FACULTY OF COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA STUDIES,

COLLEGE COMPUTING, INFORMATICS AND MEDIA,

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA (UiTM),
NEGERI SEMBILAN BRANCH,
REMBAU CAMPUS

DIPLOMA IN COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA

COM 323 - ACADEMIC WRITING

ASSIGNMENT TITLE:
LITERATURE REVIEW- THE FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION
AND THE CONSEQUENCES ON SOCIETY’S MENTAL HEALTH

PREPARED BY:
NURUL BATRISYA BINTI ZAILANI (2020871016)

CLASS:
N5MC1105B

PREPARED FOR:
DR DZAA IMMA ABDUL LATIF

DATE OF SUBMISSION:
19th OF DECEMBER 2022
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION 2

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 3

2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES/PURPOSES 3
2.2 THE FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION 3
2.3 THE CONSEQUENCES OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION ON THE SOCIETY’S
MENTAL HEALTH 5

3.0 SUMMARY 6

4.0 REFERENCES 8

APPENDIX 10

1
1.0 INTRODUCTION

As stated by Peckham (2010) and Legg (2010), addiction generally refers to a person’s
inability and struggle to stop using a substance or to quit a habit they usually do though it may
cause damage either physically or emotionally to them. For instance, as mentioned previously, it
can be about involving in some sort of activities like eating, gambling or using and exploring
social media. In order for one to quit an addiction, it requires a lot of effort and a strong
self-discipline as being addicted to something means it; substances or bad habits have become
a part of one’s self. Additionally, Legg (2018) highlights that because addicts frequently relapse
and go through the same cycle, addiction can seriously interfere with one's daily life over time. If
they refuse to seek help, it will eventually lead to worse and possible permanent consequences
such as health compilations. However, living in this modern era, we have learned that most
addictions are about one’s incapability to stop doing something, as an analogy, social media
addiction.

A study by Mark D. Griffiths (2013) indicated that excessive usage of new technologies,
such as social media, may have bad repercussions on people, particularly youngsters. Not only
that, he also noted that people with social media addiction may experience identical symptoms
to those who have substance addiction. In essence, precisely as claimed by Hilliard (2019),
social media addiction may be described as having an overwhelming urge to constantly check
social media and spending excessive amounts of time doing so. Those who are addicted to
social media may find it difficult to stop browsing through it every 30 to 60 minutes since it feels
like a necessity to them. Even though there has not been really much studies on this issue, this
addiction is still considered as a behavioral addiction.

Speaking of addiction, individuals who are affected with it must endure negative impacts.
Addiction to social media is not excluded since it may have negative impacts on one's physical
and mental health. The effects on one's mental health, however, are of greater concern since
they have the potential to be a silent killer in our society. When one tends to spend too much
time on social media, they will tend to develop low self-esteem,insecurities that will eventually
lead to unhappiness. This is due to the fact that most social media users have a tendency to
compare themselves to others online, which may undoubtedly induce self-doubt. Continually
comparing oneself to others, especially on social media, may lead to mental health problems
that eventually may result in worse actions like suicide, according to Hilliard (2019). Hence, the
purpose of this literature review is to compare findings and discussion of several studies from 5
different journals focusing on this topic that I have reviewed.

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2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES/PURPOSES

1. To examine the factors that may contribute to social media addiction.

2. To investigate the effects of social media addiction towards the society’s

mental health.

3. To identify better ways to overcome this issue for future generations.

2.2 THE FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION

Essentially, social media is known as one of the ways to reduce or relieve

stress. One tends to turn to social media when they are looking for something to
relax their mind before continuing with their work or assignments. A study by Pew
Research Center (2015) shows that there is a relation between social media
users (women) with lower stress. In the study, it states that, “Compared with a
woman who does not use these technologies, a women who uses Twitter several
times per day, sends or receives 25 emails per day, and shares two digital
pictures through her mobile phone per day, scores 21% lower on our stress
measure than a woman who does not use these technologies at all”. Hence, this
proves that social media can actually help in terms of reducing stress.

