What to do if you think social media is taking over your life
For some adults, social media use can begin to feel less like a choice and more like a pull—one that competes with chores, work and even time with family. In testimony connected to a social media harms trial in Los Angeles, psychiatrist Dr. Anna Lembke said the design of popular platforms contributes to compulsive patterns, describing the access users get as “24/7, really limitless, frictionless access.”
Clinicians define “addiction” in terms of ongoing compulsive use despite harm. Lembke used that framing in her testimony, drawing a line between heavy use and a behavior that continues even when it starts hurting the user or others.
Not every researcher agrees that the term “addiction” fits social media. Some question whether clinicians can apply an addiction label without identifiable symptoms, including strong or sometimes uncontrollable urges and withdrawal-like experiences. Still, the experts interviewed for this report said the lack of consensus does not mean problematic use is harmless.
Dr. Laurel Williams, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, pointed to a practical way to judge whether someone’s social media use is causing harm. She said, “For me, the biggest signpost is how does the person feel about the ‘amount,’ and how viewing it makes them feel,” adding that the pattern is problematic if people are “missing out on other things” they enjoy or need to handle and if they regularly feel “overwhelmed, drained, sad, anxious, angry.”
Williams’ guidance centered on what use does to daily functioning and mood. She said the relevant question is whether people are putting off tasks and responsibilities, trying to cut back but being unable to do so, or feeling bad about their social media use. The same concerns, she said, can show up in feelings after viewing—whether the person comes away with persistent negative emotions.
Researchers also frame the issue in terms of incentives built into the apps. The companies that designed platforms, according to the report, have incentives to keep people engaged so they can serve ads that generate billions of dollars in revenue, including through the dopamine-seeking draw of endless scrolling, short-form video and likes.
Ofir Turel, a professor of information systems management at the University of Melbourne, said there is “no agreement” about the term “social media addiction” and that he does not “expect agreement soon.” He also said, “It’s obvious that we have an issue,” and added that “you don’t have to call it an addiction, but there is an issue and we need, as a society, to start thinking about it.”
Light changes that can reduce the pull may be a first step. Ian A. Anderson, a postdoctoral scholar at California Institute of Technology, suggested small, meaningful adjustments to how people interact with apps. He said moving an app’s position on a phone or turning off notifications can work as “light touch interventions,” while other changes—such as not bringing a phone into the bedroom or other places where someone tends to use it—could also help.
Many smartphones and operating systems also provide built-in tools. The report said Apple’s Screen Time controls sit in the iPhone’s settings, where users can set overall Downtime to shut off phone activity during a chosen period. Those controls also allow people to limit categories of apps, such as social or entertainment, or cap the time spent on a specific app.
However, the controls are not presented as a hard stop. The report said the downside is that limits are “aren’t hard to get around,” functioning more like a nudge than a red line; if someone tries to open an app with a limit, the phone can offer options like one more minute, a reminder after 15 minutes, or the ability to ignore the restriction entirely.
If light touch steps do not help, the report described more drastic options. Some users turn on screen settings such as grayscale or similar filters to reduce the appeal of the feeds. On iPhones, the report said users can adjust color filters in settings, while on Android devices, users can turn on Bedtime Mode or tweak color correction.
The report also cited physical friction strategies. It said some startups offer hardware solutions that introduce an obstacle between a person and an app, including products such as Unpluq, which uses a yellow tag that a user must hold up to a phone to access blocked apps, and Brick and Blok, which use plastic pieces that users must tap or scan to unlock an app. Other options described include stashing phones away in lockboxes or locking pouches; Yondr, which makes portable phone-locking pouches used at concerts or in schools, also sells a home phone box.
For adults still struggling, clinicians said it may be useful to look beyond the device. The report suggested that compulsive use can reflect underlying issues such as anxiety, stress, loneliness, depression or low self-esteem, and it recommended exploring therapy if that seems likely. Williams added a strategy for people trying to reduce use: “For people struggling to stay away — see if you can get a friend group to collaborate with you on it,” she said, advising, “Make it a group effort. Just don’t post about it!”