Understanding Social Media Addiction Through Personal, Social, and Situational Factors

Abstract

The main objective of this chapter is to gain an in-depth understanding of the social media addiction construct. For this purpose, prior studies on social media addiction are reviewed. Based on this review the influence of several personal, social, and situational factors on social media addiction are examined. Firstly, personal factors such as demographic characteristics, personality traits, self-esteem, well-being, loneliness, anxiety, and depression are studied for their impact on social media addiction. Next, the social correlates and consequents of social media addiction are identified, namely need for affiliation, subjective norms, personal, professional, and academic life. Lastly, situational factors like amount of social media use and motives of use are inspected. Following the review of literature an empirical study is made to analyze factors that discriminate addicted social media users from non-addicted social media users on the basis of these different factors.

From “online brains” to “online lives”: understanding the individualized impacts of Internet use across psychological, cognitive and social dimensions

“…The most problematic Internet usage is referred to as “Internet addiction”. Instead of defining it by a quantifiable amount of time spent online, an addiction to the Internet is better conceptualized as a compulsive need to engage with specific online platforms (e.g., social media or gaming) at the expense or neglect of other personal, social and occupational responsibilities 33 . Key indicators of addiction include prominent shifts in mood when away from the Internet for even a relatively short while (withdrawal symptoms), an increasing amount of time spent on these platforms to achieve satisfaction (tolerance), and conflict with other activities and/or real world social relationships 33 .…”