationships

Social media addiction can strain relationships with family and friends. Spending excessive time online can lead to neglecting real-world interactions and relationships. It can also create unrealistic expectations and lead to misunderstandings and conflicts. Face-to-face communication and quality time are essential for maintaining healthy relationships.

Social media addiction is a serious issue that can have a negative impact on mental health, academic performance, and relationships. It is important to be aware of the risks and take steps to limit social media use. Seeking professional help may be necessary in severe cases. Remember, social media should be used in moderation and should not interfere with important aspects of our lives.

500 Words Essay on Social Media Addiction

Social media addiction is a growing problem among people of all ages. It is the excessive and compulsive use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. People with social media addiction spend excessive amounts of time on these platforms, often neglecting their real-life relationships, work, or studies.

Signs and Symptoms of Social Media Addiction

Causes of social media addiction.

There are several factors that can contribute to social media addiction. These include:

Negative Effects of Social Media Addiction

Social media addiction can have several negative effects on your life, including:

How to Overcome Social Media Addiction

If you think you may be addicted to social media, there are several things you can do to overcome it.

Social media addiction is a serious problem that can have a negative impact on your life. If you think you may be addicted to social media, it’s important to take steps to overcome it. With the right strategies and support, you can reduce your social media use and improve your overall well-being.

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Effects of Social Media — Social Media Addiction: Consequences and Strategies for Recovery

Social Media Addiction: Consequences and Strategies for Recovery

• Categories: Effects of Social Media Media Influence Social Media

About this sample

Words: 559 |

Published: Jul 15, 2020

Words: 559 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, suggested solution, social media anxiety disorder.

• David Blackwell, 21 April 2017 Extraversion, neuroticism, attachment style and fear of missing out as predictors of social media use and addiction. From https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.04.039 .
• Przybylski et al., 2013 A.K. Przybylski, K. Murayama, C.R. DeHaan, V. Gladwell Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out Computers in Human Behavior (2013), pp. 1841-1848, 10.1016/j.chb.2013.02.014.
• Weidman, A.C., Fernandez, K.C., Levinson, C.A., Augustine, A.A., Larsen, R.J., & Rodebaugh, T.L. (2012). Compensatory internet use among individuals higher in social anxiety and its implications for well-being. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(3), 191-195. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1016/j.paid.2012.03.003
• Parade, S.H., Leerkes, E.M., & Blankson, A.N. (2010). Attachment to parents, social anxiety, and close relationships of female students over the transition to college. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(2), 127-137. doi: 10.1007/s10964-009-9396-x.
• Cludius, B., Stevens, S., Bantin, T., Gerlach, A., & Hermann, C. (2013). The motive to drink due to social anxiety and its relation to hazardous alcohol use. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 27(3), 806-813. doi: 10.1037/a0032295.

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• Social Media Addiction Causes and Solutions Words: 2206
• Social Media as a Type of Addiction Words: 602
• Negative Effects of Social Media on Health Words: 1166
• Social Media Effect on Young People Words: 575
• Social Media Effects on Communication Behaviors Words: 1132
• Effects of Social Media and Internet Words: 601
• The Influence of Social Media on Mental Health Words: 2391
• Effect of Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health Words: 3538
• Adverse Effects of Social Media on Mental Health Words: 2769
• Social Media and Their Psychological Effects Words: 1924
• The Effects of Social Media on People Words: 869
• Cause and Effect of Drug Addiction Words: 598

Social Media Addiction: Causes and Effects

The causes of sm addiction, the effects of sm addiction.

Problematic or addictive social media (SM) use and its implications for health have become popular research topics in recent years. SM addiction refers to a type of behavioral addiction characterized by an individual’s excessive concern with SM communication that results in an obsessive desire to check SM feedback in a frequent manner. Eventually, those developing this form of addiction start to devote too much time to SM-related matters. In some instances, this approach to priority-setting can impair a person’s activity and success in other crucial areas of life, such as in-person communication, studying, and career progression. The causes and effects of excessive SM use require an in-depth investigation to achieve clarity in formulating a new public health concern and developing resources to address addictions. The issue stems from SM platforms’ technical characteristics and being a source of dopamine and a relief for socially unhappy individuals, and its effects include poorer mental health, physical health issues, and impaired productivity.

The chosen problem can be caused by various interacting factors, including SM sites’ addiction-inducing characteristics, the ability to trigger dopamine release, and offering spaces to compensate for previous relationship-building failures. The first cause refers to modern SM platforms’ addictive features, for example, the promotion of endless scrolling. SM applications’ news feed functions expose the user to an endless and unrestricted stream of information, resulting in immersion combined with distortions to chronoception (Friedman, 2021; Montag et al., 2019). Exposure to such streams of data can create the habit of mindless SM scrolling without realizing how much time has passed. This can give rise to addiction and the symptoms of distress in SM users (Montag et al., 2019; Zenone et al., 2022). The second cause is that rewarding SM experiences can elicit neurotransmitters’ activity, making SM platforms similar to certain drugs. For instance, SM websites are referred to as “dopamine-inducing social environments” as the stream of positive attention, including likes or personal messages, induces pleasure and affects reward pathways in the brain (Hilliard, 2022, para. 3). Getting positive reactions evokes temporary feelings of joy and satisfaction, and this effect is inextricably connected to dopamine release (Burhan & Moradzadeh, 2020). The user can feel the urge to receive even more attention to remain in this positive state. Finally, SM addictions can stem from the individual’s desire to compensate for previous social failures, for instance, insecure attachment. It has been shown that the intensity of Facebook use is positively correlated with the degree of the user’s attachment anxiety (Burhan & Moradzadeh, 2020). The desire to alleviate negative feelings linked with in-person communication might encourage heavier and more addictive SM use (Burhan & Moradzadeh, 2020). Therefore, both neurological and psychological reasons can be involved in the issue.

SM addiction can have various types of negative effects, including a greater likelihood of mental health issues, alterations to individual productivity, and deficiencies in a person’s subjective physical well-being. First, psychological and mental issues become more likely as a result of overusing SM. Specifically, excessive and addictive long-term SM use has been positively associated with developing self-esteem issues, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and an increased sense of guilt (Rast et al., 2021). Increased SM use limits in-person interaction and physical activity levels while also promoting the fear of being judged during face-to-face communication, thus contributing to the aforementioned conditions (Rast et al., 2021). Second, both academic and workplace performance can decrease due to SM addictions. Specifically, unhealthy SM use has been linked with sleep issues and some reductions in cognitive capacity, as well as extra distractions and time wastage (Priyadarshini et al., 2020; Rast et al., 2021). In combination, these effects can promote barriers to users’ academic and workplace achievements by causing disengagement and information overload (Priyadarshini et al., 2020; Rast et al., 2021). Third, negative physical health outcomes can stem from SM overuse and, more specifically, its effects on the amount of health-promoting physical activity and sleep. For instance, aside from higher C-reactive protein levels, the degree of SM use has a positive relationship with backaches, eye strain, chest pain, and headaches (Lee et al., 2022; Priyadarshini et al., 2020). These consequences are likely to be related to the unhealthy screen staring practices, adopting more sedentary lifestyles, and sleep issues that are the components of SM addictions (Priyadarshini et al., 2020). Thus, the adverse effects of excessive SM use on a person’s life are all-encompassing.

Finally, SM addiction is a complex health issue that can result from the causes of different nature, including the peculiarities of human psychology and neurological functioning, and influence both health and individual productivity. Based on the discussion of hypothetical causes, it is likely that the most popular social networking sites are built in a way to capture and redirect users’ attention. They also offer some illusionary remedies for users’ psychological issues and unmet attachment-related needs. The phenomenon’s outcomes also signify that SM addiction can be more dangerous than it is currently portrayed. These points give support to an opinion that the global healthcare community and researchers should explore the behavioral issue more intensively to develop safe SM use guidelines and effective practices to address the addiction. Additionally, researching how addictive information presentation technologies are used for profit-making might be essential to get at the problem’s root cause.

Burhan, R., & Moradzadeh, J. (2020). Neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) and its role in the development of social media addiction. Journal of Neurology & Neurophysiology , 11 (7), 1-2. Web.

Friedman, E. (2021). Internet addiction: A critical psychology of users . Routledge.

Hilliard, J. (2022). Social media addiction . Addiction Center.

Lee, D. S., Jiang, T., Crocker, J., & Way, B. M. (2022). Social media use and its link to physical health indicators . Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking , 25 (2), 87-93.

Montag, C., Lachmann, B., Herrlich, M., & Zweig, K. (2019). Addictive features of social media/messenger platforms and freemium games against the background of psychological and economic theories. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , 16 (14), 1-16.

Priyadarshini, C., Dubey, R. K., Kumar, Y. L. N., & Jha, R. R. (2020). Impact of a social media addiction on employees’ wellbeing and work productivity . The Qualitative Report , 25 (1), 181-196.

Rast, R., Coleman, J. T., & Simmers, C. S. (2021). T he dark side of the like: The effects of social media addiction on digital and in-person communication. The Journal of Social Media in Society , 10 (2), 175-201.

Zenone, M., Kenworthy, N., & Maani, N. (2022). The social media industry as a commercial determinant of health. International Journal of Health Policy and Management , 1-4.

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Research trends in social media addiction and problematic social media use: A bibliometric analysis

Alfonso pellegrino.

1 Sasin School of Management, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Alessandro Stasi

2 Business Administration Division, Mahidol University International College, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand

Veera Bhatiasevi

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Despite their increasing ubiquity in people's lives and incredible advantages in instantly interacting with others, social media's impact on subjective well-being is a source of concern worldwide and calls for up-to-date investigations of the role social media plays in mental health. Much research has discovered how habitual social media use may lead to addiction and negatively affect adolescents' school performance, social behavior, and interpersonal relationships. The present study was conducted to review the extant literature in the domain of social media and analyze global research productivity during 2013–2022. Bibliometric analysis was conducted on 501 articles that were extracted from the Scopus database using the keywords social media addiction and problematic social media use. The data were then uploaded to VOSviewer software to analyze citations, co-citations, and keyword co-occurrences. Volume, growth trajectory, geographic distribution of the literature, influential authors, intellectual structure of the literature, and the most prolific publishing sources were analyzed. The bibliometric analysis presented in this paper shows that the US, the UK, and Turkey accounted for 47% of the publications in this field. Most of the studies used quantitative methods in analyzing data and therefore aimed at testing relationships between variables. In addition, the findings in this study show that most analysis were cross-sectional. Studies were performed on undergraduate students between the ages of 19–25 on the use of two social media platforms: Facebook and Instagram. Limitations as well as research directions for future studies are also discussed.

Introduction

Social media generally refers to third-party internet-based platforms that mainly focus on social interactions, community-based inputs, and content sharing among its community of users and only feature content created by their users and not that licensed from third parties ( 1 ). Social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are prominent examples of social media that allow people to stay connected in an online world regardless of geographical distance or other obstacles ( 2 , 3 ). Recent evidence suggests that social networking sites have become increasingly popular among adolescents following the strict policies implemented by many countries to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, including social distancing, “lockdowns,” and quarantine measures ( 4 ). In this new context, social media have become an essential part of everyday life, especially for children and adolescents ( 5 ). For them such media are a means of socialization that connect people together. Interestingly, social media are not only used for social communication and entertainment purposes but also for sharing opinions, learning new things, building business networks, and initiate collaborative projects ( 6 ).

