How to stop Social media addiction?: Its impact on Mental Health and Strategies for Healthy Use
- Aaradhana Reddy
- Feb 17, 2022
- 21 min read
Updated: Feb 23, 2022
Published on, February 17, 2022
Aaradhana Reddy,
Counselling Psychologist
The concept of social media addiction is everywhere now. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Reddit etc. have all become an important part of our lives, if not central. These individual social networking sites have their own distinct user interfaces and even got a distinct language of their own. They have changed the way of social interaction; taking it from the physical to virtual. Although they have created a dark side, there is always a lighter, positive side to social media.
Contents
1. What is Social Media Addiction?
An individual is said to have social media addiction, when he/she has an almost compulsive drive to check their social media accounts, spend excessive amount of time on social media experiencing euphoria while using it. There is also a preoccupation about social media, especially when they don't have immediate access; with their thoughts revolving around social media and related things.
The research on social media addiction or social networking sites (SNS) addiction, is still in its nascent stages; there are not many researches done ad not many standardized scales are available to measure it. Smartphone addiction or social networking sites addiction disorder/social media addition has not been mentioned in diagnosis manual as of now; either in DSM V (Diagnostic Statistical Manual- V) or in the International Classification of Disease-11 (ICD-11). There are not many longitudinal studies done on this addiction, the scales used might not be reliable for diagnosis; hence, there are not many studies done on the clinical population. We have heard people saying in their daily conversations; “I am just addicted to my phone” “I don’t know what I would do without my phone”. So, are all of them addicted? Let’s break it down.
1.1 Dimensions of Substance Abuse: A person is said to be addicted (usually to a substance) when;
There is a presence of a strong drive to use the substance
Use persists even when there are harmful consequences (both physical and psychosocial)
Substance use takes priority over all other important activities such as work, familial relationships etc.; resulting in a functional deficit.
There are withdrawal effects such as anxiety, irritation etc. when the said substance is not consumed or when not available. Hence, the person continues to use the substance to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
Presence of Tolerance; that is when gradually the amount of substance consumed is increased to achieve the same level of high.
Relapse, when any action to control the consumption of substance is failed.
Salience; when the person is preoccupied with the substance. Consuming the substance becomes the most important activity and all their thoughts revolve around the substance (Panova & Carbonell, 2018).
There are also behavioral or process addiction, where all or most of the above can be applied to a behavior; that is a person shows dependency on gambling, sex, gaming etc. Many list social media addiction under behavioral addiction. When talking about it clinically, internet addiction is often referred to as using the services (gaming, shopping, pornography) on the internet inappropriately, excessively.
Let’s see which of above aspects can and cannot be applied to social media addiction. The major difference between social media addiction and other forms of addictions are that, social media or a smartphone for that matter have become important tools used in our daily lives; especially since everything is online; even work. Secondly, there is nothing inherently negative about social media or a smartphone; implying which is that, there are also benefits to social media or even a smartphone for that matter. Unlike, in other behavioral or substance use addictions there are predominantly only negative consequences; both physical and psychosocial. Hence. researchers have called it pathological internet use (PUI) or Addictive Consumption Trait of social networking sites (ACT of SNS) (Kang, Shin, & Park, 2013; Davis, 2001). Some dimensions that cannot be applicable are the physical consequences; which are little and indirect compared to substance addiction with acute neck, back and wrist pain, blurred vision etc.; which are the consequences of using smartphone or laptops for extended periods of time (Panova & Carbonell, 2018).
1.2 Dimensions of Social Media Addiction: Some of the addiction dimensions that are applicable to social media addiction are
Salience, where social media and its related activities can dominate a person’s thoughts creating a preoccupation regarding it. Others have also suggested cognitive behavioral aspect of salience; which is distraction. Working with adolescents I have heard a lot of this; smartphones and notifications from social media networks acting as distractions when studying.
Euphoria: Euphoria involves the experience of positive emotions such as joy, positive mood alteration etc., when using social media.
Immersion (similar to tolerance): Involves increasing the time spent on social media to attain the positive experience such as joy or relief they gain from using it.
Compulsion (similar to withdrawal; but cannot be considered as so): As the name suggests, it’s the inner compulsion that an individual might experience, to use social media to attain the advantages they see in using it. These advantages might act as positive reinforcers to use social media. It cannot be termed as withdrawal because, as seen in substance abuse, substance is reused to avoid the withdrawal symptoms; whereas social media is reused to attain the benefits from using it.
