Abstract
Facebook is notably the most widely known and used social network worldwide. It has been described as a valuable tool for leisure and communication between people all over the world. However, healthy and conscience Facebook use is contrasted by excessive use and lack of control, creating an addiction with severely impacts the everyday life of many users, mainly youths. If Facebook use seems to be related to the need to belong, affiliate with others and for self-presentation, the beginning of excessive Facebook use and addiction could be associated to reward and gratification mechanisms as well as some personality traits. Studies from several countries indicate different Facebook addiction prevalence rates, mainly due to the use of a wide-range of evaluation instruments and to the lack of a clear and valid definition of this construct. Further investigations are needed to establish if excessive Facebook use can be considered as a specific online addiction disorder or an Internet addiction subtype.
Highlights
In the last decade, the large availability of the internet and the embracing of new digital technologies like smartphones are changing people's way of life and introducing new social dynamics [1 - 7]
Despite many researchers defending the hypothesis that the excessive use of the internet and social networks as Facebook can cause addiction, the concept is still controversial [5, 12, 17, 23, 26, 27] and the DSM-5 [21] did not include them as addiction disorders
The aim of the present paper is to summarize the state of the art about the use and excessive use of Facebook and to explore how Facebook usage could become addictive
Summary
The large availability of the internet and the embracing of new digital technologies like smartphones are changing people's way of life and introducing new social dynamics [1 - 7]. Despite many researchers defending the hypothesis that the excessive use of the internet and social networks as Facebook can cause addiction, the concept is still controversial [5, 12, 17, 23, 26, 27] and the DSM-5 [21] did not include them as addiction disorders. Within this context, the aim of the present paper is to summarize the state of the art about the use and excessive use of Facebook and to explore how Facebook usage could become addictive
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