<
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/01/29/the-social-media-addiction-narrative-may-be-more-harmful-than-social-media-itself/>
"This week, a major trial kicked off in Los Angeles in which hundreds of
families sued Meta, TikTok, Snap, and YouTube, accusing the companies of
intentionally designing their products to be addictive (though Snap and TikTok
both settled on the eve of the trial). From the
Guardian:
For the first time, a huge group of parents, teens and school districts is
taking on the world’s most powerful social media companies in open court,
accusing the tech giants of intentionally designing their products to be
addictive. The blockbuster legal proceedings may see multiple CEOs,
including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, face harsh questioning.
A long-awaited series of trials kicks off in Los Angeles superior court on
Tuesday, in which hundreds of US families will allege that Meta, Snap,
TikTok and YouTube’s platforms harm children. Once young people are hooked,
the plaintiffs allege, they fall prey to depression, eating disorders,
self-harm and other mental health issues. Approximately 1,600 plaintiffs are
included in the proceedings, involving more than 350 families and 250 school
districts.
The lawyers involved are explicitly using the tobacco playbook, comparing
social media to cigarettes. But there’s an important point here: “social media
addiction” isn’t actually a recognized clinical addiction. And a fascinating
new study in
Nature’s
Scientific Reports suggests that our collective
insistence on using addiction language might actually be making things worse
for users who want to change their behavior.
The researchers conducted two studies. In the first, they surveyed a nationally
representative sample of adult Instagram users and found something striking:
only about 2% of users showed symptoms that would put them at risk for
addiction based on the clinical criteria in the Bergen Social Media Addiction
Scale. But when asked directly if they
felt addicted, 18% of users agreed at
least somewhat. In other words, people are
dramatically overestimating
whether they’re actually addicted."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