Association: With the onset of online communities; there is a sense of association with social media that users might experience. The same sense of belongingness that we feel towards the community or family we are born in. Online communities can act as safe spaces, provide acknowledgment, support, positive interactions and a sense of universality (“I am not alone in what I am going through, there are others with similar experiences) towards its members. Hence, association is an important aspect of social media addiction (Kang, Shin, & Park, 2013).
2. Two sides of a Coin
As I said earlier, there is a positive side to social media as well. We are now more connected than we have ever been. Knowledge is a click away, healthcare, mental health awareness and treatment, essential services are all at our fingertips. The globe has never been smaller and more connected than now. New opportunities for development and employment are limitless. Aid and help have also changed for the better, crowdfunding programs, fundraising campaigns and donations that can be paid online can reach across to millions; which could mean more funds, benefitting millions of people in need live better lives. Social media influencers can take up important concerns the world is facing and promote awareness, pledge money or start a campaign.
How we view community had also changed; earlier community had a territorial limit; but with the emergence of online communities, individuals from different parts of the world can come together as a community and share their interests. Although cyberbullying has become an important concern, people can also come together, as they would in a community and support individuals sharing their concerns and experiences. A sense of universality is created when people with similar experiences come together to support each other (one of the advantages of group therapy). As we journey through the article, we will understand that, there are two sides to social media; it has both its advantages and disadvantages. And it all comes down to how individuals use it. It's not right to pounce at social media and tag it as a villain. But, it is also important to be mindful about our usage and tweak our usage so we stay on the path of adaptive use; rather than the pathological side.
3. So, Why is social media so addictive?
Before we get into the aspects of our behavior and mental health consequences; we need to understand certain technical aspects of social media. Technoference (technology + interference), first coined by Brandon McDaniel to describe how technology has interfered into our lives. It has interfered with our interpersonal relationships (family and friends), has changed our way of communication with others (including our language of communication with emojis and internet language), sleep, parenting etc. What is it about technology and social media that has everybody hooked on to it? The answer lies in its algorithms and the features it offers. First, algorithms are ‘decision making rules’ that are built into the computer codes. They are all around us; they are reason why everybody is shown different results even though they are searching about the same thing. They make decisions on what results we see on google and other social media sites based on our clicks and search history. They determine our recommendations and target the ads based on the content we interact with; especially true with Facebook given the massive user database they have. Facebook and other social media sites use the data about our history of interactions to determine what posts we are shown, recommend who to follow etc. Given the endless number of posts that one is interested in; to scroll through and the features of likes and comment notifications that lead to what is known as ‘social validation loops’; that keep us hooked on to these sites. As Zuckerberg said “Autoplay and endless feeds eliminate cues to stop. Unpredictable, variable rewards stimulate behavioral addiction. Tagging, like buttons, and notifications trigger social validation loops. As users, we do not stand a chance.” (McNamee, 2019, p. 86).
Another trick let’s say that social media sites use to keep us hooked on is gamification. Gamification simply is using game-like aspects in non-game environments. Social media sites can use game like aspects. Take twitter for example, twitter gives us feedback about our tweets, conversations, lets us know the number of retweets, follower counts and profile visits etc. It’s addictive because, it feels good to see these numbers rise, to get more likes, to get more followers, profile visits. It taps into the basic human need for validation and positive reinforcement (Nguyen, 2020). The same applies for Instagram insights, likes, follows and YouTube analytics. The feedback works as positive reinforcements to share more, to tweet more; to share content that gets more likes, shares and comments. There is also a strong motivational aspect. It’s a feedback loop, that ensures we are hooked, that ensures a compulsion, impulse to share more.
Although gamification can be advantageous; especially in technologies that help us become healthier. A common example is the Fitbit wristwatches. Just like in a game, trying to beat a high score; which in this case is walking more, running further or drinking more water. It shows us the achievements of our goals; which are sharable on social media. This gamification aspects in social media, can be central to social media addiction.
4. Impact of Social Media
It might be clear by now, that there are two sides to the coin. Social media has its merits and demerits. Nothing can further support this that a study done by Pew research center in 2018, about teenagers’ experience of social media. 68% felt that they have people who will support them when they are going through tough times, 69% felt that social media has helped them in connecting and interacting with a diverse group of people. On the other hand, 43% felt pressure to post only positive things or aspects of themselves, 26% said they experience low self-esteem and makes them feel bad about their lives and 37% say they felt the pressure to post content that got a lot of attention, likes and comments (Pew Research Center, 2018).