Among the 7.91 billion people in the world as of 2022, 4.62 billion active social media users, and the average time individuals spent using the internet was 6 h 58 min per day with an average use of social media platforms of 2 h and 27 min ( 7 ). Despite their increasing ubiquity in people's lives and the incredible advantages they offer to instantly interact with people, an increasing number of studies have linked social media use to negative mental health consequences, such as suicidality, loneliness, and anxiety ( 8 ). Numerous sources have expressed widespread concern about the effects of social media on mental health. A 2011 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) identifies a phenomenon known as Facebook depression which may be triggered “when preteens and teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites, such as Facebook, and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression” ( 9 ). Similarly, the UK's Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) claims that there is a clear evidence of the relationship between social media use and mental health issues based on a survey of nearly 1,500 people between the ages of 14–24 ( 10 ). According to some authors, the increase in usage frequency of social media significantly increases the risks of clinical disorders described (and diagnosed) as “Facebook depression,” “fear of missing out” (FOMO), and “social comparison orientation” (SCO) ( 11 ). Other risks include sexting ( 12 ), social media stalking ( 13 ), cyber-bullying ( 14 ), privacy breaches ( 15 ), and improper use of technology. Therefore, social media's impact on subjective well-being is a source of concern worldwide and calls for up-to-date investigations of the role social media plays with regard to mental health ( 8 ). Many studies have found that habitual social media use may lead to addiction and thus negatively affect adolescents' school performance, social behavior, and interpersonal relationships ( 16 – 18 ). As a result of addiction, the user becomes highly engaged with online activities motivated by an uncontrollable desire to browse through social media pages and “devoting so much time and effort to it that it impairs other important life areas” ( 19 ).

Given these considerations, the present study was conducted to review the extant literature in the domain of social media and analyze global research productivity during 2013–2022. The study presents a bibliometric overview of the leading trends with particular regard to “social media addiction” and “problematic social media use.” This is valuable as it allows for a comprehensive overview of the current state of this field of research, as well as identifies any patterns or trends that may be present. Additionally, it provides information on the geographical distribution and prolific authors in this area, which may help to inform future research endeavors.

In terms of bibliometric analysis of social media addiction research, few studies have attempted to review the existing literature in the domain extensively. Most previous bibliometric studies on social media addiction and problematic use have focused mainly on one type of screen time activity such as digital gaming or texting ( 20 ) and have been conducted with a focus on a single platform such as Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat ( 21 , 22 ). The present study adopts a more comprehensive approach by including all social media platforms and all types of screen time activities in its analysis.

Additionally, this review aims to highlight the major themes around which the research has evolved to date and draws some guidance for future research directions. In order to meet these objectives, this work is oriented toward answering the following research questions:

• (1) What is the current status of research focusing on social media addiction?
• (2) What are the key thematic areas in social media addiction and problematic use research?
• (3) What is the intellectual structure of social media addiction as represented in the academic literature?
• (4) What are the key findings of social media addiction and problematic social media research?
• (5) What possible future research gaps can be identified in the field of social media addiction?

These research questions will be answered using bibliometric analysis of the literature on social media addiction and problematic use. This will allow for an overview of the research that has been conducted in this area, including information on the most influential authors, journals, countries of publication, and subject areas of study. Part 2 of the study will provide an examination of the intellectual structure of the extant literature in social media addiction while Part 3 will discuss the research methodology of the paper. Part 4 will discuss the findings of the study followed by a discussion under Part 5 of the paper. Finally, in Part 7, gaps in current knowledge about this field of research will be identified.

Literature review

Social media addiction research context.

Previous studies on behavioral addictions have looked at a lot of different factors that affect social media addiction focusing on personality traits. Although there is some inconsistency in the literature, numerous studies have focused on three main personality traits that may be associated with social media addiction, namely anxiety, depression, and extraversion ( 23 , 24 ).

It has been found that extraversion scores are strongly associated with increased use of social media and addiction to it ( 25 , 26 ). People with social anxiety as well as people who have psychiatric disorders often find online interactions extremely appealing ( 27 ). The available literature also reveals that the use of social media is positively associated with being female, single, and having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), or anxiety ( 28 ).

In a study by Seidman ( 29 ), the Big Five personality traits were assessed using Saucier's ( 30 ) Mini-Markers Scale. Results indicated that neurotic individuals use social media as a safe place for expressing their personality and meet belongingness needs. People affected by neurosis tend to use online social media to stay in touch with other people and feel better about their social lives ( 31 ). Narcissism is another factor that has been examined extensively when it comes to social media, and it has been found that people who are narcissistic are more likely to become addicted to social media ( 32 ). In this case users want to be seen and get “likes” from lots of other users. Longstreet and Brooks ( 33 ) did a study on how life satisfaction depends on how much money people make. Life satisfaction was found to be negatively linked to social media addiction, according to the results. When social media addiction decreases, the level of life satisfaction rises. But results show that in lieu of true-life satisfaction people use social media as a substitute (for temporary pleasure vs. longer term happiness).

Researchers have discovered similar patterns in students who tend to rank high in shyness: they find it easier to express themselves online rather than in person ( 34 , 35 ). With the use of social media, shy individuals have the opportunity to foster better quality relationships since many of their anxiety-related concerns (e.g., social avoidance and fear of social devaluation) are significantly reduced ( 36 , 37 ).

Problematic use of social media

The amount of research on problematic use of social media has dramatically increased since the last decade. But using social media in an unhealthy manner may not be considered an addiction or a disorder as this behavior has not yet been formally categorized as such ( 38 ). Although research has shown that people who use social media in a negative way often report negative health-related conditions, most of the data that have led to such results and conclusions comprise self-reported data ( 39 ). The dimensions of excessive social media usage are not exactly known because there are not enough diagnostic criteria and not enough high-quality long-term studies available yet. This is what Zendle and Bowden-Jones ( 40 ) noted in their own research. And this is why terms like “problematic social media use” have been used to describe people who use social media in a negative way. Furthermore, if a lot of time is spent on social media, it can be hard to figure out just when it is being used in a harmful way. For instance, people easily compare their appearance to what they see on social media, and this might lead to low self-esteem if they feel they do not look as good as the people they are following. According to research in this domain, the extent to which an individual engages in photo-related activities (e.g., taking selfies, editing photos, checking other people's photos) on social media is associated with negative body image concerns. Through curated online images of peers, adolescents face challenges to their self-esteem and sense of self-worth and are increasingly isolated from face-to-face interaction.

To address this problem the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) has been used by some scholars ( 41 , 42 ). These scholars have used criteria from the DSM-V to describe one problematic social media use, internet gaming disorder, but such criteria could also be used to describe other types of social media disorders. Franchina et al. ( 43 ) and Scott and Woods ( 44 ), for example, focus their attention on individual-level factors (like fear of missing out) and family-level factors (like childhood abuse) that have been used to explain why people use social media in a harmful way. Friends-level factors have also been explored as a social well-being measurement to explain why people use social media in a malevolent way and demonstrated significant positive correlations with lower levels of friend support ( 45 ). Macro-level factors have also been suggested, such as the normalization of surveillance ( 46 ) and the ability to see what people are doing online ( 47 ). Gender and age seem to be highly associated to the ways people use social media negatively. Particularly among girls, social media use is consistently associated with mental health issues ( 41 , 48 , 49 ), an association more common among older girls than younger girls ( 46 , 48 ).

Most studies have looked at the connection between social media use and its effects (such as social media addiction) and a number of different psychosomatic disorders. In a recent study conducted by Vannucci and Ohannessian ( 50 ), the use of social media appears to have a variety of effects “on psychosocial adjustment during early adolescence, with high social media use being the most problematic.” It has been found that people who use social media in a harmful way are more likely to be depressed, anxious, have low self-esteem, be more socially isolated, have poorer sleep quality, and have more body image dissatisfaction. Furthermore, harmful social media use has been associated with unhealthy lifestyle patterns (for example, not getting enough exercise or having trouble managing daily obligations) as well as life threatening behaviors such as illicit drug use, excessive alcohol consumption and unsafe sexual practices ( 51 , 52 ).

A growing body of research investigating social media use has revealed that the extensive use of social media platforms is correlated with a reduced performance on cognitive tasks and in mental effort ( 53 ). Overall, it appears that individuals who have a problematic relationship with social media or those who use social media more frequently are more likely to develop negative health conditions.

Social media addiction and problematic use systematic reviews

Previous studies have revealed the detrimental impacts of social media addiction on users' health. A systematic review by Khan and Khan ( 20 ) has pointed out that social media addiction has a negative impact on users' mental health. For example, social media addiction can lead to stress levels rise, loneliness, and sadness ( 54 ). Anxiety is another common mental health problem associated with social media addiction. Studies have found that young adolescents who are addicted to social media are more likely to suffer from anxiety than people who are not addicted to social media ( 55 ). In addition, social media addiction can also lead to physical health problems, such as obesity and carpal tunnel syndrome a result of spending too much time on the computer ( 22 ).

Apart from the negative impacts of social media addiction on users' mental and physical health, social media addiction can also lead to other problems. For example, social media addiction can lead to financial problems. A study by Sharif and Yeoh ( 56 ) has found that people who are addicted to social media tend to spend more money than those who are not addicted to social media. In addition, social media addiction can also lead to a decline in academic performance. Students who are addicted to social media are more likely to have lower grades than those who are not addicted to social media ( 57 ).

Research methodology

Bibliometric analysis.

Merigo et al. ( 58 ) use bibliometric analysis to examine, organize, and analyze a large body of literature from a quantitative, objective perspective in order to assess patterns of research and emerging trends in a certain field. A bibliometric methodology is used to identify the current state of the academic literature, advance research. and find objective information ( 59 ). This technique allows the researchers to examine previous scientific work, comprehend advancements in prior knowledge, and identify future study opportunities.

To achieve this objective and identify the research trends in social media addiction and problematic social media use, this study employs two bibliometric methodologies: performance analysis and science mapping. Performance analysis uses a series of bibliometric indicators (e.g., number of annual publications, document type, source type, journal impact factor, languages, subject area, h-index, and countries) and aims at evaluating groups of scientific actors on a particular topic of research. VOSviewer software ( 60 ) was used to carry out the science mapping. The software is used to visualize a particular body of literature and map the bibliographic material using the co-occurrence analysis of author, index keywords, nations, and fields of publication ( 61 , 62 ).

Data collection

After picking keywords, designing the search strings, and building up a database, the authors conducted a bibliometric literature search. Scopus was utilized to gather exploration data since it is a widely used database that contains the most comprehensive view of the world's research output and provides one of the most effective search engines. If the research was to be performed using other database such as Web Of Science or Google Scholar the authors may have obtained larger number of articles however they may not have been all particularly relevant as Scopus is known to have the most widest and most relevant scholar search engine in marketing and social science. A keyword search for “social media addiction” OR “problematic social media use” yielded 553 papers, which were downloaded from Scopus. The information was gathered in March 2022, and because the Scopus database is updated on a regular basis, the results may change in the future. Next, the authors examined the titles and abstracts to see whether they were relevant to the topics treated. There were two common grounds for document exclusion. First, while several documents emphasized the negative effects of addiction in relation to the internet and digital media, they did not focus on social networking sites specifically. Similarly, addiction and problematic consumption habits were discussed in relation to social media in several studies, although only in broad terms. This left a total of 511 documents. Articles were then limited only to journal articles, conference papers, reviews, books, and only those published in English. This process excluded 10 additional documents. Then, the relevance of the remaining articles was finally checked by reading the titles, abstracts, and keywords. Documents were excluded if social networking sites were only mentioned as a background topic or very generally. This resulted in a final selection of 501 research papers, which were then subjected to bibliometric analysis (see Figure 1 ).

Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) flowchart showing the search procedures used in the review.

After identifying 501 Scopus files, bibliographic data related to these documents were imported into an Excel sheet where the authors' names, their affiliations, document titles, keywords, abstracts, and citation figures were analyzed. These were subsequently uploaded into VOSViewer software version 1.6.8 to begin the bibliometric review. Descriptive statistics were created to define the whole body of knowledge about social media addiction and problematic social media use. VOSViewer was used to analyze citation, co-citation, and keyword co-occurrences. According to Zupic and Cater ( 63 ), co-citation analysis measures the influence of documents, authors, and journals heavily cited and thus considered influential. Co-citation analysis has the objective of building similarities between authors, journals, and documents and is generally defined as the frequency with which two units are cited together within the reference list of a third article.

The implementation of social media addiction performance analysis was conducted according to the models recently introduced by Karjalainen et al. ( 64 ) and Pattnaik ( 65 ). Throughout the manuscript there are operational definitions of relevant terms and indicators following a standardized bibliometric approach. The cumulative academic impact (CAI) of the documents was measured by the number of times they have been cited in other scholarly works while the fine-grained academic impact (FIA) was computed according to the authors citation analysis and authors co-citation analysis within the reference lists of documents that have been specifically focused on social media addiction and problematic social media use.

Results of the study presented here include the findings on social media addiction and social media problematic use. The results are presented by the foci outlined in the study questions.

Volume, growth trajectory, and geographic distribution of the literature

After performing the Scopus-based investigation of the current literature regarding social media addiction and problematic use of social media, the authors obtained a knowledge base consisting of 501 documents comprising 455 journal articles, 27 conference papers, 15 articles reviews, 3 books and 1 conference review. The included literature was very recent. As shown in Figure 2 , publication rates started very slowly in 2013 but really took off in 2018, after which publications dramatically increased each year until a peak was reached in 2021 with 195 publications. Analyzing the literature published during the past decade reveals an exponential increase in scholarly production on social addiction and its problematic use. This might be due to the increasingly widespread introduction of social media sites in everyday life and the ubiquitous diffusion of mobile devices that have fundamentally impacted human behavior. The dip in the number of publications in 2022 is explained by the fact that by the time the review was carried out the year was not finished yet and therefore there are many articles still in press.

Annual volume of social media addiction or social media problematic use ( n = 501).

The geographical distribution trends of scholarly publications on social media addiction or problematic use of social media are highlighted in Figure 3 . The articles were assigned to a certain country according to the nationality of the university with whom the first author was affiliated with. The figure shows that the most productive countries are the USA (92), the U.K. (79), and Turkey ( 63 ), which combined produced 236 articles, equal to 47% of the entire scholarly production examined in this bibliometric analysis. Turkey has slowly evolved in various ways with the growth of the internet and social media. Anglo-American scholarly publications on problematic social media consumer behavior represent the largest research output. Yet it is interesting to observe that social networking sites studies are attracting many researchers in Asian countries, particularly China. For many Chinese people, social networking sites are a valuable opportunity to involve people in political activism in addition to simply making purchases ( 66 ).

Global dispersion of social networking sites in relation to social media addiction or social media problematic use.

Analysis of influential authors

This section analyses the high-impact authors in the Scopus-indexed knowledge base on social networking sites in relation to social media addiction or problematic use of social media. It provides valuable insights for establishing patterns of knowledge generation and dissemination of literature about social networking sites relating to addiction and problematic use.

Table 1 acknowledges the top 10 most highly cited authors with the highest total citations in the database.

Highly cited authors on social media addiction and problematic use ( n = 501).

a Total link strength indicates the number of publications in which an author occurs.

Table 1 shows that MD Griffiths (sixty-five articles), CY Lin (twenty articles), and AH Pakpour (eighteen articles) are the most productive scholars according to the number of Scopus documents examined in the area of social media addiction and its problematic use . If the criteria are changed and authors ranked according to the overall number of citations received in order to determine high-impact authors, the same three authors turn out to be the most highly cited authors. It should be noted that these highly cited authors tend to enlist several disciplines in examining social media addiction and problematic use. Griffiths, for example, focuses on behavioral addiction stemming from not only digital media usage but also from gambling and video games. Lin, on the other hand, focuses on the negative effects that the internet and digital media can have on users' mental health, and Pakpour approaches the issue from a behavioral medicine perspective.

Intellectual structure of the literature

In this part of the paper, the authors illustrate the “intellectual structure” of the social media addiction and the problematic use of social media's literature. An author co-citation analysis (ACA) was performed which is displayed as a figure that depicts the relations between highly co-cited authors. The study of co-citation assumes that strongly co-cited authors carry some form of intellectual similarity ( 67 ). Figure 4 shows the author co-citation map. Nodes represent units of analysis (in this case scholars) and network ties represent similarity connections. Nodes are sized according to the number of co-citations received—the bigger the node, the more co-citations it has. Adjacent nodes are considered intellectually similar.

Two clusters, representing the intellectual structure of the social media and its problematic use literature.

Scholars belonging to the green cluster (Mental Health and Digital Media Addiction) have extensively published on medical analysis tools and how these can be used to heal users suffering from addiction to digital media, which can range from gambling, to internet, to videogame addictions. Scholars in this school of thought focus on the negative effects on users' mental health, such as depression, anxiety, and personality disturbances. Such studies focus also on the role of screen use in the development of mental health problems and the increasing use of medical treatments to address addiction to digital media. They argue that addiction to digital media should be considered a mental health disorder and treatment options should be made available to users.

In contrast, scholars within the red cluster (Social Media Effects on Well Being and Cyberpsychology) have focused their attention on the effects of social media toward users' well-being and how social media change users' behavior, focusing particular attention on the human-machine interaction and how methods and models can help protect users' well-being. Two hundred and two authors belong to this group, the top co-cited being Andreassen (667 co-citations), Pallasen (555 co-citations), and Valkenburg (215 co-citations). These authors have extensively studied the development of addiction to social media, problem gambling, and internet addiction. They have also focused on the measurement of addiction to social media, cyberbullying, and the dark side of social media.

Most influential source title in the field of social media addiction and its problematic use

To find the preferred periodicals in the field of social media addiction and its problematic use, the authors have selected 501 articles published in 263 journals. Table 2 gives a ranked list of the top 10 journals that constitute the core publishing sources in the field of social media addiction research. In doing so, the authors analyzed the journal's impact factor, Scopus Cite Score, h-index, quartile ranking, and number of publications per year.

Top 10 most cited and more frequently mentioned documents in the field of social media addiction.

The journal Addictive Behaviors topped the list, with 700 citations and 22 publications (4.3%), followed by Computers in Human Behaviors , with 577 citations and 13 publications (2.5%), Journal of Behavioral Addictions , with 562 citations and 17 publications (3.3%), and International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction , with 502 citations and 26 publications (5.1%). Five of the 10 most productive journals in the field of social media addiction research are published by Elsevier (all Q1 rankings) while Springer and Frontiers Media published one journal each.

Documents citation analysis identified the most influential and most frequently mentioned documents in a certain scientific field. Andreassen has received the most citations among the 10 most significant papers on social media addiction, with 405 ( Table 2 ). The main objective of this type of studies was to identify the associations and the roles of different variables as predictors of social media addiction (e.g., ( 19 , 68 , 69 )). According to general addiction models, the excessive and problematic use of digital technologies is described as “being overly concerned about social media, driven by an uncontrollable motivation to log on to or use social media, and devoting so much time and effort to social media that it impairs other important life areas” ( 27 , 70 ). Furthermore, the purpose of several highly cited studies ( 31 , 71 ) was to analyse the connections between young adults' sleep quality and psychological discomfort, depression, self-esteem, and life satisfaction and the severity of internet and problematic social media use, since the health of younger generations and teenagers is of great interest this may help explain the popularity of such papers. Despite being the most recent publication Lin et al.'s work garnered more citations annually. The desire to quantify social media addiction in individuals can also help explain the popularity of studies which try to develop measurement scales ( 42 , 72 ). Some of the highest-ranked publications are devoted to either the presentation of case studies or testing relationships among psychological constructs ( 73 ).

Keyword co-occurrence analysis

The research question, “What are the key thematic areas in social media addiction literature?” was answered using keyword co-occurrence analysis. Keyword co-occurrence analysis is conducted to identify research themes and discover keywords. It mainly examines the relationships between co-occurrence keywords in a wide variety of literature ( 74 ). In this approach, the idea is to explore the frequency of specific keywords being mentioned together.

Utilizing VOSviewer, the authors conducted a keyword co-occurrence analysis to characterize and review the developing trends in the field of social media addiction. The top 10 most frequent keywords are presented in Table 3 . The results indicate that “social media addiction” is the most frequent keyword (178 occurrences), followed by “problematic social media use” (74 occurrences), “internet addiction” (51 occurrences), and “depression” (46 occurrences). As shown in the co-occurrence network ( Figure 5 ), the keywords can be grouped into two major clusters. “Problematic social media use” can be identified as the core theme of the green cluster. In the red cluster, keywords mainly identify a specific aspect of problematic social media use: social media addiction.

Frequency of occurrence of top 10 keywords.

Keywords co-occurrence map. Threshold: 5 co-occurrences.

The results of the keyword co-occurrence analysis for journal articles provide valuable perspectives and tools for understanding concepts discussed in past studies of social media usage ( 75 ). More precisely, it can be noted that there has been a large body of research on social media addiction together with other types of technological addictions, such as compulsive web surfing, internet gaming disorder, video game addiction and compulsive online shopping ( 76 – 78 ). This field of research has mainly been directed toward teenagers, middle school students, and college students and university students in order to understand the relationship between social media addiction and mental health issues such as depression, disruptions in self-perceptions, impairment of social and emotional activity, anxiety, neuroticism, and stress ( 79 – 81 ).

The findings presented in this paper show that there has been an exponential increase in scholarly publications—from two publications in 2013 to 195 publications in 2021. There were 45 publications in 2022 at the time this study was conducted. It was interesting to observe that the US, the UK, and Turkey accounted for 47% of the publications in this field even though none of these countries are in the top 15 countries in terms of active social media penetration ( 82 ) although the US has the third highest number of social media users ( 83 ). Even though China and India have the highest number of social media users ( 83 ), first and second respectively, they rank fifth and tenth in terms of publications on social media addiction or problematic use of social media. In fact, the US has almost double the number of publications in this field compared to China and almost five times compared to India. Even though East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia make up the top three regions in terms of worldwide social media users ( 84 ), except for China and India there have been only a limited number of publications on social media addiction or problematic use. An explanation for that could be that there is still a lack of awareness on the negative consequences of the use of social media and the impact it has on the mental well-being of users. More research in these regions should perhaps be conducted in order to understand the problematic use and addiction of social media so preventive measures can be undertaken.

