Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION IN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Social Media Addiction in High School Students

Allie Straeck

AP Research

Lovejoy High School

15 April 2018

Total Word Count: 4,237

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The current generation of high school students are some of the first to grow up with social

media as a constant part of their life. This could contribute to how addicted to social media

students of today are. Social media addiction includes defining characteristics such as being

concerned about social media, having a strong motivation to use social media, and to devote so

much time to social media it impairs other activities, jobs, studies, relationships, and

psychological health and well­being (Andreassen, 2015). A “recent meta-analysis determined

that approximately 6% of the world's population have at least a base level of Internet addiction,”

which includes social media since most people use the internet to browse social media platforms,

such as Facebook and Twitter (Cecilia & Yee-lam, 2014). The rise of different platforms, with

innovative and more user friendly interfaces, only encourages the negative repercussions of

social media and social media addiction, including low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and the

idolization of social media “icons” as role models (Valkenburg, Peter, & Schouten 2006). Not

only are high school students’ psychological health at risk, but they are also more exposed to the

threat of online predators who use these apps to find potential victims. In fact, “More than 82%

of online sex crimes originating from social networking sites that predators use to gain insight

into their victim’s habits and likes,” states Kids Live Safe, a website and book dedicated to

educating parents about the dangers of social interactions online, especially with social media

platforms (Kids Live Safe).

The types of addiction receiving the most attention are alcoholism, gambling, and drugs;

yet, these are not the only types of addiction people can have. Social media addiction has not

gained as much recognition for being a serious disease, as a result individuals addicted to social

media have little to no options for treatment offered. The lack of treatment or awareness

programs results in social media addiction affecting more individuals and becoming more severe
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for those who are already addicted. With addiction to social media being relatively unknown or

untreated, individuals addicted will only become more addicted and could experience the same

predicament that alcoholics and drug addicts experience, including withdrawal from regular

activities, dependency, anxiety from separation, and denial of the issue (Team, 2016).

The purpose of the research in this study is to discover and analyze social media

addiction, specifically in teenagers aged 14-18 years old. Other purposes include really

discovering how addicted students are to four main social media platforms and to analyze which

app out of the four students are the most addicted to. Nations, such as China and South Korea,

offer programs to help those who struggle with social media or internet addiction. However, the

United States offers little to no help to those who are suffering which only allows the problem to

manifest (Block, 2008). Technology is continuously evolving, paving the way for more social

media platforms to be created and existing ones to become more prevalent. If the United States

implements no treatment or remedy for social media addiction, the problem will only increase

with time (Kuss & Griffiths, 2011).

Most research over social media addiction has exclusively been about Facebook because

it has had the most time to grow and develop, whereas other apps such as Instagram and

Snapchat have only been released for a few years. Even though some apps may be older and

more well known, adolescents are drawn toward the newer apps because of the “coolness” factor

they have (Sheldon & Bryant, 2016). Adolescent preference for newer apps causes apps to

become popular upon release and then fade in and out of popularity overtime. If applications

remain popular for a long duration of time, such as Twitter, it could be an indicator of individuals

being addicted to the platforms.

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Several studies tackle the issue of social media addiction as a whole without delving into

particular apps, thus a researcher can not fully clarify which particular app the studied people

were most addicted to. To help bridge this gap, the research in this study separates social media

apps to gage the level of addiction high school students have to each major social media

platform: Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. The separation of these apps allows

researchers to understand which platforms are most addictive and perhaps what qualities make

certain social media apps more addictive than others.

Literature Review

Previous research has been conducted concerning social media addiction and its

connection to depression, stress, happiness, and also internet addiction, which is simply being

addicted to all parts of the internet and in most studies included social media or a social

networking site (Shensa et al, 2017; Longstreet & Brooks 2017). Different studies have analyzed

social media addiction and depression with many types of people being studied, some of which

include high school students, college students, adults, mentally ill patients, and people seeking

social support by using a social media platform (Van den Eijnden et al, 2016; Hamer, Stamatakis,

& Mishra, 2010; Brusilovskiy, Townley, Snethen, & Salzer, 2016; Cole, Nick, Zelkowitz,

Roeder, & Roeder, 2016). One study in particular focuses on social media experience across

different generations and compares the results among them, which allowed researchers to

understand how different generations react to social media and the internet as a whole (Berezan,

Krishen, Agarwal, & Kachroo, 2017). The study discovered the youngest generation used social

media as a tool to define themselves and create their own identity, whereas the older generations

use social media and the internet to meet new and interesting people without having a focus of

figuring out their self-definition. With younger generations utilizing social media to define

themselves, their online identity is intertwined with their social life off the internet. This can
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create younger generations to be partially reliant upon their social media accounts to establish

their social status offline.

