Overview
- The peer-reviewed Scientific Reports paper, led by USC researchers Ian Anderson and Wendy Wood, analyzed responses from 1,204 U.S. adult Instagram users across two samples.
- Eighteen percent at least partly agreed they were addicted and 5% strongly agreed, yet roughly 2% showed symptoms consistent with possible addiction under clinical indicators.
- Clinical criteria used in the study included loss of control, cravings, withdrawal symptoms when not using, and continued use despite significant negative consequences.
- A media-content review of U.S. coverage from November 2021 to November 2024 found 4,383 articles using “social-media addiction” versus 50 using “social-media habit,” a framing the authors say may inflate self-diagnoses.
- An experiment with 824 adults showed that labeling heavy use as an addiction lowered perceived control and increased guilt, and the authors recommend replication with younger populations given the adult-skewed sample (mean age about 44).