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- Title
Addictive Technology: Prevalence and Potential Implications of Problematic Social Media Use.
- Authors
Tanega, Chloe; Downs, Andrew
- Abstract
College students spend a significant amount of time using social media, and there is evidence that at least some of the rapid growth in social media use may be driven by social media companies' efforts to implement behavioral engineering strategies designed to maximize the amount of time individuals spend on their platforms. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether such behavioral engineering strategies are leading individuals to become addicted to social media and to examine whether those who report problematic social media use (PSMU) may be at risk for mental health problems. Two-hundred ninety-four college students completed an online survey asking about indicators of PSMU, mental health symptoms, and well-being. Depending on the cut score used, between 8.2% and 51.3% of college students may be at risk for PSMU. No matter which cut score was used, participants identified as being at risk for PSMU reported higher levels of mental health symptoms across several domains, as well as lower well-being. These results suggest that individuals who spend time using social media platforms may be at risk for PSMU and highlight the need for clinicians and researchers to establish empirically based diagnostic criteria, as well as effective treatments, for PSMU.
- Subjects
SOCIAL media; SOCIAL impact; ENGINEERING design; COLLEGE students; MASS media industry
- Publication
Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, 2020, Vol 25, Issue 2, p151
- ISSN
2164-8204
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.24839/2325-7342.jn25.2.151