Another subject similar to social media addiction is internet addiction, which is often

paired or used unequivalently with social media addiction. For example, one study examined

what purpose young adults used the internet and social media for and concluded the most

common use was for online communication and socialization, which mostly pertains to how

social media is used as a platform to connect with other people (Yusop & Sumari, 2013). Internet

addiction is more prevalent in Asian countries due to the presence of a large computer based

gaming community. In some cases, students have been skipping classes or even dropping out of

high school to play videos games (Block, 2008). South Korea and China are experiencing

significant internet addiction in younger generations and have acknowledged it as a growing

problem in their nation. As a result of the severity of the addiction, there are treatment plans in

place to help individuals cope with internet addiction. Whereas, the United States does not even

formally recognize internet or social media addiction as a serious issue with younger generations.

Block attributes this to the gaming being not as prevalent in the United States, however social

media addiction exhibits many of the same characteristics that video game addiction does (Block,

2008). Thus, further research should be conducted evaluating the difference in internet/social

media addiction among the three countries and how effective the different treatments, if any, are.

Additional research has also been conducted regarding social media fatigue, which

according to one study is “a user’s tendency to back away from social media participation when

s/he becomes overwhelmed with information,” (Bright, Kleiser, & Grau, 2014) This is the

opposite of social media addiction and should be considered a positive effect. However, this new
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idea is caused by overuse of social media, which is considered to be a negative effect because if

students are overusing social media, they might not have enough time for other important

activities including homework, studying, interacting with people face-to-face, or spending time

with family. These are all important activities adolescents need to help them flourish once they

are independent adults due to life skills that are taught through these activities, such as

communication skills, teamwork, time management, and the development of a strong work ethic.

(Benson, Galbraith & Espeland, 1997).

Contrary to what a majority of studies conclude about social media, not all aspects of

social media are negative. Social media can be used to strengthen relationships among distant

friends and relatives and can be a wealth of information, as it gives individuals increased access

to information. Social medias has been used by separated families and friends to stay connected

when they are apart from each other. Similarly, social media can be used to communicate with

individuals who have terminal illnesses, mental conditions, and or mobility issues (Zhou, Zhang,

Yang, & Wang, 2017). Families can stay connected with family members who are not able to

interact with each other without having to meet at inopportune times. This encourages healthy

relationships between family members and allows young adults to stay connected with friends,

especially if they move school districts or continue their education at different colleges than their

friends.

Method of Gathering Data

The most common method of gathering data in this field is an online survey; however,

there have also been in-person surveys, interviews, as well as meta analyses (Longstreet, P., &

Brooks, S., 2017, Radovic, A., Gmelin, T., Stein, B. D., & Miller, E., 2016, Przepiorka, A. M.,

Blachnio, A., Miziak, B., & Czuczwar, S. J., 2014). Surveys were used to collect information not

only about social media addiction, but also items related to social media addiction, including self
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esteem, overall happiness, and reflective thought (Schneider et al, 2017; Berezan, Krishen,

Agarwal, & Kachroo, 2017; Annisette & Lafreniere, 2016). These subjects can aid the researcher

in evaluating social media addiction in the group of people being studied. Due to time restraint

and MyAwesome High School’s Independent Review Board (IRB), additional surveys were not

encouraged since the board decided they wanted their students to take a quick survey as opposed

to one that could last for half an hour in order to not waste class time, as the survey was

distributed to the whole school during one particular class period.

Surveys are a common method of collecting data among most studies, however research

has also been conducted on the validity of surveys. In-person surveys are slightly better than

online surveys simply because in-person the participant has to answer the questions. However,

this survey method can also have problems with validity and user error, especially with low

response rates (Wiersma, 2013). This can occur because people are often too busy to take the

time to participate in an in-person survey. Another problem with surveys is people might not

answer survey questions truthfully because they want to portray themselves as a better person

than they may actually be. This combined with the Independent Review Board (IRB) not

allowing incentivizing surveys can lead to problems within conducting the survey.

