Online Social Networking and Addiction—A Review of the Psychological Literature

Abstract

Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are virtual communities where users can create individual public profiles, interact with real-life friends, and meet other people based on shared interests. They are seen as a ‘global consumer phenomenon’ with an exponential rise in usage within the last few years. Anecdotal case study evidence suggests that ‘addiction’ to social networks on the Internet may be a potential mental health problem for some users. However, the contemporary scientific literature addressing the addictive qualities of social networks on the Internet is scarce. Therefore, this literature review is intended to provide empirical and conceptual insight into the emerging phenomenon of addiction to SNSs by: (1) outlining SNS usage patterns, (2) examining motivations for SNS usage, (3) examining personalities of SNS users, (4) examining negative consequences of SNS usage, (5) exploring potential SNS addiction, and (6) exploring SNS addiction specificity and comorbidity. The findings indicate that SNSs are predominantly used for social purposes, mostly related to the maintenance of established offline networks. Moreover, extraverts appear to use social networking sites for social enhancement, whereas introverts use it for social compensation, each of which appears to be related to greater usage, as does low conscientiousness and high narcissism. Negative correlates of SNS usage include the decrease in real life social community participation and academic achievement, as well as relationship problems, each of which may be indicative of potential addiction.

Internet addiction in adolescents: Prevalence and risk factors

“…However, unlike the hypothesised relationship, the use of social applications other than SNSs and Twitter did not contribute to predicting Internet addiction. A variety of studies have indicated that the excessive use of online social networking sites may be problematic (e.g., Kuss & Griffiths, 2011;Leung & Lee, 2012) as it tends to reinforce the establishment and maintenance of online, rather than offline, social networks. In a similar vein, excessive use of Twitter may have detrimental consequences for real life communication and is believed to activate the hedonistic dopamine system (Hofmann, Vohs, & Baumeister, 2012), that offers instantaneous gratification when using applications such as Twitter.…”

“…Among these, excessive online gaming (Kuss & Griffiths, 2012b), excessive online gambling (Griffiths & Parke, 2010), and the use of social media (van den Eijnden, Meerkerk, Vermulst, Spijkerman, & Engels, 2008), such as online social networks (SNSs) (Kuss & Griffiths, 2011) appear to stand out. Their increasing diversity and usage growth among young populations (Entertainment Software Association, 2012;Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2012) is mirrored by the rising number of treatment studies (King, Delfabbro, Griffiths, & Gradisar, 2011;Liu, Liao, & Smith, 2012).…”

Facebook overuse and addiction among Turkish adolescents: are ADHD and ADHD-related problems risk factors?

“…FB allows individuals represent themselves using individual profiles and wall posts. Often, this provides connecting with real life friends and maintain the connections over time [58]. But having a fake FB account is a popular entity among adolescents.…”

Dysfunction of Self-Regulation and Self-Control in Facebook Addiction

“…Additionally, given that Internet addiction is recognized worldwide as a challenge for modern society (e.g., [3], excessive Facebook use raises public concerns as well. This is mainly reflected in the rising number of publications on that subject [4,5].…”