CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

As with many digital advances, digital voting increases accessibility but provides security concerns.
Making online purchases with a credit card was once viewed as a security risk; now, we don't even think
twice about it.

With necessary elections taking place around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital voting
may be under consideration again. The security of votes and the recordkeeping processes are vital to
the success of digital voting. Alternatively, increased accessibility and participation may occur with
digital voting.

Smartphones, Snapchat, Instagram, and other social media technology help you stay connected. You’re
born with the drive to connect with others. It’s good for your physical health and psychological well-
being.

But what if you find yourself becoming too connected to social media?

“There’s growing evidence to suggest that some individuals can develop a dependency on social media
that’s not unlike an addiction to alcohol or drugs,” says Paul G. Simeone, Ph.D., Vice President and
Medical Director of Behavioral Health at Lee Health. “Their overdependence on social media has led to
symptoms typically associated with substance-use disorder.”

In fact, there are now therapeutic programs in psychiatric hospitals and behavioral health clinics across
the U.S. dedicated to treating social media addiction as another compulsive disorder.
A 2019 survey found that 40 percent of U.S. online users aged 18 to 22 years reported feeling addicted
to social media. Five percent of respondents from that age group admitted the statement “I am addicted
to social media” described them completely.

The findings correlate with another study that reported 4.1 percent of boys and 3.6 percent of girls who
are intense social media users display internet addiction.

Simeone cautions that because social media technology is new, research is just emerging that people
may form addictions to social media.

“There are no clinical diagnostic criteria for social media addiction,” Simeone notes. “But if an individual
excessively or compulsively uses social media platform to improve their mood, that’s a key symptom of
addiction which may suggest dependency. The most important thing to keep in mind is the cost of any
behavior that continues despite persistently negative consequences to functioning. This is the
cornerstone of any definition of addiction.”

The ‘dopamine loop’

Using social media can lead to physical and psychological addiction because it triggers the brain’s reward
system to release dopamine, the “feel-good” chemical. Dopamine is actually a neurotransmitter (a
chemical messenger between neurons) involved in neurological and physiological functioning.

It’s the same chemical our brain releases when we eat, have sex, or gamble—or use our smart phones.

For some users of social media, their brains may increase dopamine when they engage with Facebook,
Snapchat, Instagram or other social media platforms. When a user gets a like, a retweet, an emoticon
notification, the brain receives a flood of dopamine and sends it along reward pathways. It feels
wonderful, but it also acts to reinforce our need to satisfy the feeling next time.

This cycle of motivation, reward, and reinforcement is a “dopamine loop” that gets users seeking,
looking, craving rewards and more of them. One well-known social networking service that hosts short
videos fostered such high levels of addiction among its users the company added an addiction-reduction
feature to the app.
Simeone says using social networking sites as a coping mechanism to relieve stress, loneliness, or
depression may suggest an issue, as well.

“Compulsive users of social media tend to isolate,” Simeone says. “They’re chasing that constant reward
system, which can lead to interpersonal problems, such as ignoring real-life relationships, work or school
responsibilities, and one’s physical health.

“In turn, they feel bad about their behavior and to escape that undesirable feeling, they double-down on
their social media behavior for relief. When social network users repeat this cyclical pattern of relieving
undesirable moods with social media use, the level of psychological dependency on social media
increases.”

Despite their increasing ubiquity in people's lives and incredible advantages in instantly interacting with
others, social media's impact on subjective well-being is a source of concern worldwide and calls for up-
to-date investigations of the role social media plays in mental health. Much research has discovered
how habitual social media use may lead to addiction and negatively affect adolescents' school
performance, social behavior, and interpersonal relationships. The present study was conducted to
review the extant literature in the domain of social media and analyze global research productivity
during 2013–2022. Bibliometric analysis was conducted on 501 articles that were extracted from the
Scopus database using the keywords social media addiction and problematic social media use. The data
were then uploaded to VOSviewer software to analyze citations, co-citations, and keyword co-
occurrences. Volume, growth trajectory, geographic distribution of the literature, influential authors,
intellectual structure of the literature, and the most prolific publishing sources were analyzed. The
bibliometric analysis presented in this paper shows that the US, the UK, and Turkey accounted for 47%
of the publications in this field. Most of the studies used quantitative methods in analyzing data and
therefore aimed at testing relationships between variables. In addition, the findings in this study show
that most analysis were cross-sectional. Studies were performed on undergraduate students between
the ages of 19–25 on the use of two social media platforms: Facebook and Instagram. Limitations as well
as research directions for future studies are also discussed.

Introduction

Social media generally refers to third-party internet-based platforms that mainly focus on social
interactions, community-based inputs, and content sharing among its community of users and only
feature content created by their users and not that licensed from third parties (1). Social networking
sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are prominent examples of social media that allow people
to stay connected in an online world regardless of geographical distance or other obstacles (2, 3). Recent
evidence suggests that social networking sites have become increasingly popular among adolescents
following the strict policies implemented by many countries to counter the COVID-19 pandemic,
including social distancing, “lockdowns,” and quarantine measures (4). In this new context, social media
have become an essential part of everyday life, especially for children and adolescents (5). For them
such media are a means of socialization that connect people together. Interestingly, social media are not
only used for social communication and entertainment purposes but also for sharing opinions, learning
new things, building business networks, and initiate collaborative projects (6).