Nonetheless, it is necessary for all social media users to remember that

excessive usage of social media will contribute to social media addiction. Based
on the findings I have reviewed from several journal articles, the majority agreed
that time spent on social media is one of the major factors that can lead to social
media obsession or addiction. However, one of the hypotheses, "There is a
relationship between social media usage with social media addiction," was
rejected, according to Journal Article: Social Media Addiction Towards Young
Adults Emotion (2019). This is because one study's finding was that heavier
social media usage did not cause addiction to the platform. Because of this, Aina
(2019) and Fariza (2019) disagree that the usage of social media might be one of
the causes of social media addiction.

However, in my point of view, the frequency and usage of social media is

definitely one of the causes of social media addiction. This is owing to the fact

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that one can only develop a habit if they keep repeating the same behaviour. As
an analogy, if a girl ‘trains’ herself to check her social media before going to sleep
and as soon as waking up, every single day, it is most likely for her to develop
that as a habit that soon might cause her to be addicted. In accordance with the
Journal Article: A Case Study of Social Media Addiction Among Malaysians
(2020), the authors highlight that by doing something that we like, we will tend to
keep doing it until it becomes a habit. This simple action that can cause the
release of endorphins is what makes the users keep scrolling through the social
media all day long without even realising. Not only that, the authors also did note
most people in our society tend to claim that they use social media as an
‘escape’ and to fill their ‘free time’ whereas they actually consume social media
almost all the time (Nazir et al., 2020, 6).

In addition, in line with Journal Article: Exploring social media addiction

among student Millennials findings, Grau (2019) and Kleiser (2019) reached an
agreement where relative time and frequency spent on social media did play a
role in social media addiction, however, it also depends on one’s self control. I
would have to agree on this as ‘self-control’ should be the key to prevent
ourselves from being addicted to something. (Grau et al., 8, 209) One of the
female respondents stated, “I do not actually like social media because I waste
so much time on it, so not being able to log on was refreshing [...] I think that the
time that I spend staring at a computer screen dulls me [...] I feel just a little bit
sharper.” These kinds of thoughts are definitely helpful as it will help us to keep in
touch with reality and take time off social media which is healthy for our own
selves. This will also help in terms of increasing our self-control despite the
frequency of scrolling our social media.

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2.3 THE CONSEQUENCES OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION ON THE
SOCIETY’S MENTAL HEALTH

As mentioned previously, social media addiction might cause bad

repercussions on one’s health, either physically or mentally or both. Being
addicted to social media might cause you unnecessary fear like fear of being
judged, fear of missing out, fear of not being enough, fear of not being able to
reach people’s expectations and many more. Due to their persistent worry over
little matters, people who struggle with these sorts of fear may begin to develop
anxiety disorders. Additionally, because of the overwhelming pressure to live up
to unattainable expectations, these problems may cause a social media addict to
start engaging in self-destructive behaviour, as noted by Bergman (2022). For
instance, some people see self-harm as an ‘escape’ from mental pain which is
why they need to stop adding more pressure to their own selves.

Several researches have been conducted on this topic and in order to

have a better understanding, a lot of surveys have been done. Among all the
journals I have gone through, most of them used Quantitative Research as their
methodology to obtain data. As conducted by Abdullah (2021) in Journal Article:
Fear of missing out and self-disclosure on social media: the paradox of tie
strength and social media addiction among young users, online-survey
questionnaires have been blasted on Snapchat and Instagram. In my opinion, the
platforms chosen are more effective as the instruments will reach the target
respondents which are social media users compared to giving them the
questionnaires in real life. I also support the questions listed in the online survey
as they focus on things related to mental health such as anxiety disorder.

Furthermore, quantitative research was also utilized as the methodology

in Journal Article: Social media addiction and emotions during the disaster
recovery period—The moderating role of post-COVID timing. As for the research
instruments, the questionnaires were given among Bangladeshi workers to see
how frequently they spend their time on social media and how it has been
affecting them. In line with Baltaci (2019) past research, it is shown that university
students’ social anxiety and happiness significantly predict their addiction to
social media. In this study, it is expressed that one’s happiness is related to their
usage of social media. However, as for the research questions, I personally think

5
 the scope of the questionnaire should be wider where it covers more elements on
mental health issues.