It all comes down to the content shared on social media. We have all seen perfectly toned body figures and spotless even toned skin of social media influencers, actors, athletes, players, models etc. At one point or the other we have all made comparisons and tuned into concept of idea body image; which are unhelpful and caused dissatisfaction with ourselves. What we often don’t realize is that people only share their best and perfect moments on social media and don’t show us the other side. Nobody posts pictures of themselves right after they get up, when they are sick etc. Even models are heavily photoshopped; which all happen at the backdrop that we don’t see; what we consume is just the picture-perfect share on social media. Understanding context and circumstance can be really helpful here. When a person’s profession demands beauty and body ideals, they put effort into it daily; but for a person who works a fulltime job, its difficult. People only post their achievements not their failures. We will further see why individuals share what they share, what factors perpetuate this behavior and the impact they have on our mental health.
5. Impact of social media on mental health
Now that we know how social media lead to an addictive consumption; we’ll come to the impact this has on mental health. Social media addiction negatively affects mental health and self-esteem. Self-esteem has also shown to have a mediating effect between social media addiction and poor mental health; saying that social media addiction has been associated negatively with mental health; through reducing self-esteem Although it is also a possibility that people with low self-esteem could excessively use social media to cover their interpersonal deficiency in real life (Hou, Xiong, Jiang, Song, & Wang, 2019). Only further research can help us solve this. Social media addiction has also been negatively associated with poor academic performance among college students (Hou, Xiong, Jiang, Song, & Wang, 2019).
5.1 Social Comparison and Self-Esteem: As seen with the gamification aspect, individuals might feel a strong drive to level up, to post better content to increase likes, to increase the frequency of the posts etc. This is the perpetuating factor, this is where our motivation for posting only positives, to post selfies using filters; which could mean hiding ‘imperfections’ (as dictated by societal beauty standards), post pictures of exotic foods, luxurious vacations etc. comes from. This where the motivation for the 37% feeling the pressure to post content that garners likes, comments and shares. We don’t exist in a vacuum, we exist along with others, and here comes the aspect social comparison. There are two types of social comparison; upward and downward. Upward social comparison is where we compare ourselves to others doing better than us (this could mean in physical beauty, economically, relationships, family, materially etc.). Downward comparison involves comparing ourselves to others doing relatively bad. Upward comparison on social media; can lead to a variety of mental health concerns; like low self-esteem, inferiority complexes, decreased emotional (affective) well-being, body image issues etc. So, to level up, we resort to try and post like others, to get similar admiration that they are getting. And when we do get that admiration, we fall into social validation loops. Social media can have a detrimental impact on our impulse control (we’ve seen the reason why above) and can be a distraction; that can be hard to get rid of.
5.2 Online Identity: Another important aspect is that of online identity; that social media has led to (an online self vs offline self). The reasons for the difference can be due to the gamification aspects that we have seen above; which could lead to posting filtered selfies for likes and follows or posting only the positives or even fake vacation pictures to show they live luxurious lives like others they see on social media. A difference between online and offline self; can sometimes be the difference between your real (offline) and ideal self (online). And to cover this gap and keep up appearances (to avoid looking fake); people might go to extreme lengths to tweak their offline selves to become like their online selves. When a filter is used; the filtered image becomes the more desired, correct, ideal one and the original becomes the undesired/wrong one (causing dissatisfaction). Boston University School of Medicine calls this Snapchat Dysmorphia. Which is clearly demonstrated by American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstruction Surgery (AAFPRS) in its national survey in 2018. Showing that, demand for cosmetic surgeries is up by 47%; when compared to 2013; with an 22% increase in Botox injections. Patients under 30, coming in for plastic surgeries and injections saw a rise; from 58% in 2013 to 72% in 2018. And the major motivation for this is to look better in selfies and a sense of dissatisfaction with how their profile looks (especially their nose, chin and neck). The leading and popular surgeries are rhinoplasty (nose), eye lifts (motivator: to look less tired), Botox, fillers and revision surgery (The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 2019).
It is also the aspects on anonymity (usernames that could ensure that) and virtual conversations (where written word reigns supreme) that can help people express their true selves, their opinions and perspectives. One advantage on social media is we have control over crafting our own identity (our looks, posts etc.); which is not so in the real world. Our language, physical appearance, dressing sense etc. can all be aspects through which people view us and react to us. Even behaviorally; anonymity can do wonders to how and how much people converse, what they say and do. Now, we even have the technical ability to tweak our appearances on social media; through various filters. Although certain times, these could be liberating aspects; where you might find the space to be who you are, express yourself authentically and show creativity; it could also be a disadvantage. People could be more comfortable with hurting others because of anonymity (cyberbullying).