Among the 7.91 billion people in the world as of 2022, 4.62 billion active social media users, and the
average time individuals spent using the internet was 6 h 58 min per day with an average use of social
media platforms of 2 h and 27 min (7). Despite their increasing ubiquity in people's lives and the
incredible advantages they offer to instantly interact with people, an increasing number of studies have
linked social media use to negative mental health consequences, such as suicidality, loneliness, and
anxiety (8). Numerous sources have expressed widespread concern about the effects of social media on
mental health. A 2011 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) identifies a phenomenon
known as Facebook depression which may be triggered “when preteens and teens spend a great deal of
time on social media sites, such as Facebook, and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression”
(9). Similarly, the UK's Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) claims that there is a clear evidence of the
relationship between social media use and mental health issues based on a survey of nearly 1,500
people between the ages of 14–24 (10). According to some authors, the increase in usage frequency of
social media significantly increases the risks of clinical disorders described (and diagnosed) as “Facebook
depression,” “fear of missing out” (FOMO), and “social comparison orientation” (SCO) (11). Other risks
include sexting (12), social media stalking (13), cyber-bullying (14), privacy breaches (15), and improper
use of technology. Therefore, social media's impact on subjective well-being is a source of concern
worldwide and calls for up-to-date investigations of the role social media plays with regard to mental
health (8). Many studies have found that habitual social media use may lead to addiction and thus
negatively affect adolescents' school performance, social behavior, and interpersonal relationships (16–
18). As a result of addiction, the user becomes highly engaged with online activities motivated by an
uncontrollable desire to browse through social media pages and “devoting so much time and effort to it
that it impairs other important life areas” (19).

Given these considerations, the present study was conducted to review the extant literature in the
domain of social media and analyze global research productivity during 2013–2022. The study presents a
bibliometric overview of the leading trends with particular regard to “social media addiction” and
“problematic social media use.” This is valuable as it allows for a comprehensive overview of the current
state of this field of research, as well as identifies any patterns or trends that may be present.
Additionally, it provides information on the geographical distribution and prolific authors in this area,
which may help to inform future research endeavors.
In terms of bibliometric analysis of social media addiction research, few studies have attempted to
review the existing literature in the domain extensively. Most previous bibliometric studies on social
media addiction and problematic use have focused mainly on one type of screen time activity such as
digital gaming or texting (20) and have been conducted with a focus on a single platform such as
Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat (21, 22). The present study adopts a more comprehensive approach
by including all social media platforms and all types of screen time activities in its analysis

Problematic use of social media

The amount of research on problematic use of social media has dramatically increased since the last
decade. But using social media in an unhealthy manner may not be considered an addiction or a
disorder as this behavior has not yet been formally categorized as such (38). Although research has
shown that people who use social media in a negative way often report negative health-related
conditions, most of the data that have led to such results and conclusions comprise self-reported data
(39). The dimensions of excessive social media usage are not exactly known because there are not
enough diagnostic criteria and not enough high-quality long-term studies available yet. This is what
Zendle and Bowden-Jones (40) noted in their own research. And this is why terms like “problematic
social media use” have been used to describe people who use social media in a negative way.
Furthermore, if a lot of time is spent on social media, it can be hard to figure out just when it is being
used in a harmful way. For instance, people easily compare their appearance to what they see on social
media, and this might lead to low self-esteem if they feel they do not look as good as the people they
are following. According to research in this domain, the extent to which an individual engages in photo-
related activities (e.g., taking selfies, editing photos, checking other people's photos) on social media is
associated with negative body image concerns. Through curated online images of peers, adolescents
face challenges to their self-esteem and sense of self-worth and are increasingly isolated from face-to-
face interaction.

To address this problem the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) has been
used by some scholars (41, 42). These scholars have used criteria from the DSM-V to describe one
problematic social media use, internet gaming disorder, but such criteria could also be used to describe
other types of social media disorders. Franchina et al. (43) and Scott and Woods (44), for example, focus
their attention on individual-level factors (like fear of missing out) and family-level factors (like
childhood abuse) that have been used to explain why people use social media in a harmful way. Friends-
level factors have also been explored as a social well-being measurement to explain why people use
social media in a malevolent way and demonstrated significant positive correlations with lower levels of
friend support (45). Macro-level factors have also been suggested, such as the normalization of
surveillance (46) and the ability to see what people are doing online (47). Gender and age seem to be
highly associated to the ways people use social media negatively. Particularly among girls, social media
use is consistently associated with mental health issues (41, 48, 49), an association more common
among older girls than younger girls (46, 48).