The researcher gathering data in this paper selected a survey for collecting data because it

allows for a larger sample size than the other aforementioned methods. The survey will be

delivered to the student body to help ensure there is a large enough sample size in order to

accurately analyze the survey results. The most appropriate method of discerning social media

addiction in high school students would be to attach a tracking device to a certain number of

students’ phones to log the exact amount of time they spend on each social media app and
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associating that data with their grades or amount of time spent socially interacting with people

face-to-face. This tracking method was conducted in a previous study (Giunchiglia, Zeni, Gobbi,

Bignotti, & Bison, 2018) and found a correlation between active social media usage and lower

grades. However, because of the technological limitations and ethical issues of using tracking

devices, a survey was employed to gather information concerning social media addiction. The

survey used to collect data was an adaptation of the Bergen Facebook Addiction scale created by

researcher Cecilie Andreassen, Doctor of Psychology at the University of Bergen in Norway, the

survey was created in 2011 and is a six question test designed to determine Facebook addiction

in people of any age. These same six questions were used, however, instead of only questions

about Facebook, questions were also asked about Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat (see appendix

A for the complete list of questions) The answer choices for each question were the same and

were based on the Likert scale ranging from “very often” to “very rarely” with a total of five

different answers for each question. Each answer correlated to a numerical value, with “very

often” correlating to the number five, “often” correlating to the number four, “sometimes”

correlating to the number three, “rarely” correlating to the number two, and “very rarely”

correlating to the number one. These numbers were then added together to create a final score for

that section for each individual student. Student’s scores could range from 6 to 30, with the

higher the value correlating to a higher level of addiction. Cecilie Andreassen, the original

creator of the survey, determined if a participant taking the survey chose the answers “very

often” or “often” four or more times, they would be a victim of social media addiction.

Specifically this related to Facebook in her original research, however, the research in this paper

asked questions with different apps in addition to Facebook to determine addiction. These answer

choices added together correlate to the participant having an overall score of 16 to 20 and higher

for the particular section. A score of 15 and below results in the student having no addiction, or
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very low addiction. These were the guidelines for scoring survey answers for the research in this

paper.

To prevent false answers or skewed data, a student who does not have an account for one

or more of the four apps can check a box stating they do not have an account. If a student

answered “no account” yet still completed the specified section, their answers were not counted

and put in the “no account” category. Similarly, if students marked yes to having an account,

they received a follow-up question asking how many accounts they have. If a student has two

accounts but only uses one, they should respond stating they only have one account, since that is

the one they not only use but could also be addicted to. This survey was distributed to every

student at MyAwesome High School and received 338 responses. Other demographic

information was collected including grade level and gender. The known demographic of

MyAwesome High School is the students there come from predominantly white, affluent,

suburban communities. The results could reflect a similar demographic in another location but

the data could come across as skewed if it was projected onto a high school with a racially

diverse or lower income student body.

Method of Analyzing Data

A Chi-Square test of independence was used to determine if addiction score and type of

social media are independent of each other. After completing the test it was determined type of

social media and addiction score are not independent of each other since the chi-square score is

41.348 and the p-value is -5.5x10 −9 with a degrees of freedom as 3.

A two sample t-test was used to determine if the addiction scores for females is greater

than the addiction scores for males. After completing the test it was determined with a t score of
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.52103 and a p-value of .30378, the true mean score for females is greater than the true mean

score for males.

Results and Analysis

The results of the survey were put into graphs with observed and expected counts in order

to identify any gaps or noticeable differences in the data. The first graph correlates gender and

the number of students addicted to social media with observed and expected values. The second

graph correlated grade level and number of students addicted to social media and follows the

same format as the previous graph.

Table 1.1

The results from the survey discovered that between the two genders, females presented a

higher observed level of addiction to all social media platforms than males with 108 observed

counts above the males observed counts of 54 (table 1.1). Analyzing each app individually,

females surpassed their expected values for Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook but remained

below the expected count for Snapchat. The exact difference in the observed and expected counts

were three for Twitter, one for Instagram, one for Facebook, and finally there was a five count

difference for Snapchat.