From the bibliometric analysis, it was found that most of the studies examined used quantitative methods in analyzing data and therefore aimed at testing relationships between variables. In addition, many studies were empirical, aimed at testing relationships based on direct or indirect observations of social media use. Very few studies used theories and for the most part if they did they used the technology acceptance model and social comparison theories. The findings presented in this paper show that none of the studies attempted to create or test new theories in this field, perhaps due to the lack of maturity of the literature. Moreover, neither have very many qualitative studies been conducted in this field. More qualitative research in this field should perhaps be conducted as it could explore the motivations and rationales from which certain users' behavior may arise.

The authors found that almost all the publications on social media addiction or problematic use relied on samples of undergraduate students between the ages of 19–25. The average daily time spent by users worldwide on social media applications was highest for users between the ages of 40–44, at 59.85 min per day, followed by those between the ages of 35–39, at 59.28 min per day, and those between the ages of 45–49, at 59.23 per day ( 85 ). Therefore, more studies should be conducted exploring different age groups, as users between the ages of 19–25 do not represent the entire population of social media users. Conducting studies on different age groups may yield interesting and valuable insights to the field of social media addiction. For example, it would be interesting to measure the impacts of social media use among older users aged 50 years or older who spend almost the same amount of time on social media as other groups of users (56.43 min per day) ( 85 ).

A majority of the studies tested social media addiction or problematic use based on only two social media platforms: Facebook and Instagram. Although Facebook and Instagram are ranked first and fourth in terms of most popular social networks by number of monthly users, it would be interesting to study other platforms such as YouTube, which is ranked second, and WhatsApp, which is ranked third ( 86 ). Furthermore, TikTok would also be an interesting platform to study as it has grown in popularity in recent years, evident from it being the most downloaded application in 2021, with 656 million downloads ( 87 ), and is ranked second in Q1 of 2022 ( 88 ). Moreover, most of the studies focused only on one social media platform. Comparing different social media platforms would yield interesting results because each platform is different in terms of features, algorithms, as well as recommendation engines. The purpose as well as the user behavior for using each platform is also different, therefore why users are addicted to these platforms could provide a meaningful insight into social media addiction and problematic social media use.

Lastly, most studies were cross-sectional, and not longitudinal, aiming at describing results over a certain point in time and not over a long period of time. A longitudinal study could better describe the long-term effects of social media use.

This study was conducted to review the extant literature in the field of social media and analyze the global research productivity during the period ranging from 2013 to 2022. The study presents a bibliometric overview of the leading trends with particular regard to “social media addiction” and “problematic social media use.” The authors applied science mapping to lay out a knowledge base on social media addiction and its problematic use. This represents the first large-scale analysis in this area of study.

A keyword search of “social media addiction” OR “problematic social media use” yielded 553 papers, which were downloaded from Scopus. After performing the Scopus-based investigation of the current literature regarding social media addiction and problematic use, the authors ended up with a knowledge base consisting of 501 documents comprising 455 journal articles, 27 conference papers, 15 articles reviews, 3 books, and 1 conference review.

The geographical distribution trends of scholarly publications on social media addiction or problematic use indicate that the most productive countries were the USA (92), the U.K. (79), and Turkey ( 63 ), which together produced 236 articles. Griffiths (sixty-five articles), Lin (twenty articles), and Pakpour (eighteen articles) were the most productive scholars according to the number of Scopus documents examined in the area of social media addiction and its problematic use. An author co-citation analysis (ACA) was conducted which generated a layout of social media effects on well-being and cyber psychology as well as mental health and digital media addiction in the form of two research literature clusters representing the intellectual structure of social media and its problematic use.

The preferred periodicals in the field of social media addiction and its problematic use were Addictive Behaviors , with 700 citations and 22 publications, followed by Computers in Human Behavior , with 577 citations and 13 publications, and Journal of Behavioral Addictions , with 562 citations and 17 publications. Keyword co-occurrence analysis was used to investigate the key thematic areas in the social media literature, as represented by the top three keyword phrases in terms of their frequency of occurrence, namely, “social media addiction,” “problematic social media use,” and “social media addiction.”

This research has a few limitations. The authors used science mapping to improve the comprehension of the literature base in this review. First and foremost, the authors want to emphasize that science mapping should not be utilized in place of established review procedures, but rather as a supplement. As a result, this review can be considered the initial stage, followed by substantive research syntheses that examine findings from recent research. Another constraint stems from how 'social media addiction' is defined. The authors overcame this limitation by inserting the phrase “social media addiction” OR “problematic social media use” in the search string. The exclusive focus on SCOPUS-indexed papers creates a third constraint. The SCOPUS database has a larger number of papers than does Web of Science although it does not contain all the publications in a given field.

Although the total body of literature on social media addiction is larger than what is covered in this review, the use of co-citation analyses helped to mitigate this limitation. This form of bibliometric study looks at all the publications listed in the reference list of the extracted SCOPUS database documents. As a result, a far larger dataset than the one extracted from SCOPUS initially has been analyzed.

The interpretation of co-citation maps should be mentioned as a last constraint. The reason is that the procedure is not always clear, so scholars must have a thorough comprehension of the knowledge base in order to make sense of the result of the analysis ( 63 ). This issue was addressed by the authors' expertise, but it remains somewhat subjective.

Implications

The findings of this study have implications mainly for government entities and parents. The need for regulation of social media addiction is evident when considering the various risks associated with habitual social media use. Social media addiction may lead to negative consequences for adolescents' school performance, social behavior, and interpersonal relationships. In addition, social media addiction may also lead to other risks such as sexting, social media stalking, cyber-bullying, privacy breaches, and improper use of technology. Given the seriousness of these risks, it is important to have regulations in place to protect adolescents from the harms of social media addiction.

Regulation of social media platforms

One way that regulation could help protect adolescents from the harms of social media addiction is by limiting their access to certain websites or platforms. For example, governments could restrict adolescents' access to certain websites or platforms during specific hours of the day. This would help ensure that they are not spending too much time on social media and are instead focusing on their schoolwork or other important activities.

Another way that regulation could help protect adolescents from the harms of social media addiction is by requiring companies to put warning labels on their websites or apps. These labels would warn adolescents about the potential risks associated with excessive use of social media.

Finally, regulation could also require companies to provide information about how much time each day is recommended for using their website or app. This would help adolescents make informed decisions about how much time they want to spend on social media each day. These proposed regulations would help to protect children from the dangers of social media, while also ensuring that social media companies are more transparent and accountable to their users.

Parental involvement in adolescents' social media use

Parents should be involved in their children's social media use to ensure that they are using these platforms safely and responsibly. Parents can monitor their children's online activity, set time limits for social media use, and talk to their children about the risks associated with social media addiction.

Education on responsible social media use

Adolescents need to be educated about responsible social media use so that they can enjoy the benefits of these platforms while avoiding the risks associated with addiction. Education on responsible social media use could include topics such as cyber-bullying, sexting, and privacy breaches.

Research directions for future studies

A content analysis was conducted to answer the fifth research questions “What are the potential research directions for addressing social media addiction in the future?” The study reveals that there is a lack of screening instruments and diagnostic criteria to assess social media addiction. Validated DSM-V-based instruments could shed light on the factors behind social media use disorder. Diagnostic research may be useful in order to understand social media behavioral addiction and gain deeper insights into the factors responsible for psychological stress and psychiatric disorders. In addition to cross-sectional studies, researchers should also conduct longitudinal studies and experiments to assess changes in users' behavior over time ( 20 ).

Another important area to examine is the role of engagement-based ranking and recommendation algorithms in online habit formation. More research is required to ascertain how algorithms determine which content type generates higher user engagement. A clear understanding of the way social media platforms gather content from users and amplify their preferences would lead to the development of a standardized conceptualization of social media usage patterns ( 89 ). This may provide a clearer picture of the factors that lead to problematic social media use and addiction. It has been noted that “misinformation, toxicity, and violent content are inordinately prevalent” in material reshared by users and promoted by social media algorithms ( 90 ).

Additionally, an understanding of engagement-based ranking models and recommendation algorithms is essential in order to implement appropriate public policy measures. To address the specific behavioral concerns created by social media, legislatures must craft appropriate statutes. Thus, future qualitative research to assess engagement based ranking frameworks is extremely necessary in order to provide a broader perspective on social media use and tackle key regulatory gaps. Particular emphasis must be placed on consumer awareness, algorithm bias, privacy issues, ethical platform design, and extraction and monetization of personal data ( 91 ).

From a geographical perspective, the authors have identified some main gaps in the existing knowledge base that uncover the need for further research in certain regions of the world. Accordingly, the authors suggest encouraging more studies on internet and social media addiction in underrepresented regions with high social media penetration rates such as Southeast Asia and South America. In order to draw more contributions from these countries, journals with high impact factors could also make specific calls. This would contribute to educating social media users about platform usage and implement policy changes that support the development of healthy social media practices.

The authors hope that the findings gathered here will serve to fuel interest in this topic and encourage other scholars to investigate social media addiction in other contexts on newer platforms and among wide ranges of sample populations. In light of the rising numbers of people experiencing mental health problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, food disorders, and substance addiction) in recent years, it is likely that the number of papers related to social media addiction and the range of countries covered will rise even further.

Data availability statement

Author contributions.

AP took care of bibliometric analysis and drafting the paper. VB took care of proofreading and adding value to the paper. AS took care of the interpretation of the findings. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Social Media Addiction Essays

Exploring the relationship between social media addiction and psychological distress in young adults, literature review: social media and athletes’ mental health, peer scholar assignment, the effects of social media, technology addiction and overuse by children, popular essay topics.

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Nowadays it is almost impossible to find a young person who does not have a cell phone or an account (or few) in various types of social media like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. Large and small IT companies invest enormous amounts of resources for developing a vast amount of online and mobile applications. Various entertainment websites generate and accumulate tons of content that are spread within social media on a daily basis. Does focusing of the significant amount of entertaining resources on the attracting attention of cell phone owners help them to gain useful information, or does it turn them into addicts?

The software of modern cell phones in the majority of cases provides the functionality similar to PC and laptops, and the internet connection is available almost everywhere. On one hand, it provides modern individuals with a possibility to access all the required information within few minutes, but on the other hand, the individual loses some restrictions that provide him or her with an opportunity to look aside, to get a bit of real, offline life. According to 2009 National Poll findings 22% of teens check social networking sites more than 10 times a day and 28% have shared personal information that they normally wouldn’t have shared in public (“Common Sense” par. 2). It is a quite regular situation when few people considered as friends share a table in a cafe or bench in a park not having a conversation but checking online statuses of their peers or playing games. It might start as a joke, but later on, the situation becomes common. People start preferring offline to online, posting and reading insignificant things they would hardly pay attention if they would have no audience to share.

Many of the signs of social media addiction resemble those of drug or alcohol addicts. The person takes the substance, or in case of social media, keeps checking and updating online status or website on and on. There are withdrawal symptoms like bad temper, poor focus on real-life issues, frustration, and angriness, depression if an individual has no opportunity to use a cellphone or to get online. Insomnia, decreasing or increasing the appetite can also be observed. All types of addiction may cause dropping hobbies and activities as well as relationship problems.

There are several reasons, causing such type of behavioral pattern. The addiction might be caused by the lack of attention and communication in the real life (Mesch and Talmud 41). Later on even if the situation had fixed the old habits stayed. The other reason lies within physiology. As concluded on the basics of many researches, extracting “information from friends’ pages appears particularly pleasurable” and “may be linked to the activation of the appetitive system, which indicates that engaging in this particular activity may stimulate the neurological pathways known to be related to addiction experience” (Kuss and Griffiths 3532). Another reason might be the lack of offline activity and offline interests, online life might seem to be brighter, following talented person might enrich individual’s life with emotions, making him, or her renew the social network page every 30 minutes.

