Do you think that you’re addicted to social media? Why or why not?

Is there even such a thing as a social media addiction?

If so, what are its signs or symptoms, as well its effects?

And what about its interventions?

Also called Social Networking Addiction or SNA, social media addiction is the latest form of addiction to have emerged as a result of technological advancement brought about by the Internet. But even if it’s considered new in the realm of clinical sciences, it’s actually an all too familiar phenomenon in the behavioral sciences.

That’s because there’s a marked difference between someone who does social media networking for leisure, someone who does it for a living, and someone who does it out of compulsion. For the first one, social media networking is just another optional activity to pass the time. For the second one, social media networking is a way to earn money. But for the last one, social media networking is more of a response to an underlying problem.

While social media addiction is referred to as an ‘addiction,’ there are currently no standard clinical or scientific ways in place to warrant for its diagnosis. Lately, a number of online tests have spawned in order for people to know if they are addicted to social media networking or not. The reliability of these pop tests are undetermined but they sure have become a fad.

Even then, people are curious if their behavior as they relate with social media networking can be classified as an addiction, or something more saliently related to it. That begs the question: how can one not know that he or she is addicted to something? Awareness is an important factor in acknowledging a looming addictive behavior — something that online pop tests cannot ‘test.’

So granted that if social media addiction is relevant in the realms of medical and social sciences, then it must follow that it has its own signs, symptoms, effects, and interventions. In the same way, it must also have its own set of literature to help shed light on the idea that one can indeed become a social media addict.

That set of literature is found in this book. While there is a lack of research work and clinical studies on the subject of social media addiction, this book explores the available theoretical concepts out there. You’ll learn about the history of four of the biggest social media platforms in the world and get to know more about what’s good and what’s bad on social media.

In addition, you’ll also discover the theoretical perspectives of addiction in general and how they apply to social media addiction. From these theories, you’ll get to know the symptoms, the effects, and the causes of social media addiction. You’ll be surprised to learn that you may be already exhibiting such symptoms and effects.

Finally, this book offers practical intervention measures in order to minimize the possibility of you becoming a social media addict — or how to overcome such an addiction, if you consider yourself as an addict. In the end, this book seeks to inform, to educate, and to offer ways to help young people out there realize that there’s more to the world than scrolling through their social media feed.

Thank you, and I hope you'll learn a lot from this book.

Alan Weber