Social Media Addiction and Consequences in Adolescents First

Abstract

Social media usage has become increasingly prevalent in adolescents, which contributes to proliferation of addictive behaviors around social media. Addiction of social media not only causes negative physical symptoms, it also brings negative psychological problems for adolescents. Excessive use of social media can result in poor sleeping quality, even insomnia, which is positively associated with having general anxiety disorder or depression. Insomnia, anxiety and depression can all be in the way of adolescents development in academic performance and social media functioning. Studying the adverse effects of social media addiction of adolescents is helpful for understanding the significance of scientifically controlling the time spent on social media for adolescents. Previous studies use cross-sectional design. However, longitudinal studies will be helpful in terms of understanding the long term effects of social media addiction. Also, previous studies seldom consider the interply between different consequences. The interaction between different consequences of social media addiction and how it affects the individual requires further investigation.