Most studies have looked at the connection between social media use and its effects (such as social
media addiction) and a number of different psychosomatic disorders. In a recent study conducted by
Vannucci and Ohannessian (50), the use of social media appears to have a variety of effects “on
psychosocial adjustment during early adolescence, with high social media use being the most
problematic.” It has been found that people who use social media in a harmful way are more likely to be
depressed, anxious, have low self-esteem, be more socially isolated, have poorer sleep quality, and have
more body image dissatisfaction. Furthermore, harmful social media use has been associated with
unhealthy lifestyle patterns (for example, not getting enough exercise or having trouble managing daily
obligations) as well as life threatening behaviors such as illicit drug use, excessive alcohol consumption
and unsafe sexual practices (51, 52).

A growing body of research investigating social media use has revealed that the extensive use of social
media platforms is correlated with a reduced performance on cognitive tasks and in mental effort (53).
Overall, it appears that individuals who have a problematic relationship with social media or those who
use social media more frequently are more likely to develop negative health conditions.

Social networks play a crucial role in learning environments as a key communicational channel and a
source of social support [11]. Many social networking websites, such as Edmodo, are specifically
designed for learning [12]. Social networks have many advantages in learning as they provide wide
access to information and information resources, reduce barriers to group interaction and
telecommunications [13], support collaborative learning activities [14], encourage learners to learn
more about self-learning [15], increase engagement and learner’s motivation [16], enhance engagement
of learners with each other and their teachers [17] and support active and social learning [15]. In
general, the emergence of new technologies such as internet and social networks, in addition to
providing opportunities in facilitating and improving the quality of global communications, has created
some threats [18]. When the use of social networks is managed poorly, they can have negative
consequences at the individual and social levels. Social networking addiction is one of the consequences
that many social network users may experience [19]. Thus, the extensive use of social networks is a new
form of soft addiction [20].
There are many different theories about the addiction to internet and social networks. The most
important theories include dynamic psychology theory, social control theory, behavioral explanation,
biomedical explanation, and cognitive explanation. According to dynamic psychology theory, the roots
of social networking addiction are in the psychological shocks or emotional deficiencies in childhood,
personality traits, and psychosocial status. According to the social control theory, since addiction varies
in terms of age, sex, economic status, and nationality, certain types of addiction are more likely to be
found in certain groups of society than in other groups [21]. The theory of behavioral explanation
believes that, a person uses social networks for rewards such as escaping reality and entertainment.
Based on the biomedical explanation theory, the presence of some chromosomes or hormones, or the
lack of certain chemicals that regulate brain activity, are effective in addiction [22, 23]. According to the
cognitive explanation theory, social networking addiction is due to faulty cognition, and people tend to
use social networks to escape from internal and external problems [24]. In general, addiction to social
networking is classified as a form of cyber-relationship addiction [25].

Social networking addiction refers to mental concern over the use of social networks and the allocation
of time to these networks in such way that, it affects other social activities of individuals such as
occupational and professional activities, interpersonal relationships and health [19] leading to disruption
of their life [20].

Social networking has a negative impact on physical and psychological health and causes behavioral
disorders [26], depression [27, 28], anxiety and mania [28]. In this regard, results of a study on German
students (2017) showed a positive relationship between addiction to facebook, with narcissism
character, depression, anxiety and stress [29]. It is believed that addiction to social networking is higher
in people with anxiety, stress, depression and low self-esteem [4]. Grifith (2005) suggests that addictive
behavior is a behavior that has certain characteristics such as salience, mood modification, tolerance,
withdrawal symptoms, conflict, and relapse [30]. Addictive behavior refers to repeated habits that
increase the risk of a disease or social problems in a person. Over the past decade, addictive behaviors,
such as overuse of internet or social networks, have become a part of everyday life of students. Social
networking addiction includes the characteristics such as ignoring the real problems of life, neglecting
oneself, mood swing, concealing addictive behaviors, and having mental concerns [4].

In this regard, signs and symptoms of addiction to social networking can include experiencing
disturbances in day-to-day work and activities, spending more than one hour a day on social networks,
being curios to see the old friends’ profiles, ignoring work and daily activities due to the use of social
networks, and feeling anxious and stressed due to the lack of access to social networks [31].
Evidence suggests that many factors are associated with addiction to internet and social networks.
Among these factors are online shopping, dating, gaming and entertainment, using mobile phones for
access to internet, searching for pornographic images, user personality trails, and low self-esteem [19,
30, 32,33,34].

Students are one of the most important users of the virtual world and social networks. The overuse of
social networks has positive and negative academic, social, and health consequences for the students
[35]. Reduced academic performance is one of the most important consequences of social networking
overuse for students. The results of a study on medical students showed that students who used social
networks and internet more than average had a poor academic achievement and low level of
concentration in the classroom [36]. The results of another study on Qatari students showed that Grade
Point Average (GPA) was lower among students who were addicted to social networking compared to
other students [37]. The results of a study in India showed that internet and social networking addiction
had a negative effect on academic performance and mental health of students [38]. The results of a
Korean study revealed a negative correlation between the use of internet for non-academic purposes
and academic performance of students [39]. Findings of a study in Iran (2018) also showed a significant
correlation between addiction to the internet and educational burnout [40].