Nevertheless, methodology used in Journal Article: Exploring social

media addiction among student Millennials grabs my attention as the researchers
used mixed methods. Shorten (2017) and Smith (2017) claimed that mixed
methods are usually used when there are questions that could not be answered
either by quantitative or qualitative alone. Not only that, one of the advantages of
mixed methods research is that a better understanding can be gained to analyze
the quantitative and qualitative data. I personally favour the questions listed by
Grau (2019), Kleiser (2019) and Bright (2019) in their research surveys and
questionnaires. They are very detailed and it gives opportunity to the
respondents to express their thoughts on the topic discussed (Refer Appendix).

3.0 SUMMARY

In short, most research on this topic aims to identify the causes of social media addiction
and the impact towards the users. Based on the journal studies I've read, I've come to the
conclusion that while social media can be slightly addictive for everyone, it can also be seriously
addictive for some. Just like stated by Aina (2019) and Fariza (2019) in their research, users
who spend more than 5 hours daily on social media have more tendency to be addicted to it.
This study also found that most social media addicts have 3 and more social media accounts as
it is easier for them to jump from one to another. Aside from that, it is also needed for us to
remember that different people use social media for different purposes. For instance, for
academic purposes or to gain side income and many more. Nonetheless, if we are not careful
enough, social media may offer us more cons than pros, just like mentioned by Nazir et al.
(2020) in their case study. We, as users, need to be smart enough to separate good from bad so
that it will not eat us up in the future.

As for future research, I believe it is a great idea to widen the scope of research on this
topic. As we can see, most studies focused on youngsters and young adults. But, I personally
think, scholars should start focusing on Gen X and Baby Boomers as well as everyone now is
using social media (A Yazdani et al., 2020, 213). Everyone in this digital era is affected by it,
whether we like it or not. Therefore, a lot of studies should be conducted to fill many gaps in this
study area so that both authors and readers may get a better comprehension on this crucial

6
issue. Last but not least, I hope this kind of research will be continued in the future as I strongly
believe, it may help a lot of parties, not just the scholars, but also the policy makers and the
society. This research on this topic needs to be done more so that we are aware of what we are
dealing with and we know what are the suitable measures to overcome this problem. After all,
prevention is always better than cure.

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4.0 REFERENCES

Aina, & Fariza. (2019, December). Social Media Addiction Towards Young Adults Emotion.
Journal Of Media And Information Warfare, Vol. 12 (2)(Social Media Addiction Towards
Young Adults Emotion), 15. Retrieved December 13, 2022, from
https://jmiw.uitm.edu.my/images/Journal/V122Chapter1.pdf

A Yazdani, D. M. N., Abir, T., Qing, Y., Ahmad, J., Al Mamun, A., Zainol, N. R., Kaknon, K.,
Agho, K. E., & Wang, S. (2020, October 20). Social media addiction and emotions during
the disaster recovery period—The moderating role of post-COVID timing.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0274898

Bergman, M. P. (2022). Effects of Social Media Addiction. Social Media Victims Law Center.
Retrieved December 19, 2022, from
https://socialmediavictims.org/social-media-addiction/effects/
Grau, S., Kleiser, S., & Bright, L. (8, April 2019). Exploring social media addiction among
student Millennials.
https://www-emerald-com.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/insight/content/doi/10.1108/QMR
-02-2017-0058/full/html

Griffiths, M. D. (2013). Social Networking Addiction: Emerging Themes and Issues. 4(5), 2.

