Teenagers social media addiction could signal compulsive behaviour problems
‘Striking’ new findings from a University study have unveiled that almost half of British teenagers say they feel addicted to social media.
Yesterday, 2nd January 2024, new research from the University of Cambridge surfaced which highlighted that 48% of teenagers agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, ‘I think I am addicted to social media.’
Following this, researchers, who analysed data from the Millennium Cohort Study, which is being carried out by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the University of London, claimed some people’s relationship with social media could be ‘akin to a behavioural addiction.’
The study followed the lives of more than 18,000 babies born in the UK from 2000-2001 to map the backgrounds of children born in the early 21st century. The data was collected between January 2018 and March 2019, when the cohort was 17 years old.
Georgia Turner, leader of the analysis and University of Cambridge graduate, said: ‘We’re not saying the people who say they feel addicted are addicted. But it’s not a nice feeling to feel you don’t have any agency over your own behaviour, so it’s quite striking that so many people feel like that.’
Of the people who partook in the survey, it was discovered that 58% of girls said they felt addicted to social media compared to 37% of boys.
Ms Turner added that research which assumes a ‘so-called social media addiction’ could follow in the same footsteps as drug addiction ‘is likely to be over-simplistic.’
‘It could be that, for some, their relationship with social media is akin to a behavioural addiction,’ Georgia said. ‘But for others, their use could be driven by compulsive checking, others may be relying on it to cope with negative life experiences, and others may simply be responding to negative social perceptions about ‘wasting time’ on social media.’
Currently, Georgia Turner’s work is ongoing and has not been peer reviewed or formally published.
Image: Alexander Shatov