Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media – study

>‘We’re not saying the people who say they feel addicted are addicted,’ said Georgia Turner, a graduate student leading the analysis

Is it common to question the validity of self-identified addictions to other substances or behaviors? Is it common for people who aren't gambling addicts to say things like "I feel like I'm addicted to gambling"?

I suppose that the lead on the study doesn't want to overstate their findings, and there's obviously a social stigma that exists around admitting to gambling addiction that doesn't seem to exist for social media addiction, but still; it strikes me as unusual to be so openly questioning people about whether or not their perceived addictions are real.

>9-5pm maybe

i feel like that would just be convenient for work and nobody else.

That's a great idea. Utah thinks so too. Well, at least between 10:30 PM to 6:30 AM

https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title13/Chapter63/13-63-S105.html?...

[EDIT: I'd love to hear what those who've downvoted actually disagree with. The question as stated in the article objectively does not ask whether they see this as a problem or not, nor does it justify why they believe they can assume how respondents have interpreted the question; I very intentionally caveated this to point out that I don't have a problem with the notion that many of them probably did mean it was problematic to them, but if that was not appropriately contextualised to the respondents it is not clear how many did or did not interpret it the same way the researchers do - maybe they did include additional context; if so it's The Guardian leaving out important context. Either way, from this article we can't tell]

Overegging the results.

This is the statement they were asked to agree or disagree with according to the article.

> “I think I am addicted to social media”

Note that it does not ask them to answer whether they think they have a problematic relationship with social media. Using the term "addicted" to refer to something you spend a lot of time with is common whether you're happy or unhappy about it. Unless there is significant context around the question that the article left out but that were presented to respondents, making the assumptions they seem to be making in the article seems problematic at best.

E.g. if asked if I was dedicated to chocolate, or pistachio ice cream, I'd say yes. If I was asked if I had a problem with it, I'd say no - I enjoy those "addictions". I also enjoy my HN "addiction".

I'm sure a portion of those who strongly agreed that they feel addicted also do consider it a negative and maybe a serious problem in some cases, but the question reported on did not ask about that, so all we really know is the upper bound on the subset that may or may not consider their social media use a problem.

Maybe it is a genuinely big problem, or maybe it isn't. This data won't tell us.

What is worrying, though, is that even though the grad student leading the analysis downplays the "addiction part" (“We’re not saying the people who say they feel addicted are addicted,”) she goes on to overinterpret the data ("But it’s not a nice feeling to feel you don’t have agency over your own behaviour. It’s quite striking that so many people feel like that and it can’t it be that good") - nothing about the question asked about whether people feel they have agency, or that it "can't be that good". Maybe they all meant that, but assuming they all meant that when it was not what they were asked is unprofessional.

Partially. There are things we can clearly blame corporations for, and things we can clearly blame parents for.

Social media addiction is something parents need to fix, but corporations are not helping. However, it's not inherently the fault of corporations, just like kids smoking cigs.

I don't blame parents for being overworked, exhausted, and not having the time to devote to their kids due to the factors I mentioned. When costs of living skyrocket and costs of raising kids becomes completely unaffordable, I don't blame parents for working more and more just to put food on the table. They also need their own time to recharge and be able to breadwinners without completely burning out. They aren't completely aware of everything their kids do, or what the cool kids in school are doing (and why their kids want to copy said cool kids). It is the parent's job to educate their kids, yes, but sometimes parents are too late to the party to actually effect change.

I don't blame corporations for acting in their best interests, and the best interests of their shareholders. Businesses have to make money. Not everything in the business world has to be ethical, good for society, or morally just, no matter how much we'd like it to be.

There is no magic bullet, but imposing restrictions on corporations seems to be a good start.