The only cure for such kind of obsession is to make individual’s own life vivid and more exciting. Focusing on offline issues helps a lot and it is always important to keep in mind that checking funny pictures posted by someone usually leads to another set of funny pictures or jokes and it will continue on and on. That is the way online technologies work. They are not aimed to provide an individual with important knowledge; they are just a waste of time he or she can spend with friends and family.

Works Cited

Common Sense: Is Social Networking Changing Childhood? 2009. Web.

Kuss, Daria J., and Mark D. Griffiths. “Online social networking and addiction—a review of the psychological literature.” International journal of environmental research and public health 8.9 (2011): 3528-3552. Print.

Mesch, Gustavo S., and Ilan Talmud. “Online friendship formation, communication channels, and social closeness.” International Journal of Internet Science 1.1 (2006): 29-44. Print.

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Is Social Media Addictive? Here’s What the Science Says.

A major lawsuit against Meta has placed a spotlight on our fraught relationship with online social information.

By Matt Richtel

A group of 41 states and the District of Columbia filed suit on Tuesday against Meta , the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, contending that the company knowingly used features on its platforms to cause children to use them compulsively, even as the company said that its social media sites were safe for young people.

“Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage and ultimately ensnare youth and teens,” the states said in their lawsuit filed in federal court. “Its motive is profit.”

The accusations in the lawsuit raise a deeper question about behavior: Are young people becoming addicted to social media and the internet? Here’s what the research has found.

What Makes Social Media So Compelling?

Experts who study internet use say that the magnetic allure of social media arises from the way the content plays to our neurological impulses and wiring, such that consumers find it hard to turn away from the incoming stream of information.

David Greenfield, a psychologist and founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction in West Hartford, Conn., said the devices lure users with some powerful tactics. One is “intermittent reinforcement,” which creates the idea that a user could get a reward at any time. But when the reward comes is unpredictable. “Just like a slot machine,” he said. As with a slot machine, users are beckoned with lights and sounds but, even more powerful, information and reward tailored to a user’s interests and tastes.

Adults are susceptible, he noted, but young people are particularly at risk, because the brain regions that are involved in resisting temptation and reward are not nearly as developed in children and teenagers as in adults. “They’re all about impulse and not a lot about the control of that impulse,” Dr. Greenfield said of young consumers.

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Social Media Addiction and Its Impact on College Students' Academic Performance: The Mediating Role of Stress

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Social media use can bring negative effects to college students, such as social media addiction (SMA) and decline in academic performance. SMA may increase the perceived stress level of college students, and stress has a negative impact on academic performance, but this potential mediating role of stress has not been verified in existing studies. In this paper, a research model was developed to investigate the antecedent variables of SMA, and the relationship between SMA, stress and academic performance. With the data of 372 Chinese college students (mean age 21.3, 42.5% males), Partial Least Squares, Structural Equation Model was adopted to evaluate measurement model and structural model. The results show that use intensity is an important predictor of SMA, and both SMA and stress have a negative impact on college students’ academic performance. In addition, we further confirmed that stress plays a mediating role in the relationship between SMA and college students’ academic performance.

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This study is supported by the Planning Subject for the 14th Five-year Plan of National Education Sciences (Grant No. EIA210425).

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Zhao, L. Social Media Addiction and Its Impact on College Students' Academic Performance: The Mediating Role of Stress. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 32 , 81–90 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-021-00635-0

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Essay on Social Media Addiction in English for Children and Students

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Essay on Social Media Addiction: Social media addiction is one of the most common new age addictions gripping people across the globe. Social media platforms have caught the interest of the masses ever since their inception around a decade back. More and more such platforms have come into being, since then. Their popularity has grown with time and so has the number of social media addicts.

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Long and Short Essay on Social Media Addiction in English

Here are essay on social media addiction of varying lengths to help you with the topic in your exam.

After going through the Social Media Addiction essay you will know all the vital facts on the addiction of social media, how the social media addiction is influencing youths and damaging their minds, symptoms and consequences of social media addiction, ways to overcome the addiction of social media etc.

Hope you will enjoy reading these essays because all are well written using easy and simple language. So, do not waste time, go hurry up and find your best one essay:

Short Essay on Social Media Addiction 200 Words

Social media addiction has become a cause of concern. It is hampering the student’s studies and affecting their grades. It has become a hindrance in work for the working professionals, as well as home makers. It is also creating relationship problems and leading to issues such as anorexia and depression.

Instead of connecting with their near and dear ones via social media, people have started competing with them. They want to post better pictures and status updates than others and want their profile to look the best. Social media addicts spend most of their time thinking as to how they can make their profile better than the rest.

Social media addicts also have a constant urge to scroll through the social media platforms. They keep refreshing their notifications, stalk people’s profiles, update their status, upload their pictures frequently and keep commenting here and there.

Many social media sites such as Facebook also offer several games to play. These games are all the more addictive. Players try to compete with other players on their friend list. They spend most of their time playing these games in order to increase their level and score. They get angry and frustrated when they aren’t able to achieve it.

Social media addiction symptoms must be recognized and the problem should be addressed before it is too late.

Essay on Social Media Addiction 300 Words : Damaging Young Minds

Social media is a good thing if used in the right way, but it can be as damaging if one becomes addicted to it. Unfortunately, more and more people, especially the youth are becoming addicted to the social media and it is damaging their minds.

The Craze for Approval

Social media platforms allow us to share pictures, videos and status updates revealing what’s going on in our lives. They basically give us an opportunity to boast about ourselves. We want to look good and feel good about ourselves and show it to the world. A research conducted at the Harvard University reveals that talking about ourselves makes us feel happy and high.

Social media helps in rendering this affect. We post the best of pictures and talk highly about ourselves and our family on the social media. We try to show the amount of fun we are having in our lives. However, this is not it. We, then seek approval of others. We want to see as to how many people actually ‘like’ what we are doing in life.

It feels even better when people post good comments on our pictures and status updates. Social media addicts seem to be crazy for approval of others on their list. It gives them a high when someone talks good about them, which is quite natural. The problem is they feel stressed and depressed when people do not acknowledge or like what they upload online.

The Feeling of Jealousy

The feeling of jealousy is one of the worst feelings one can experience. Instead of being content with what they have, young social media addicts try to copy others and feel jealous when they aren’t able to achieve it. They live in jealousy and agony. The feeling of dissatisfaction and frustration often takes over them. They don’t feel good about themselves and their lives and often go into depression.

Young people should think about their career and concentrate on their studies but instead they are largely caught up in futile activities on social media sites. This is not only hampering their personal growth but the development of the nation as a whole.

Essay on Social Media Addiction 400 words: A Big Social Problem

Social media sites serve as a platform to connect with our friends and relatives. We share our happy as well as sad moments on social media platforms to let those on our friend list know how we are feeling and what we are doing in life. People ‘like’ our status updates and photographs and ‘comment’ on them to tell us how they feel about it all. This is a great way to socialize in this busy world. It makes us feel that everyone we love and want to be in touch with is just a click away. However, social media becomes a problem when we get addicted to it.

Many people living in different parts of the world are suffering from social media addiction and are bearing its consequences.

Social Media Addiction: Cutting Us Off from the Society

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter may help us connect with our distant relatives and long lost friends but social media addiction is distancing us from our immediate family and close friends. People addicted to social media are hooked to these platforms for hours. They do not care if their loved ones are sitting with them or trying to make a conversation. All they care about is who updated what, on the social media and how many people liked or commented on their posts.

Social media addicts frequently check updates/ notifications on the social media platforms. This can be as frequent has twenty-thirty times in an hour. Viewing a new notification especially one involving their posts gives them a high. Lack of it, on the other hand, can make them feel sad and depressed.

All that the social media addicts care about is to maintain an attractive social media profile. They are mostly seen clicking pictures during social events, family gatherings and even during getaways with friends. They hardly enjoy the moment or talk to people around. They are only focused on collecting pictures that can be uploaded on their social media accounts or busy checking and commenting on the status updates of those on their friend list.

They post updates stating they are enjoying with their family or having fun with their friends while in reality they do not even interact properly with anyone around. This is the grave reality of social media addicts. Even when they are around people, their mind is gripped by the social media platforms.

Social media addiction is becoming a big problem. It is ironic how a platform created to help people socialize is actually cutting them from the society.

Essay on Social Media Addiction 500 words: Ways to Overcome

Social media is a great way to connect with our friends and relatives living at distant places. It is also a great place to meet like-minded people, boost our business, follow our favourite celebrities, enhance our knowledge and see what is happening around the world. However, using social media excessively can have negative repercussions. Many people grow addicted to social media and this has an impact on the normal functioning of their lives.

Social Media Addiction: Increasing by the Day

Social media has brought the world closer. People of different age groups around the world have social media accounts. While many social media users keep their profiles low key others keep it up to date. There is yet another category of social media users. These people post almost everything happening in their life on their social media accounts and spend most part of their day scrolling through different pages on social media sites. They have profiles on all the social media platforms and are addicted to them.

The number of social media addicts is increasing with every passing day. This is because social media platforms are coming up with several new and interesting ways to keep people engaged and hooked on to them.

Ways to Overcome Social Media Addiction

It may seem difficult to overcome social media addiction at once however you can do so with little effort over the time. Here are some ways to overcome social media addiction:

• Limit the Time

There are apps that help you limit the time spent on different apps on your mobile. They send an alert when you exceed the time set for using a particular app. It is a good idea to download such an app to limit your social media usage. You can decrease this time gradually.

• Stop the Notifications

Turn off the notifications for all your social media platforms on your phone. When you know you won’t be notified about any new update, you will not wait for your phone to beep or have the urge to constantly view the notification. There will be no disturbance and you will be able to concentrate better on the task at hand.

• Delete the App

It is suggested to delete few social media apps from your phone and stay active only on few of them. Also, don’t place these apps on your home screen. This simple trick can also go a long way in overcoming your social media addiction.

• Spend Time with Family and Friends

Keep your phone aside when you are with your family and friends. Talk to them, indulge in activities you enjoy and listen to all that they have to say. Plan to spend more and more time with them as you try to overcome your social media addiction. This can serve as a good distraction from the false world you have created for yourself.

• Indulge in Your Favourite Activity

Identify the activities you love the most. It may be dancing, gardening, singing, jogging or anything else, for that matter. Engage in these activities for an hour or so each day to keep your mind off social media.

Social media addicts display compulsive behavior. They often disconnect from the real world and become socially isolated. It is important to recognize this problem and overcome it to lead a happy and healthy life.

Long Essay on Social Media Addiction 600 words: Symptoms and Consequences

Social media addiction is a real problem and it has grave consequences. Many people around the world are addicted to social media platforms and it is taking a toll on their personal as well as professional lives. They are not only ruining their lives but also impacting the lives of those around them.

Symptoms of Social Media Addiction

Some of the symptoms of social media addicts have been discussed below in detail:

Constant Urge to Check Notifications

Social media addicts feel a constant urge to check notifications on their social media accounts. They check their phones frequently to see if there is any new notification. They feel delighted at the sight of a new notification and feel sad when there is none.

Social Media over Everything Else

Social media addicts give priority to social media over everything else in their lives. It is the first thing they check in the morning and last thing they see before going to bed. Their work, friends and family – everything and everyone takes a back seat.