Hilliard, J. (2019, July 15). Social Media Addiction. Addiction Center. Retrieved December 18,
2022, from https://www.addictioncenter.com/drugs/social-media-addiction/

Legg, T. J. (2018, May 24). What Is Addiction? Definition, Signs, Treatment, and More.
Healthline. Retrieved December 18, 2022, from
https://www.healthline.com/health/addiction

Nazir, F., Omar, N., Aripin, M. A., & Mohd Hisham, M. H. (2020). A Case Study of Social Media
Addiction Among Malaysians. 63(4), 6.
http://irep.iium.edu.my/84010/1/A%20Case%20Study%20of%20Social%20Media%20Ad
diction%20Among%20Malaysian.pdf

Peckham, A., & Legg, T. J. (2021). Addiction: Definition, symptoms, withdrawal, and treatment.
Medical News Today. Retrieved December 18, 2022, from
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323465

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Shorten, A., & Smith, J. (2017). Mixed methods research: expanding the evidence base. BMJ
Journals. https://ebn.bmj.com/content/20/3/74

Sultan, A. J. (2021, July 16). Fear of missing out and self-disclosure on social media: the
paradox of tie strength and social media addiction among young users.
https://www-emerald-com.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/insight/content/doi/10.1108/YC-1
0-2020-1233/full/html#abstract

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 APPENDIX

i. SYNTHESIS MATRIX

JOURNAL 1: Social Media Addiction Towards Young Adults Emotion

Research Research
Author(s)/ Problem Statements Objectives/ Question(s)/ Methodology Instruments/
Date Purposes Hypotheses Variable

1. Aina The fear of young adults 1. To identify the 1. How does Quantitative Questionnaire is
Amiera Abd not gaining acceptance behaviour usage social media used as a research
Rahman by social life, of social media behaviour instrument in this
suppression of emotions which affects the usage lead to study. The
2. Fariza and the need to reveal social media social media questionnaires are
Hanis them, excitement of addiction. addiction? divided into four
Abdul setting up a group by main components
Razak proving themselves, an 2. To measure the 2. What is the namely Section A,
effort to create individual level of social level of social B, C and D. All the
(December identity and the tendency media addiction media questionnaires are
2019) to gather around a single among young addiction in the form of the
goal, escape from adults. these young close-ended
emotional distress and adults have? question.
the desire of diversion 3. To investigate
makes young adults the effect of social 3. How does
spend a lot of time in media addiction social media
virtual environments. towards young addiction
adult emotion. affect the
emotion of
young adults?

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework Findings/Analysis/Results

10
JOURNAL 2: A Case Study of Social Media Addiction Among Malaysians

Research Research
Author(s)/ Problem Statements Objectives/ Question(s)/ Methodology Instruments/
Date Purposes Hypotheses Variable

1. Faridah The issue of Internet 1. Identifying the - Qualitative The library method
Nazir addiction among cause of social which is also known
children especially in media addiction as library research
2. Norliza Malaysia cannot be among Malaysian was used in this
Omar underestimated since citizens. study to obtain the
addiction may dominate data and results.
3. Muhamad their lives, disrupt 2. Analyzing the
Afzamiman social relationships, effects of social
Aripin impair thinking, disturb media addiction
the learning process, among Malaysian
4. Mohd and impact the stability citizens.
Hizwan of emotion.
Mohd
Hisham

(2020)

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework Findings/Analysis/Results

Past research by Faradillah and Iza (2011): The results show that Malaysians are addicted to
social media due to lack of self-discipline, easy
Theory of Uses and Gratification access to the Internet, influential peers, and
economic market conditions. These causes lead to a
domino effect, which will impact our physical health,
social interaction, education and employment

11
JOURNAL 3: Fear of missing out and self-disclosure on social media: the paradox of tie strength
and social media addiction among young users

Research Research
Author(s)/ Problem Statements Objectives/ Question(s)/ Methodology Instruments/
Date Purposes Hypotheses Variable

1. Abdullah Young users may Past research has 1. FOMO has Quantitative The online-survey
J. Sultan experience health and examined the a positive questionnaires
psychological problems extent to which effect on featured either
associated with social users disclose self-disclosure. Snapchat or
(16 July networking sites such personal Instagram and
2021) as smartphone information on 2.The positive students were
addiction, problematic social media, but relationship asked to send the
social media use and the influence of between online-survey link to
social media fatigue fear of missing FOMO and its specified
behavior. Excessive out or other self-disclosure platform. The
use of smartphones factors on is stronger for researcher used the
and their constantly self-disclosure individuals with ballot-box-stuffing
evolving applications has received little strong ties option in the online
such as social attention. To fill compared to survey platform to
networking sites can this gap in the those with prevent the
interfere with work, social media weak ties. submissions of
school or social life and literature, this multiple surveys.
even result in poorer paper aims to 3. Social
quality of sleep. examine the media
interrelationships addiction
among FOMO, mediates the
social media relationship
addiction and between
self-disclosure FOMO and
among young self disclosure.
users in Kuwait.