5.3 Consequences of Notifications: Another important aspect of social media and even online news recently; are notifications. We are able to get instant notifications, when there is a new comment, like, new article on topics we’ve recently seen etc. And we are able to get access to see or open these notifications with just a click on our phones. These possibilities of immediacy, notifications and aspects of gamification and algorithms have all led to compulsive checking and response rituals. We immediately check our phones when we have a notification from social media and we can’t ignore it; because of our apprehension that interesting things are taking place elsewhere (Adams, et al., 2016). There is term for this, which all of us are familiar with; FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). We wait for notifications, check notification bars, check conversations, wait for new posts or status. FOMO is associated with increased usage of social media; checking feeds right after waking up and before going to sleep; having an impact on our quality of sleep (Adams, et al., 2016). Read More. We fear we are missing out on things when we don’t have access to our phones. Part of this is also; because of our multipurpose usage of smartphones (both personal and professional). We have instant access to our work-related emails, messages etc; and hence, becomes very important to have access to our phones always. This has also led to the Always-On culture. (check out our article on the always-on culture, burn out and work-life balance for more information.)
6. How to stop social media addiction?
Now we come to the important aspect of how to overcome social media addiction. Well, there is no concrete threshold, behavioral limit etc. But, the answer lies in the way one uses it, balance between online and offline, the purpose of usage etc. The individual must monitor and decide the consequences of their pattern of social media usage and make changes (Davis, 2001). Awareness about maladaptive social media usage can help in this regard.
6.1 Active vs. Passive use: Active use of social media involves, direct conversation with others; both virtual one-on-one conversations are non-targeted exchanges like in case of broadcasting. Passive use on the other hand, involves passively scrolling through other people’s profiles without direct conversations. While, active use involves information creation; passive use involves information consumption. Although active use did not suggest any changes in emotional well-being, passive use was connected to a decrease in affective or emotional well-being overtime. The reason might lie in the upward social comparison that we have talked about earlier; which might lead to feelings of inferiority, low self-esteem, dissatisfaction with one’s life/body etc; all of which are extremely important aspects of mental health, connected to one’s well-being, life satisfaction etc. (like we’ve seen above with 26% feeling worse about their lives and self-esteem under section 4.
While, passive usage is linked to social comparison; active use is linked to social capital accrual; an advantage of social media. “A number of studies show that the positive consequences of active use on mental health are driven by increases in social capital” (Verduyn, Gugushvili, & Kross, 2021, p. 134). Social capital accrual involves, access to new information and different perspectives and building social and emotional bonds on social media through online communities (which is what 68% teens felt when they said they have people who support them through tough times- see section 4. Facebook’s mission statement of “give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together” is encapsulates social capital accrual.
An important personality trait that could enhance social capital both online and offline is empathy (important dimensions of empathy in this regard are empathetic concern and perspective taking). Many researches have suggested that empathy may help people become resilient to social media addiction. Empathy and its dimensions share a negative relationship with social media; meaning that, higher the empathy; lower the social media addiction is (Dalvi-Esfahani, et al., 2020). Empathy can help improve interpersonal relationships; through the person’s ability to understand the other person’s affective (emotional) and cognitive states. Having empathetic concern (showing concern, affection and kindness) and perspective taking (understanding the other person’s emotions and point of view) can help individuals build friendships, resolve conflicts which all help build strong interpersonal relationships. This helps them have good social relationships both online and offline; which deters them from overly focusing on online relationships alone. Suggesting that people with low empathy could excessively use social media to have conversations; compensating for its deficiency in real life.
6.2 Take care of yourself on social media: “Healthy Internet refers to using the Internet for an expressed purpose in a reasonable amount of time without cognitive or behavioral discomfort. Healthy Internet users can separate Internet communication with real life communication. They employ the Internet as a helpful tool rather than a source of identity.” (Davis, 2001, p. 193). Firstly, being mindful about one’s social media usage becomes important, because it helps you realize the impact its having on you and if you need to cut down on its usage.
Set Boundaries: If you realize you do need to cut it down; one can start off my setting boundaries and sticking to it. Set time limits (till what time I can check my social media, before what time in the morning I cannot check). One can also take a break from it, you can delete the app (not the account) on one’s phone.
