Many people report spending more time on social media than they would prefer, and social media and smartphone use rank among the top activities for which people perceive self-control problems. This policy brief presents evidence from an experiment that answers two related questions: whether people are addicted to social media and, if so, the extent to which digital addiction drives their use. The research finds evidence that digital addiction drives about one-third of social media use.

A key takeaway from the findings is that many people use more social media than they would like. This places digital media alongside other addictive goods – cigarettes, alcohol, consumer credit and sugary beverages – where self-control problems have motivated policy intervention.

The paper concludes that policymakers should consider interventions that would help users act in accordance with their own long-run preferences. Most directly related to the experimental results, policymakers could require platforms and device manufacturers to not only offer limit-setting tools as a built-in feature, but also regularly prompt users to consider setting limits, or even introduce default limits that users can adjust or turn off.

Policymakers could also consider prohibiting or regulating design features that amplify self-control problems, or holding platforms liable if they deliberately introduce features designed to maximise engagement at the expense of user wellbeing.