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework Findings/Analysis/Results

12
JOURNAL 4: Exploring social media addiction among student Millennials

Research Research
Author(s)/ Problem Statements Objectives/ Question(s)/ Methodology Instruments/
Date Purposes Hypotheses Variable

1. Stacy Symptoms similar to The purpose of Refer page 14 Mixed Methods Quantitative:
Grau those exhibited by this research was Authors opted to
people with depression, to explore the use the Martin et al.
2. Susan low self-esteem, phenomenon of (2013) model of
Kleiser disinhibition, anxiety social media consumption
and hostility are often addiction among continuum as a
3. Laura seen in subjects who college-aged theoretical
Bright are believed to be student foundation for this
addicted to the internet. Millennials. Given exploratory
Some research on the rising research.
(8 April internet addiction has numbers of users
2019) shown side effects on most Qualitative: Authors
similar to platforms, used thematic
impulse-control research analysis, which
disorders, but the way indicates allowed us to
this compulsion is significant understand how
defined varies across amounts of time these college-aged
studies. is being spent on student Millennials
these activities. interpreted their
social reality
(Jensen, 2002).

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework Findings/Analysis/Results

The authors found that social media may exist in some

respondents in a “near addiction” phase or the “social
media addiction” phase according to the consumption
continuum framework.

13
Quantitative Research Questions

1. When asked to abstain from social media, do college-aged student Millennials exhibit
addictive-like behaviors (e.g. near addiction phase)?

2. Is social media usage by college-aged student Millennials reflective of later stages of the
consumption continuum based on their time and frequency on social media platforms
(e.g. near addiction or addiction phase)?

3. Are college-aged student Millennials likely to follow the adaptive or maladaptive

consumption process within the near addiction phase?

Qualitative Research Questions

Instructions: For four days, I would like for you to totally abstain from all social media (e.g. any of the
social networks that you belong to, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, blogs, Twitter and so
forth). Then I want you to answer the following questions. Please take this seriously and not fake it.
Use as much typing space as you see fit.

1. Describe the ways you use social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram,
etc.) that you have active accounts for.

2. How do you feel after abstaining from all social media? Consider physical, emotional and
mental aspects.

3. Do you think you are addicted to social media? Explain. If so, what implications do you
think this has for you?

4. Did you feel that you were more or less productive? Explain.

5. If you did deactivate your account, did you reactivate? Why or why not?

14
JOURNAL 5: Social media addiction and emotions during the disaster recovery period—The
moderating role of post-COVID timing

Research Research
Author(s)/ Problem Statements Objectives/ Question(s)/ Methodology Instruments/
Date Purposes Hypotheses Variable

1. Dewan As addiction is defined This current study 1. Anxiety is Quantitative A survey was
Muhammad as an irrepressible urge aimed to examine correlated with conducted with
Nur –A that is often how social media social media 2926 participants
Yazdani accompanied by loss of addiction and addiction. aged between 25
2. Tanvir Abir control, internet negative and 45 years from
3. Yang Qing addiction leads people emotions 2. Fear is all eight divisions of
4. Jamee to create problems from influence health correlated with Bangladesh.
Ahmad their uncontrollable issues after the social media
5. Abdullah abuse of Internet COVID-19 addiction.
Al Mamun usage, which is related pandemic
6. Noor to other pathologies like lockdown among 3. Social
Raihani depression, loneliness Bangladeshi media
Zainol and social anxiety. workers. addiction is
7. Kaniz correlated with
Kakon social media
8. Kingsley usage hours.
Emwinyore
Agho 4. Social
9. Shasha media usage
Wang hours are
correlated with
(20 October physical health
2022) issues.

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework Findings/Analysis/Results

15