Procrastination

Social media addicts waste time indulging in useless activities on Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites. They procrastinate or delay the actual tasks they are required to accomplish during the day.

Need for Internet Connection

They need an internet connection wherever they go as they require checking their social media updates every few minutes. They feel restless at places those do not have good internet connectivity.

No Interest in Real Conversation

Social media addicts may be present with you physically but they will hardly indulge in any conversation with you. They are busy scrolling through different social media platform as that is the only thing they are interested in. They prefer connecting with people via these platforms rather than any other medium.

Consequences of Social Media Addiction

Here are the consequences of social media addiction:

Drop in Productivity

A person addicted to social media ignores his work. He is constantly busy updating and improving his social media profile and stalking the profiles of others online. Social media becomes his priority and he begins to ignore his work. Social media addicts often get late to office, skip important meetings and are unable to meet the deadlines at work. Their productivity decreases by the day.

Social Isolation

Social media addicts do not like socializing with people face to face. They prefer socializing with people on social media platforms. They often miss social events or just go there to click pictures to upload on their profiles. They hardly interact with people or enjoy during such events. Gradually, they become socially awkward and isolated.

Impact on Academic Performance

Students who grow addicted to social media are badly impacted. This addiction causes a hindrance in their studies. Their academic performance dips. They also lose interest in sports and other activities. Their future is at stake.

Stress and Depression

Social media addicts want some new activity on their social media profiles constantly. This is practically not possible. While many people are active on social media, we cannot expect them to keep liking or commenting on our updates all the time. Social media addicts feel anxious and stressed when they do not see any new notification. They also feel sad when people do not like their photographs or other people get more likes. Many of them go into depression over the time.

Health Issues

People addicted to social media often experience weak eyesight and migraine. They also avoid physical activities and this leads to health issues such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

It is essential to keep a check on the amount of time you spend on social media platforms. If you feel the urge to check the notifications/ updates a bit too frequently then you must take it as a warning sign. There are many ways to overcome this addiction and you must adopt them to lead a better life.

Essay on Social Media Addiction FAQs

What is social media addiction in short notes.

Social media addiction is an excessive need to use platforms like Facebook or Instagram, leading to negative impacts on daily life.

How is social media an addiction essay?

Social media addiction can be caused by factors like FOMO, seeking validation, and easy access to platforms, affecting mental health and relationships.

What causes social media addiction?

Social media addiction is caused by factors like loneliness, peer pressure, and the compelling design of social media apps.

What is the cause and effect of social media addiction?

The cause of social media addiction is often feelings of isolation, leading to effects like decreased real-life social interactions and increased anxiety.

What are the causes and effects of social media on youth?

Social media can cause loneliness and insecurity while decreasing face-to-face communication, affecting youth's mental health and self-esteem.

What are the causes and effects of excessive usage of social media on youth essay?

Excessive social media use can result in reduced real-world interactions, lower self-esteem, and anxiety, impacting youth negatively.

What is the conclusion of social media essay?

In conclusion, social media influences our lives profoundly, both positively and negatively, shaping how we connect, learn, and share information.

What is social media addiction summary?

Social media addiction, in summary, involves an unhealthy attachment to social platforms, affecting daily life and well-being.

What are the conclusion about the bad effects of social media?

Concluding, the bad effects of social media include addiction, reduced face-to-face communication, and negative impacts on mental health and self-esteem.

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Social Media Addiction Essay | Short and Long Essay on Social Media Addiction | Causes of Social Media Addiction

Social Media Addiction Essay: Social media is a mechanical application and site, empowering clients to have intuitive correspondence and cooperation in sharing data, conclusions, pictures, recordings, and so on through web association. Social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter, etc., have brought many benefits to society.  It permits the exchange of information with a flicker of an eye progressively. It is ending up being profoundly advantageous for business, work searchers, financial specialists, picture takers, news channels, craftsmen, bloggers, gourmet experts, homemakers, and some more.

The current youthful age is keeping away from open-air sports and squander their energy via Social media. It influences their own life, profession, studies, and associations with friends and family. To spread mindfulness on this subject schools, universities and different social foundations urge youth to partake in Essay, Speech contests. This subject is one of the normal themes in such discussions.

You can read more  Essay Writing  about articles, events, people, sports, technology many more.

Along these lines, we have given you an example exposition via online media fixation of like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and so on which discusses causes, impact, manifestations and arrangements of the Social media dependence. However, the substance is given in paper design, with little adjustments you can utilize it for discourse or article composing. You can likewise utilize this data for passage composing.

Short Essay on Social Media Addiction 200 Words in English

Social media compulsion has become a reason for concern. It is preventing the understudy’s schooling and is influencing their grades. Work has likewise become an impediment to the homegrown producers just as the work-creators. This relationship is likewise causing issues and is prompting issues like anorexia and gloom.

Maybe than joining Social media and associating with dear companions, individuals have begun rivaling them. They need to post preferable photographs and notices over others and need their profiles to be awesome. Online media addicts invest the greater part of their energy contemplating how they can improve their profile than others.

Online media addicts additionally consistently desire to look through Social media stages. They revive their data, stop individuals’ profiles, update their status, transfer their photos frequently and continue to remark to a great extent.

Numerous Social media Addiction locales like Facebook likewise offer to play a few games. These games are largely habit-forming. Players attempt to contend with different parts in their companion list. They invest the vast majority of their energy playing these games to expand their level and score. They become furious and disappointed when they can’t get it.

Side effects of Social media fixation ought to be recognized and the issue ought to be tended to before extremely late.

Long Essay on Social Media Addiction 500 Words in English

Online media is an incredible method to associate with our companions and family members living in far-off places. It is likewise an extraordinary spot to meet similar individuals, support our business, follow our number one superstars, upgrade our insight and see what’s going on around the world. Be that as it may, utilizing online media unreasonably can have negative repercussions. Numerous individuals become dependent on Social media and this affects the typical working of their lives.

Students can also find Internet Addiction Essay and Paragraph on Social Media from here

Why Social Media Addiction is Increasing?

Online media has brought the world nearer. Individuals of various age bunches all throughout the planet have Social media accounts. While numerous online media clients keep their profiles serene others stay up with the latest. There is one more class of Social media clients. These individuals post nearly everything occurring in their life on their online media accounts and burn through most pieces of their day looking through changed pages via Social media locales. They have profiles on every one of the online media stages and are dependent on them.

The quantity of online media addicts is expanding as time passes. This is on the grounds that Social media stages are thinking of a few new and intriguing approaches to keep individuals connected with and snared on to them.

How to Overcome this Addiction?

It might appear to be hard to conquer online media enslavement immediately anyway you can do as such with little exertion over the long haul. Here are some approaches to beat Social media fixation:

• Make your time useful: There are applications that help you limit the time spent on various applications on your portable. They send a ready when you surpass the time set for utilizing a specific application. It is a smart thought to download such an application to restrict your Social media utilization. You can diminish this time bit by bit.
• Turn off your app notifications: Mood killer the warnings for all your Social media stages on your telephone. At the point when you realize you will not be informed about any new update, you won’t trust that your telephone will blare or have the inclination to continually see the notice. There will be no unsettling influence and you will actually want to focus better on the job that needs to be done.
• Remove unnecessary app: It is proposed to erase not many Social media applications from your telephone and stay dynamic just on a couple of them. Additionally, don’t put these applications on your home screen. This basic stunt can likewise go far in defeating your Social media compulsion.
• Make your Social life physical not digital: Keep your telephone to the side when you are with your loved ones. Converse with them, enjoy exercises you appreciate and pay attention to all that they need to say. Plan to invest increasingly more energy with them as you attempt to conquer your online media enslavement. This can fill in as a decent interruption from the bogus world you have made for yourself.
• Follow your hobbies: Recognize the exercises you love the most. It very well might be moving, planting, singing, running or whatever else, so far as that is concerned. Participate in these exercises for an hour or somewhere in the vicinity every day to keep your psyche off online media.

Side-effects of Social Media

• Social media consumes a lot of time and decreases the productivity of the person day by day.
• Social media makes a person completely isolated from the outer world. Sometimes they become so introverted, that they can connect to another person through social media only.
• Students can lower their academic marks because of the excess use of social media.
• People get too much dependent on social media for the likes and views on their posts. Hence, their happiness is more dependent on the public reactions, which makes them more depressed and sad when do not get a good number of likes.
• One of the major drawbacks of social media is it affects our health drastically. Our eyes get tired by constantly watching mobiles phones and laptop screens. Also, we do not prefer to go out much for a walk, which makes us gain weight and lose stamina.

Final Conclusion

Social media addicts show urgent conduct. They regularly separate from this present reality and become socially segregated. Perceive this issue and conquer it to lead a cheerful and sound life.

FAQ’s on Social Media Addiction Essay

Question 1. What is social media addiction?

Answer: Individuals invest more energy in their cell phones over various online media applications. They track down a virtual existence where it is not difficult to get virtual regard, love, appreciation, acknowledgement. Our current age is having an exceptionally low capacity to focus, they are anxious, they need things to occur in a flash. Which is hauling them into this virtual universe of Social media and applications.

Question 2. What is the cause of social media addiction?

Answer: The main motivation for this human conduct is the requirement for acknowledgement, appreciation, approval, fondness, and love. Social media introduced a virtual existence where individuals address themselves with the persona they need others to see, as and love. These online media stages are simply innovation, it is the longing in the human psyche which is catching them in this endless loop.

Question 3. What is the type of social media addiction?

Answer: There are different types of social media addiction:

• Having accounts on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc, to post your stories or photos or videos, to get public attention and likes.
• The habit of chatting through WhatsApp is another kind of addiction.
• Cybersex addiction, watching illegal pornographic videos especially for youth is a big cause of addiction
• Online games available nowadays also causes addiction
• Surfing information from social media platforms
• Watching movies or videos on free youtube channels

Question 4. What are the advantages of social media?

Answer: Social media is just not a curse but it has brought a lot of boons to society. Using social media you can contact huge crowds,  have an immediate association with your crowd, can make natural substance, approach paid promoting administrations, assemble your image, direct people to your site and can assess your exhibition.

• Open access
• Published: 31 August 2024

Scrolling through adolescence: unveiling the relationship of the use of social networks and its addictive behavior with psychosocial health

• Caroline Brand 1 ,
• Camila Felin Fochesatto 2 ,
• Anelise Reis Gaya 2 ,
• Felipe Barreto Schuch 3 , 4 , 5 &
• José Francisco López-Gil 6  

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health volume  18 , Article number:  107 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

Understanding the relationship of social network use and addictive behaviors with adolescent psychosocial health is crucial in today’s digital age.

To verify the associations between social network use, messaging applications, and the addictive behaviors to social network with psychosocial health in Spanish adolescents.

A cross-sectional study was developed with 632 adolescents, aged 12 to 17 years from the Region of Murcia, Spain. The assessment of social network use (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok) involved evaluating the frequency of use of each social network individually using a single-item scale with five response options. WhatsApp use (i.e., a messaging application) was evaluated in the same manner. The Short Social Networks Addiction Scale-6 Symptoms was employed to assess potential addictive behaviors to social network use. The psychosocial health was assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Generalized linear regression models were conducted, and predictive probabilities of having psychosocial health problems were calculated.

