Reducing problematic social media use via a package intervention.

Abstract

Problematic social media use can be characterized as that which interferes with relationships, work, school, or sleep. Currently, there are no empirically supported treatments for reducing problematic social media use. We tested a package intervention to reduce the daily duration of social media use measured by a smartphone application with nine undergraduate students who scored as "addicted" to social media via a version of the Internet Addiction Test. The package intervention included contingency management, automated notifications of application use, and the selection of alternative activities. The package intervention was effective at reducing the daily duration of social media use to goal levels, or below, for all participants. Eight out of nine participants showed a decrease in their Internet Addiction Test scores from pre- to postintervention, and overall, participants did not show an increase in the time spent engaged in their selected alternative activities. These findings demonstrate that social media use is amenable to behavioral treatment.