Tailor make social media to suit you: You can do this by selecting your friends, people you follow, joining communities/groups that are right for you or ones that hold conversations around things you care about and ones which are positive. Unfollow or block people who are bullies, mean and whose posts are having a negative impact on your mental health. Self-care on social media is extremely significant for your digital well-being.
The joy of missing out (JOMO): As opposed to fear of missing out (FOMO), which we talked about earlier- see section 5.3. JOMO is where you are present, mindful and maybe even savor what you are doing in the moment without worrying about what you might be missing out on social media. Differentiate between wants and needs on social media. Certain features of social media can make it compelling for us to attend to every post notification and we might ‘want’ to see it; but we definitely don’t ‘need’ to.
Be yourself: I know, we want to be like everyone else, posting picture perfect selfies and of lavish vacations. Sometimes we are pressured to post like others. But hear me out, be yourself, if you are comfortable posting about your work, do so; post about things you resonate with, ones you are passionate about and similar people, who are right for you will find you. Things like this can help you form real, authentic connections, where people see you, like and accept you for who you are. Don’t get this wrong, putting on make-up, wanting to post perfect selfies, nothing wrong with that; but pay attention to the habit, if it’s becoming a pressure to post perfect selfies and look the same even offline to keep up appearances, if you start feeling dissatisfaction with your real self and it is having detrimental effects on your mental health; its time to think about it and maybe time to embrace and accept your real self and even celebrate the ‘flaws’ you ‘think’ you have.
Don't be afraid to delete: If you think social media has been affecting your daily life, your happiness and peace, don’t be afraid to delete it. Out of sight, out of mind.
Balance offline and online: Social connections, capital is one of the advantages of social media. Having friends on social media, making authentic connections is good; but remember to have good offline connections as well, with family and friends, to balance it out. Make time for your offline connections as well. Make sure you are not relying ‘solely’ on social media for friendships and connections. Offline relationships are as important as online ones. Talking about social context, if you think you hold any of the cognitions (under 6.3); we talk about in the next section, please reach out for help.
Switching off addictive features of social media: Certain features of social media lead to us getting hooked on to them, be it notifications, aspects of gamification etc. One can always turn off notifications, or put your phone away and do activities that you really enjoy create flow. Flow is a state of complete immersion in an activity that is intrinsically enjoyable; where one's skills match the demands of the activity. The person looses temporal awareness with total concentration on the task. So, when you intrinsically enjoy it, with concentration and complete immersion and lack of awareness about surroundings, you will not get distracted by anything, even social media. When you are with your friends or family, to help avoid the distraction you can switch off your phone, or put it on do not disturb mode. If you think you are falling into the feedback loop of posting, stop yourself. Post things because, you wish to, because you care about them, post about things you stand for; not for likes or follows. Make sure your posts reflect the authentic you.
6.3 CBT Model of Pathological Internet Use: Before we understand the how the cognitive behavioral model looks at pathological internet use; we need understand certain concepts first. Firstly, we differentiate between specific pathological internet use; is the overuse of specific services on the internet, that is, online gambling or pornography. General theological use of internet is, spending excessive time on the internet with no definitive purpose or spending excessive time on social media in chats, checking emails, notifications and spending a good time of the day on the internet. Next is the concept of proximal and distal causes. Distal causes are those factors that are distant from symptoms; but nonetheless are important for the development of symptoms. For example: In terms of anxiety, distal causes might be lack of sleep; which does not directly cause symptoms of anxiety such as increased heart rate, tremors, dryness of mouth etc, but could be a significant factor for development of symptoms. Whereas, proximal causes are life-threatening danger; which could directly result in anxiety symptoms (Davis, 2001).
According to the cognitive behavioral model, maladaptive cognitions/cognitive distortions are proximal causes of pathological internet usage; that is, maladaptive cognitions are sufficient and directly result in development of pathological internet usage. Maladaptive cognitions can be about self or about the world around. Maladaptive cognitions about self; could be “I am someone online; offline I am worthless” “I can be myself and feel worthy and good online, offline I am a failure”. Maladaptive cognitions about the world are; “I am loved online; nobody loves me offline” “People treat me better online, than offline”, “I have no friends offline, Internet is my only friend”. All or none cognitive distortion (where people see things in black or white; as in good/bad, success/failure; with no in-between) is also known to exacerbate pathological internet usage. These thoughts are automatically triggered when entering social media or chat rooms and the result of which is pathological internet usage (Davis, 2001).