The predicted probability of presenting psychosocial health problems in the medium users and high users of social networks was 19.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 13.0 to 27.7), and 16.2% (95% CI 10.2 to 24.6) higher compared to low users, respectively. High usage of Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Facebook was associated with increased probabilities of psychosocial health problems, with Facebook showing the highest probabilities, at 31.3% (95% CI 14.8 to 54.2) for medium users and 51.9% (95% CI 26.5 to 76.3) for high users. Additionally, adolescents with addictive behaviors to social network use had from 19.0 to 25.2% probabilities of experiencing psychosocial health problems. Finally, the highest probabilities of having psychosocial health problems were identified in adolescents with high addictive behaviors when using social networks (28.9%; 95% CI 19.3 to 40.8%) and the lowest in those with low addictive behaviors (6.8%; 95% CI 3.3 to 13.6%).

Adolescents who use social networks more frequently and exhibit more addictive behaviors related to their use are more likely to experience psychosocial health problems compared to those who do not. Facebook showed the strongest association, followed by Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. Our data also revealed that adolescents exhibit various signs of addictive behaviors to social network use.

Introduction

In recent years, there has been a notable increase in media device usage, with estimates indicating that between 88 and 95% of American adolescents now own smartphones [ 1 ], and almost 90% are online at least several times during the day [ 2 ]. Consequently, the utilization of social networks and messaging applications, such as Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, among adolescents, has become a prominent aspect of contemporary youth culture [ 3 ]. This trend has significantly influenced their social interactions and communication patterns. Social networks offer adolescents opportunities for self-expression, social connection, and information sharing. Similarly, messaging applications like WhatsApp facilitate instant communication and group interactions among peers [ 4 ]. However, alongside the benefits, concerns have emerged regarding the potential impact of excessive social network use and WhatsApp usage on adolescent psychosocial health [ 5 , 6 , 7 ].

The use of social media is a contentious issue, given the presence of mixed evidence regarding its impacts. Mountain cross-sectional evidence has indicated that excessive social network use is associated with higher symptoms of anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, and conduct problems among adolescents [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. For instance, a study involving 6596 US adolescents revealed that spending more than 3 h per day on social networks is linked to a higher probability of mental health issues [ 8 ]. Also, a longitudinal study revealed an association between problematic social network use and later anxiety symptoms in adolescents aged 13 to 14 years [ 6 ]. However, results are not entirely consistent, demonstrating that more time spent on social media was not significantly related to poorer mental health 2 years later in adolescents [ 13 ]. Also, evidence suggests that the use of Facebook may have more positive than negative effects on mental health [ 14 ].

In this context, it is important to highlight that excessive social network use can lead to behavioral addiction [ 15 ], impacting various aspects of an individual’s life, including academic performance and overall well-being [ 16 , 17 ]. Moreover, the addictive nature of social network use among adolescents raises concerns about the long-term implications on their overall health [ 18 ]. Studies have highlighted an association between excessive screen time and disrupted sleep patterns, insufficient physical activity, and low academic performance [ 19 , 20 , 21 ].

Considering that 4.76 billion people across the globe are using social media, representing 59.4% of the global population [ 22 ], and that 90% of Spanish adolescents utilize social networks, alongside the rising prevalence of mental health issues in this demographic over the past years [ 23 , 24 ], it becomes crucial to examine how these habits might affect psychosocial well-being in this population. By shedding light on the potential risks and consequences of excessive screen time and digital communication, this research seeks to inform public health interventions, educational programs, and policy initiatives aimed at promoting responsible digital citizenship and safeguarding the health and development of young people in the digital age. Therefore, this study aimed to verify the associations between the use of social networks, messaging applications, and the addiction to social networks with psychosocial health in Spanish adolescents.

Study design and sample

This is a secondary cross-sectional study with data from the Eating Healthy and Daily Life Activities (EHDLA) study. This investigation involved a representative group of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years residing in the Valle de Ricote , within the Region of Murcia (Spain). It was conducted across their three secondary schools during the 2021/2022 academic year. The comprehensive methodology of the EHDLA research is documented elsewhere [ 25 ]. The research project received ethical approval from two committees, the Bioethics Committee of the University of Murcia (ID 2218/2018) and the Ethics Committee of the Albacete University Hospital Complex and the Albacete Integrated Care Management (ID 2021–85). Also, the study adhered to the principles outlined in the Helsinki Declaration, prioritizing the safeguarding of participants’ human rights.

For the present study, 632 adolescents (50.8%) with complete information on all variables of interest were included. The following inclusion criteria were considered: fall within the age range of 12 to 17 years and reside in or attend school in Valle de Ricote . Exclusion criteria were as follows: being excused from physical education classes, as assessments and surveys were conducted during these sessions; having any medical condition limiting physical activity or necessitating special care; undergoing any pharmacological treatment; or absence of parental or legal guardian consent.

To take part in this study, parents or legal guardians of the adolescents were required to sign an informed consent form. Furthermore, both parents/legal guardians and their children received an informational document detailing the study’s objectives, assessment instruments, and questionnaires used. Moreover, adolescents were explicitly invited to indicate their willingness to participate in the study.

Measurements

Social network use.

The assessment of social network use (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok) involved evaluating each social network individually using a single-item scale (“Please, indicate the option that you consider most appropriate for yourself regarding the use of each social network of the following:”). Adolescents were asked to indicate their usage level for each social network from five response options: (a) “I never or rarely use them”; (b) “I am a low consumer”; (c) “I am a medium consumer”; (d) “I am a fairly high consumer”; or “I am a very high consumer” [ 26 ]. The responses were transformed into numerical variables ranging from 1 (“I never or rarely use them”) to 5 (“I am a very high consumer”). Subsequently, the scores for each social network were summed to generate a social network use score, ranging from 5 to 25, with higher scores indicating greater social network use [ 27 ]. Given the absence of specific cutoff points for social network use, the social network use score was stratified into tertiles: low social network use (5 to 12 points), moderate social network use (13 to 15 points), and high social network use (16 to 25 points).

The WhatsApp use (i.e., a messaging application) was also assessed using the same single-item scale. However, given that WhatsApp is a messaging application rather than a social network, it was excluded from the social network use score calculation.

For further analyses, the use of each social network and WhatsApp were categorized into: (a) low social network use (“I never or rarely use them” or “I am a low consumer”); (b) medium social network use (“I am a medium consumer”); or (c) high social network use (“I am a fairly high consumer” or “I am a very high consumer).

Addictive behaviors to social network use

The Short Social Networks Addiction Scale-6 Symptoms (SNAddS-6 S) [ 28 ] was employed to assess potential addiction to social networks. This instrument comprises six items capturing behaviors associated with tolerance (i.e., a desire for increased use), salience (i.e., social network use becoming a primary concern), mood modification (i.e., altering mood through social network usage), relapse (i.e., the risk of returning to addiction after controlling use), withdrawal (i.e., experiencing psychological and physical symptoms when unable to use), and conflict (i.e., social network usage interfering with social and daily activities). It features a unifactorial structure and has been previously validated among Spanish adolescents [ 28 ]. To facilitate further analysis, responses for all these behaviors were aggregated (“No” = 0; “Yes” = 1) to derive an overall score for social network addictive behaviors (ranging from 0 to 6 behaviors), with higher scores indicating greater susceptibility to social network addiction. Additionally, the overall addictive-related behaviors to social network use were stratified into tertiles: low addictive behaviors (0 to 1 behavior), moderate addictive behaviors (2 to 3 behaviors), or high addictive behaviors (4 to 6 behaviors).

Psychosocial health problems

The psychosocial health was assessed using the 25-item self-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) [ 29 ]. This tool is utilized for clinical assessment, screening of psychiatric disorders, and epidemiological research. The SDQ comprises five scales: (i) emotional symptoms, (ii) conduct problems, (iii) hyperactivity, (iv) peer problems, and (v) pro-social behavior (reverse scored). Participants respond to the 25 items using a 3-point scale: “certainly true”, “somewhat true”, and “not true”, with scores ranging from 0 to 2 points. To calculate the SDQ score, all the scales are added together except for the prosocial scale, so the score ranges from 0 to 40 points. Additionally, cutoff scores were employed to categorize individuals into three groups: (a) normal (0–15 points); (b) borderline (16–19 points); and (c) abnormal (20–40 points) [ 29 ]. For further analyses, these groups were collapsed into: no psychosocial health problem (“normal” or “borderline”) or psychosocial health problems (“abnormal”).

The adolescents provided self-reported data on their age and sex. Furthermore, socioeconomic status was assessed using the Family Affluence Scale (FAS-III) [ 30 ], comprising six questions with responses graded from 0 to 13 points. The cumulative scores were computed to determine the FAS-III score, with higher values indicating greater socioeconomic status.

The body weight and height of the adolescents were measured, and afterward, body mass index (BMI) was calculated by dividing their weight in kilograms by their height in meters squared.

To collect data on physical activity and sedentary behavior among adolescents, the Spanish version of the Youth Activity Profile (YAP-S) was applied, which was adapted and validated for its implementation among Spanish youth [ 31 ]. Additionally, participants’ sleep patterns were assessed by eliciting their typical weekday and weekend bedtime and wake-up times separately. The mean daily sleep duration for each participant was calculated using the formula: [(average nocturnal sleep duration on weekdays × 5) + (average nocturnal sleep duration on weekends × 2)]/7.

The adherence to the Mediterranean Diet among children and adolescents was evaluated using the Mediterranean Diet Quality Index (KIDMED) [ 32 ]. This index consists of 16 questions regarding the frequency of consumption of healthy foods (e.g., fruits, vegetables) and unhealthy foods (e.g., sweets, pastries), as well as behaviors such as skipping breakfast or eating at fast-food restaurants. The total score ranges from − 4 to 12, with higher scores indicating better adherence to the Mediterranean Diet.

The inclusion of these covariates as adjustments is justified, given their relationship with psychosocial health. The literature demonstrates that adolescents from families with higher socioeconomic status tend to show better indicators of mental health [ 33 ]. Also, studies have shown associations between healthy eating habits, adequate sleep patterns, and regular physical exercise with better mental health among young people [ 33 , 34 , 35 ]. On the other hand, prolonged sedentary behaviors and overweight are often associated with higher odds of psychosocial problems, such as anxiety and depression [ 36 , 37 ].

Statistical analysis

To evaluate the normal distribution of the variables, we utilized visual methods like density and quantile–quantile plots, along with conducting the Shapiro-Wilk test. Therefore, continuous variables are shown as median and interquartile range (IQR), and categorical variables are shown as counts and percentages. Generalized linear regression models with binomial distribution were conducted to calculate the odds ratio (ORs) and their 95% confidence interval (CIs) for the associations between social network use status and psychosocial health problems (Supplementary material 1). Moreover, we calculated the predictive probabilities of having psychosocial health problems based on social network status or addiction to social network status. The models were adjusted for age (in years), sex (boys or girls), socioeconomic status (i.e., FAS-III score), physical activity (i.e., YAP-S physical activity score), sedentary behavior (i.e., YAP-S sedentary behavior score), overall sleep duration (in minutes), BMI (kg/m 2 ), and adherence to the Mediterranean diet (i.e., KIDMED score). These same analyses were conducted for each social network (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok), a messaging application (i.e., WhatsApp), and for each addictive behavior to social networks (i.e., tolerance, salience, mood modification, relapse, withdrawal, and conflict). We carried out all the statistical analyses using R statistical software (version 4.3.2) (R Core Team, Vienna, Austria) and RStudio (version 2023.09.1 + 494) (Posit, Boston, MA, USA). We considered a p value less than 0.05 to be the threshold for statistical significance.

