Academic Expert: Is Social Media Addictive?
Is social media addictive? Why a formal diagnosis is still out of reach.
On March 25, a California trial awarded $6 million to a plaintiff who argued that the addictive qualities of social media had caused her harm. Google and Meta, which were the companies that were found liable, disagree with the verdict and intend to appeal.
Dar Meshi, an associate professor of advertising and public relations at the Michigan State University College of Communication Arts and Sciences, studies the psychology of technology use, including social media. He recently authored a commentary for the journal Nature about social media addiction and can discuss what an addictive behavior is, whether or not social media is addictive, and if social media addiction should be taken more seriously.
Answers are excerpts from Meshi’s Nature commentary.
What are the impacts of excessive social media use?
Case-based evidence has linked excessive social media use to psychological distress and impaired functioning in some people, for example, through job loss, relationship problems and academic failure. This use has been associated with differences in the structure and activity of reward-related brain regions and with impaired decision-making. Such features are observed in substance-use disorders too.
But the issue is complex. Outcomes associated with social media use vary widely, depending on how and why people use the platforms. ‘Active’ habits such as posting, commenting and messaging have been linked to positive well-being – unlike passive scrolling. And social media can provide social support to marginalized groups, such as young people from sexual and gender minorities.
What’s more, the field’s literature is dominated by research that is correlational, not causal – mine included. Another issue is that researchers are still debating how to measure social media addiction, including the threshold at which social media becomes problematic.
Do these impacts mean that social media is addictive?
Despite more than two decades of study on social media use, many researchers like me are wary of using the label of ‘addiction.’ That’s because there is no general agreement on whether social media use can meet current standards for addictive disorders. More rigorous research is needed, along with guidance from professional bodies such as the American Psychiatric Association, or APA. This could help to establish whether social media addiction is a clinical phenomenon – and, if so, which criteria could be used to diagnose it.