Distal causes of pathological internet usage, according to this model psychopathologies; explained through the diathesis stress model. The diathesis stress model posits that the result of maladaptive behaviors are genetic predisposed vulnerability (diathesis) and stressors (life events). Although, there is genetic vulnerability is present, when combined with precipitating event of life stressor; the disorder will be manifested. According to the cognitive behavioral model, psychopathology is the diathesis and introduction of new technologies on the internet (online gambling, social media and it various features) is the stressor (life event). Many researches have implicated, underlying psychopathology in the development of pathological internet usage. It is a distal necessary cause; meaning that, although psychopathology does not directly lead to symptoms of pathological internet usage; it is necessary for its etiology. It is also the assumption of this model that, basic psychopathology can make an individual vulnerable to pathological internet usage; but the symptoms associated specifically to pathological internet usage must be dealt with independently (Davis, 2001).
Fig 1.1 Figure showing the CBT model of Pathological Internet Usage (Davis, 2001, p. 190)
The model also places an importance on the environmental context of the individual; when a person perceives a lack in social support, or a lack of interpersonal relationships both familial and friendships, with a history of psychopathology are prone to maladaptive cognition styles that we have seen earlier; results in making the social aspects of internet (social media), their way of making connections and expressions; leading to pathological internet usage. As said by R.A.Davis from psychology department in York University, Toronto,
“…they likely had some previous psychopathology, were prone to maladaptive cognitions, and were socially isolated, they had no way of expressing their angst. The Internet in its social role, acts as a means of communication to the most extreme degree imaginable. It is the individual's lifeline to the outer world.” (Davis, 2001, p. 192)
Please ask yourself the following to help you understand the nature of your social media usage:
How is social media affecting me? (it could be your daily life, your mood)
While I am using social media and scrolling through the feed, how am I feeling about myself?
What are the pros and cons of my usage of social media?
How much time am I honestly spending on social media?
Do my posts really reflect me?
What purpose is social media serving in my life? (What needs of mine is it serving? Identity, validation, self-esteem?) Is it making me dependent on social media? Is it time I start looking for other resources offline or internal validation?
Is social media becoming a distraction, that is stopping me from doing important things?
Am I pre-occupied with my social media?
If you think, your efforts to cut back has failed and social media has been having detrimental effects on your mental health, your relationships etc, please take help and don’t be afraid to reach out.
References
Adams, S. K., Williford, D. N., Vaccaro, A., Kisler, T. S., Francis, A., & Newman, B. (2016). The young and the restless: Socializing trumps sleep, fear of missing out, and technological distractions in first-year college students. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth , 337-348.
Dalvi-Esfahani, M., Niknafs, A., Alaedini, Z., Ahmadabadi, H. B., Kuss, D. J., & Ramayah, T. (2020). Social Media Addiction and Empathy: Moderating Impact of Personality Traits among High School Students. Telematics and Informatics.
Davis, R. (2001). A cognitive-behavioral model of pathological Internet use. Computers in Human Behavior, 187-195.
Hou, Y., Xiong, D., Jiang, T., Song, L., & Wang, Q. (2019). Social media addiction: Its impact, mediation, and intervention. Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace.
Kang, I., Shin, M. M., & Park, C. (2013). Internet addiction as a manageable resource: a focus on social network services. Online Information Review, 28 - 41.
McNamee, R. (2019). Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe. HarperCollins Publishers.
Nguyen, C. T. (2020). How Twitter Gamifies Communication. Applied Epistemology.
Panova, T., & Carbonell, X. (2018). Is smartphone addiction really an addiction? Journal of Behavioral Addictions , 252-259.
Pew Research Center. (2018, November). “Teens’ Social Media Habits and Experiences. Retrieved from Pew Research Center: https://www.pewinternet.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2018/11/PI_2018.11.28_teens-social-media_FINAL4.pdf
The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. (2019, January 23). AAFPRS 2018 ANNUAL SURVEY REVEALS KEY TRENDS IN FACIAL PLASTIC SURGERY. Retrieved from The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.Inc: https://web.archive.org/web/20190904110800/https://www.aafprs.org/media/stats_polls/m_stats.html
Verduyn, P., Gugushvili, N., & Kross, E. (2021). The impact of social network sites on mental health: distinguishing active from passive use. World Psychiatry , 133-134.
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