Predictive probabilities of having psychosocial health problems according to social network use status in adolescents. The data are expressed as predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, sleep duration, physical activity, sedentary behavior, body mass index, and adherence to the Mediterranean diet. CI, confidence interval; SN, social network. † According to the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) [ 29 ]. ‡ SDQ scores of 17 and above were considered as psychosocial health problems [ 29 ]

Predictive probabilities of having psychosocial health problems for each social network used or for WhatsApp use in adolescents. The data are expressed as predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, sleep duration, physical activity, sedentary behavior, body mass index, and adherence to the Mediterranean diet. CI, confidence interval. † According to the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) [ 29 ]. ‡ SDQ scores of 17 and above were considered as psychosocial health problems [ 29 ]. a Significant difference from “low social network use” ( p  < 0.05)

Table  1  presents the characteristics of the study participants according to social network use status. The highest proportion of individuals with a normal psychosocial health status (emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, peer problems, and pro-social behavior) was observed among participants with low social networking usage, while the lowest was among those with high social networking usage.

Figure  1 shows the predictive probabilities of having psychosocial health problems according to the social network use status in adolescents. The highest probability of presenting psychosocial health problems was identified in those who were classified as medium users (19.3%; 95% CI 13.0 to 27.7) and high users of social networks (16.2%; 95% CI 10.2 to 24.6). Conversely, the lowest probability of having psychosocial health problems were observed in those categorized as low users (6.6%; 95% CI 3.9 to 11.0). Moreover, significant differences were found between adolescents with low SN use and those with high SN use ( p  = 0.008), as well as with those with medium SN use ( p  < 0.001).

The predictive probabilities of having psychosocial health problems for each social network used or for WhatsApp use in adolescents are shown in Fig.  2 and Supplementary material 2. The probability of having psychosocial health problems was higher for those adolescents with high Instagram use 15.1% (95% CI 10.3 to 21.4), high TikTok use 14.9% (95% CI 10.0 to 21.7), high Snapchat use 43.3% (95% CI 24.3 to 64.5), compared to those with low use of these same social networks. Regarding Facebook, both medium and high users presented a higher probability of having psychosocial health problems compared to low users, 31.2% (95% CI 14.8 to 54.2) and 51.9% (95% CI 26.5 to 76.3), respectively. On the other hand, WhatsApp and Twitter were not significantly associated with psychosocial health problems.

Table  2 presents the predictive probabilities of psychosocial health problems associated with indicators of addictive behaviors to social network use among adolescents. Data indicate that adolescents reporting a desire to increase social network use (tolerance) have a 19.6% (95% CI 12.9 to 28.6) probability of experiencing such problems compared to the ones not reporting this desire. Similarly, those indicating mood alteration through social network usage (mood modification) show a 23.6% (95% CI 16.6 to 32.4) probability of encountering psychosocial health problems. Additionally, adolescents reporting a risk of relapse into addiction after attempting to control usage display a 19.0% (95% CI 12.7 to 27.3) probability of such problems. Those experiencing psychosocial and physical symptoms when unable to use social networks had a 25.0% (95% CI 16.7 to 35.6) probability of encountering psychosocial health issues. Lastly, adolescents reporting interference with social and daily activities due to social network usage present a 25.2% (95% CI 13.1 to 35.5) probability of experiencing psychosocial health problems.

The predictive probabilities of having psychosocial health problems according to the addictive behaviors to social network use status in adolescents are found in Fig.  3 and Supplementary material 2. The highest probabilities of having psychosocial health problems were identified in those with high addictive behaviors to the SN use (28.9%; 95% CI 19.3 to 40.8%). Conversely, the lowest probabilities of having these same problems were observed in adolescents with low addictive behaviors (6.8%; 95% CI 3.3 to 13.6%). Furthermore, significant differences were found between adolescents with high addictive behaviors to SN use and those with low addictive behaviors to SN use ( p  < 0.001), as well as with those with medium addictive behaviors to SN use ( p  = 0.023). Likewise, significant differences were found between adolescents with medium addictive behaviors to SN use and those with low addictive behaviors to SN use ( p  = 0.005).

Predictive probabilities of having psychosocial health problems according to the addictive behaviors to social network use (status)

The key findings of this study revealed that medium users and high users of social media had higher probabilities of experiencing psychosocial health issues at 19.3 and 16.2% compared to lower users, respectively. Regarding the individual social network, Facebook emerged as the most detrimental, with 31.3% probability of psychosocial health problems among medium users and 51.9% among high users, followed by Snapchat users at 43.3%. High usage of Instagram and TikTok usage were also associated with approximately 15% probability of psychosocial health problems. Our data also revealed that adolescents exhibited various signs of social network addiction, such as tolerance, mood alteration, risk of relapse, withdrawal symptoms, and interference with daily activities, having probabilities ranging from 19.0 to 25.2% of experiencing psychosocial health problems. These associations were observed considering the role of several relevant covariates. Finally, we also noticed that the highest probabilities of having psychosocial health problems were identified in adolescents with high addictive behaviors when using social networks and the lowest in those with low addictive behaviors.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate these issues in the adolescent population from Spain, approaching separately the role of different social media platforms. Taken together, these findings underscore a concerning scenario regarding the use of social network and psychosocial health of Spanish adolescents. The results suggest that harm to psychosocial well-being is evident even with moderate use of social networks, indicating that it is not solely high usage that is associated with a risk to adolescents’ health. Previous literature has shown that excessive social network use (more than 3 h a day) is linked to psychosocial distress and internalizing problems among adolescents [ 8 , 38 ]. However, our findings suggest that even moderate use of social networks is associated with worse psychosocial health, suggesting that the impact of social media on psychosocial well-being may be more pronounced than previously thought. On the other hand, our findings indicate that low usage of social networks is associated with a lower probability of experiencing psychosocial health issues, suggesting that abstaining from using social networks may prevent psychosocial health problems.

In this context, it is essential to consider the role of the different social networks, due to their individual characteristics. Each platform offers unique features and content, which could influence how adolescents engage with them and the potential impact on their psychosocial well-being [ 5 ]. We observed that Facebook and Snapchat were the social networks most strongly associated with psychosocial health problems. What is shown by existing literature is that, while it may be beneficial for some aspects like emotional support, self-expression, self-identity, and real-world relationships [ 39 , 40 ], prolonged use of Facebook and Snapchat by adolescents is also associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression, loneliness, sleep problems, body image issues, and bullying [ 39 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ]. These adverse effects could be attributed to tendencies toward comparison and hopelessness, nighttime exposure to screens inhibiting the release of sleep hormones, instant propagation of negative comments, and the perception that by observing others’ “exciting” lives, they are missing out on the chance to live their own [ 45 , 46 ]. On the other hand, the psychological necessities of adolescents may motivate the search for content that will bring relief to their symptoms [ 47 ].

Another aspect identified was the addictive behaviors to social network use among adolescents and their relationship with psychosocial health problems. Each indicator of social media addiction presents unique implications for adolescent well-being. Tolerance, manifested as a desire to increase social media use, signifies a growing dependence on digital platforms for social interaction and validation, potentially leading to escalated addictive behaviors over time [ 48 ]. Similarly, mood alteration through social media use reflects the emotional impact of online interactions, suggesting that the immersive nature of social media platforms could influence adolescents’ mood and overall psychological well-being [ 49 ]. Moreover, the risk of relapse into addiction after attempting to control use underscores the challenges teens face in regulating their online behavior, highlighting the dependence they develop on digital platforms for emotional support, social connection and continuous reward [ 50 ]. Additionally, interference with social and daily activities due to social media use disrupts teenagers’ offline lives, exacerbating feelings of isolation and detachment from real-world interactions, ultimately compromising their overall functioning and well-being [ 51 ]. These findings underscore the multifaceted nature of social media addiction and its profound impact on various dimensions of adolescent psychosocial health.

Several mechanisms could explain the link between social media use and psychosocial health problems. Factors such as idealization of a perfect life, constant comparison, cyberbullying, body image comparisons, and disrupted sleep patterns due to late-night usage all play a role [ 52 , 53 ]. Also, evidence indicates that social media use can lead to dopamine release in the brain, similar to other addictive behaviors. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward. When we engage in activities that we find pleasurable, such as receiving likes or comments on social media posts, dopamine is released in our brains, reinforcing the behavior and encouraging us to continue engaging in it [ 54 , 55 ]. Another aspect involved is that excessive social media use can lead to dysregulation of dopamine pathways, resulting in individuals feeling compelled to check their social media accounts frequently, even when it interferes with other aspects of their lives such as work, sleep, or social interactions [ 55 ]. It is also speculated that this relationship may be bidirectional, meaning that having symptoms led to higher social media usage [ 47 ].

Regarding addiction to social network behavior predicting psychosocial health problems, the literature presents similar results. Aspects such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, and depression are associated with social media dependency, demonstrating in some cases that the greater the use of social media, the more severe the symptoms [ 56 , 57 ]. Sümen and Evgin [ 58 ] pointed out that Turkish adolescents who were addicted to social media had a higher risk of developing various mental health issues, such as conduct problems, emotional issues, and issues with peers. Possible mechanisms for this relationship were also indicated, including the barrier that social networks create to establishing personal relationships with family and the environment; the use of social media to relieve undesirable mood states, symptoms of stress and anxiety, and even social media as a mechanism for modulating neuroendocrine responses and the sympathetic nervous system in the face of a stressor event [ 56 , 57 , 58 ].

There are some limitations to consider in this study. First, the use of social network and psychosocial health were based on self-reports by adolescents, which could potentially lead to super estimation or underestimation of data, depending on memory, and may be affected by social desirability. Also, the lack of predefined thresholds for social media usage levels may introduce variability in how participants interpret and report their usage. Additionally, as social media usage patterns evolve rapidly, our data, while collected relatively recently, may not capture the most current trends and newest platforms. Finally, the sample was not representative, which can make it difficult to extrapolate the results. On the other hand, some important strengths of this study must be considered. Our study examined multiple social media platforms and their individual impact, offers crucial insights for developing targeted interventions and prevention strategies. Furthermore, we included in the analyses a large number of covariates, such as age, sex, socioeconomic status, sleep duration, physical activity, sedentary behavior, BMI, and adherence to the Mediterranean diet, thereby enhancing the validity of the present results.

In conclusion, adolescents who use social networks more frequently and exhibit more addictive behaviors related to their use are more likely to experience psychosocial health problems compared to those who do not.Facebook emerged as the most detrimental, followed by Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. Our data also revealed that adolescents exhibit various signs of social network addiction and that the greater the addictive behaviors, the greater the psychosocial health problems. Taken together, the findings of the present study have the potential to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the complex relationship between technology use and adolescent well-being, with implications for both research and practice in the fields of psychology, education, and public health.

Data availability

The data used in this study are available upon request from the corresponding authors. However, given that the participants are minors, privacy and confidentiality must be respected.

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The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Ayuntamiento de Archena , the participants, parents/legal guardians, physical education teachers, schools, and staff who provided information for this study.

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Brand, C., Fochesatto, C.F., Gaya, A.R. et al. Scrolling through adolescence: unveiling the relationship of the use of social networks and its addictive behavior with psychosocial health. Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health 18 , 107 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-024-00805-0

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