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Contrastingly, male observed addiction counts were lower than expected for Twitter with

a difference of three, Instagram with a difference of one, and Facebook with a difference of one.

However, the results revealed a higher observed than expected count for Snapchat by five counts.

The gap in gender results could be because females often idolize models seen online and

compare themselves, particularly in physical appearance. “Females [also] tend to turn to others

for validation in contrast to males, who are more apt to maintain their individuality and whose

relationships are more of an extension of their already complete selves” (Wiederhold & Riva,

2009). Social media can exploit females need for reassurance while discovering their self identity

which in turn can cause impressionable young females to be addicted to these social media

platforms where they are receiving the necessary “likes” and “followers” to support this identity.

Table 1.2

By simply glancing at Table 1.2 it is obvious there are more students addicted to
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Snapchat than any other platform and there are very few, if any, students addicted to Facebook.

A total of 110 students conveyed addictive scores for Snapchat and a total of three students

conveyed addictive scores for Facebook with a startling 107 difference between the two observed

scores. By analyzing each app and grade level individually, the results from the survey can

further inform researchers how addicted high school students are to Twitter, Instagram,

Snapchat, and Facebook for this demographic of students.

Twitter specifically aquired lower observed counts than expected counts across all grade

levels except seniors, who had eight more students addicted than the expected count of 15 and is

also the highest difference across every social media platform and every grade level. Juniors had

the closest observed and expected scores with only a one count difference between the two.

Sophomores had the next lowest difference of observed and expected scores with a three count

difference and freshman had a difference of four counts between the observed and expected

values.

Instagram acquired higher expected values than observed for freshman and sophomores

with freshman having four more expected than observed counts and sophomores having three

more expected than observed counts. Juniors and seniors have less observed counts than

expected counts with juniors having four less observed counts and seniors having three less

observed counts than expected. These results differed from Twitter for seniors, juniors, and

freshman, but are similar for sophomores in that the observed counts are below the expected

counts.

Snapchat acquired 110 students addicted from the survey, which is the most number of

addicted students out of the four apps. Freshman and juniors exceeded their expected scores by

one and four, respectively. Senior observed counts fell behind their expected scores by five.
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Sophomores addicted to Snapchat were the only observed scores to equal their expected score of

22. Juniors and seniors had the same observed value of 35, however their expected counts were

different with juniors expected score of 31 and seniors expected score of 40.

These results are similar to the Instagram results in that the freshman and senior observed

results were also higher than their expected values. Instagram results varied from the Snapchat

results for juniors, which had a lower Instagram observed count than expected, and freshman,

who had a higher Instagram observed count than expected. Contrastingly, the Twitter results had

no similar trends to the Snapchat results.

Facebook acquired the least amount of students addicted, which differed greatly from

what previous studies had concluded. Each grade level met their expected count of one with their

observed counts except for freshman, who did not have any students addicted to Facebook. This

contrasts greatly with the scores from the other platforms because no other app had such low

observed or expected values besides the observed number of freshman addicted to Twitter which

consisted of only two students.

Compared to the other social media apps specifically, the only trends common between

Facebook and the other social media platforms was the Twitter freshman observed counts fell

below their expected counts, similar to the way the Facebook observed counts fell below the

expected counts. The only other affinity between the platforms was the sophomores addicted to

Snapchat also compiled an observed score that equaled their expected score, which is also the

case for sophomores addicted to Facebook.

A surprising result from the survey is how little addiction each grade level conveyed

toward Facebook. With so much previous research concerning only Facebook, and as noted in
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the literature review, it was hypothesized current students would share the same trend as students

did years ago. However, the results prove much has changed in the last six years. Students are

now more addicted to newer apps that offer different ways to interact with people.

Conclusion

The results in this study were different than the results discovered in previous studies

because it demonstrated students from MyAwesome High School had little to no addiction to

Facebook, which varied greatly from the previous idea that students are heavily addicted to

Facebook. This difference proves the need for further research in order to resolve any gaps in the

topic of social media addiction and high school students.

An increased use of social media for teenagers and younger could lead to an increased

chance of online predators taking advantage of the kids using these apps. New technology, such

as Snapchat map, allows followers to access a users location which can be used by predators as a

way to track potential victims routes. This can lead to more kidnappings, sexual harassment, and

stalking of younger children and teenagers as well.

Some limitations of this research include the demographic of the population being

surveyed. MyAwesome High School consists of a primarily caucasian, educated, and upper

middle class student population, thus the results of this research could not be applied to schools

with different demographics. For example, the amount of technology students have access to can

depend on socio-economic status and can also affect if students are addicted to social media

because the easier access students have the more likely they are to become addicted.

Misrepresentation of the sample population is a limitation of the research because

surveys can often be unreliable and include faulty information. Students are able to respond to

the survey questions however they would like to, which can lead to students responding how they

think they should respond, not taking the survey seriously, and only putting extremes (Wiersma,
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2013). An additional limitation of the research in this paper and the research in this field would

be how long it takes studies to be written, edited, and published. Due to the vast improvements in

technology, it is now easier for companies to develop and launch new apps. However, the time

used to study those apps and their effects can take many years to fully comprehend, thus by the

time the study is published it could be considered “outdated” by a newer app people show more

addiction to.

Due to the amount of time since the last studies were conducted, the rise of new social

media platforms, and the longevity those new platforms have experience it can be concluded that

more research over this topic is necessary to determine the status of social media addiction

among adolescents in the United States. Conducting further research can expand knowledge

about social media addiction in high school students, precisely how much time students spend on

each app and how it can affect not only social media addiction but also other activities, such as

studying, extracurriculars, spending time with friends and family, and overall mental health.

Also, further research would need to be performed in order to analyze the effect a single social

media platform has on high school students. These results could be compared to previous

research to determine if the outcome of analyzing one social media platform, such as Instagram,

has a similar outcome to research specified toward Facebook. Additionally, this could help

researchers gain insight as to why students are addicted to social media and if newer platforms

will remain as having consistently higher levels of addiction than apps that have been around for

much longer.

To solidify the results in this paper, deeper research should be conducted to analyze

further how the different grades respond to social media and social media addiction throughout
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their middle school and high school years. Research like this could enlighten researchers as to

why different grade levels have different addiction scores and could lead to a solution to fix this

gap and prevent something similar from happening in the future.

Not too long ago (22 February 2018), Snapchat updated their user interface. This update

was met with negative reception from users who disliked the dramatic change of the structure of

the app. Since Snapchat was the most addictive platform in this research, an interesting topic of

further research would be between addiction and friendly user interface to discover if there is a

correlation between the two.

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Appendix A

Twitter

1) How often have you spent a lot of time thinking about Twitter or planned use of Twitter?

2) How often have you felt an urge to use Twitter more and more?

3) How often have you used Twitter in order to forget about personal problems?

4) How often have you tried to cut down on the use of Twitter without success?

5) How often have you become restless or troubled if you have been prohibited from using

Twitter?

6) How often have you used Twitter so much that it has had a negative impact on your

job/studies?

Instagram

1) How often have you spent a lot of time thinking about Instagram or planned use of

Instagram?

2) How often have you felt an urge to use Instagram more and more?

3) How often have you used Instagram in order to forget about personal problems?
SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION IN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
20

4) How often have you tried to cut down on the use of Instagram without success?

5) How often have you become restless or troubled if you have been prohibited from using

Instagram?

6) How often have you used Instagram so much that it has had a negative impact on your

job/studies?

Snapchat

1) How often have you spent a lot of time thinking about Snapchat or planned use of

Snapchat?

2) How often have you felt an urge to use Snapchat more and more?

3) How often have you used Snapchat in order to forget about personal problems?

4) How often have you tried to cut down on the use of Snapchat without success?

5) How often have you become restless or troubled if you have been prohibited from using

Snapchat?

6) How often have you used Snapchat so much that it has had a negative impact on your

job/studies?

Facebook

1) How often have you spent a lot of time thinking about Facebook or planned use of

Facebook?

2) How often have you felt an urge to use Facebook more and more?

3) How often have you used Snapchat in order to forget about personal problems?
SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION IN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
21
4) How often have you tried to cut down on the use of Snapchat without success?

5) How often have you become restless or troubled if you have been prohibited from using

Facebook?

6) How often have you used Facebook so much that it has had a negative impact on your

job/studies?