THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Course Particulars
Course code: CCST9076
Attention Magnet: The Psychological and Technological Aspects of Social
Course title:
Media Addiction
No. of credits: 6
Course Coordinator
Name: Dr Shihui FENG
Email: shihuife@hku.hk
Telephone No.: 2219 4310
Office: Room 115, Runme Shaw Building
Course description (This will appear on the Syllabus of the curriculum)
Why do we feel compelled to constantly check social media? Does individual overuse of social media have
an accumulative effect on our society? Can we make any productive changes to ourselves and social media
platforms to mitigate our addiction to social media? This course will integrate interdisciplinary knowledge
to uncover the driving forces behind social media addiction. The reasons causing people to get addicted to
social media are not limited to personal characteristics and include the design and artificial intelligence used
by the platforms themselves. In this course, we will introduce both the underlying technical mechanisms
and psychological factors that cause behavioral addiction to social media. In addition, the accumulative
effect of social media addiction on our personal and professional lives, as well as societies across the world,
will be discussed. Through a variety of interactive and reflective learning activities, this course will drive a
collective effort among students to develop solutions for minimizing social media addiction and maximizing
the beneficial use of social media in both social and academic settings.
Assessment: 100% coursework.

Course objectives

● Equip students with a solid understanding of fundamental concepts central to social media addiction
● Develop interdisciplinary thinking for synthesizing social theories and computing techniques in
addressing social and global problems
● Facilitate students to gain the capacities of developing solutions to social problems collectively
● Cultivate awareness of ethical issues and social responsibilities in the development of social media
applications

Course learning outcomes (CLOs)

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
CLOs Aligned PLOs
Understand and reflect on why we can get addicted to social media from
1. 1
psychological and technical perspectives through written and oral means.
2. Evaluate the applications of advanced computing techniques in social media. 1,3
Analyze the impacts of social media in our lives and societies through oral
3. 2,3
discussions.
 Demonstrate the ability to apply interdisciplinary thinking to solve problems
4. 4
in social media context.
Develop creative and feasible solutions for addressing social media addiction
5. 4
from different stakeholders’ perspectives.
Course teaching and learning activities
Activities No. of hours1 Aligned CLOs
Lectures 24 1, 2, 3, 5
Tutorials 8 1, 2, 3, 4
Reading/ Self-Study 35 1
Assessment: Essay / Report writing 10 1, 2
Assessment: Presentation (incl preparation) 5 4, 5
Assessment: Debate/Role play (incl preparation) 45 2, 3
Assessment: Online forum 5 1
Total 132
Course assessments
Weighting Aligned Due date
Assessment method Type of assessment
(%) CLOs
1. Reflective writing Please refer to the document 30 1,3 12/03/2024
2. Debates entitled “course assessment 20 1, 2, 3, 4 TBA
3. Group Project details”on Moodle 50 2, 3, 4, 5 17/04/2024
(Group project & presentation)

19/04/2024
(Reflection & peer evaluation)
Total 100

Course content and topics (to be entered in the SIS / Moodle)

Lectures (Date) Topic
Lecture 1 (17 Jan) Introduction: What is social media addiction?
Lecture 2 (24 Jan) Are you addicted to social media?
Lecture 3 (31 Jan) Psychological factors in social media addiction (I)
Lecture 4 (7 Feb) Psychological factors in social media addiction (II)
Lecture 5 (21 Feb) Technological factors in social media addiction (I)—App features
Lecture 6 (28 Feb) Technological factors in social media addiction (II)—User interest detection &
Friendship recommendation
Lecture 7 (Reading Week) Reading Week — 3-Day No Social Media Challenge
Lecture 8 (13 Mar) What do tech companies think about social media addiction
Lecture 9 (27 Mar) How does social media addiction affect our lives?
Lecture 10 (3 Apr) How does social media addiction affect our societies?
Lecture 11 (10 Apr) What about the benefits of social media?
Lecture 12 (17 Apr) The future of social media: “Your” social media (Group Presentation)
Tutorial content and topics
Session Topic
1 (25, 26 Jan) Case discussions on social media addiction

1
For a 6-credit course, the total no. of teacher-student face-to-face contact (CT) hours should be 24, and the total no. of CT
hours and Study Load (SL) hours added together should be in the range of 120 to 150.
 2 (1, 2 Feb) Understanding of "FoMO"
3 (22, 23 Feb) Debate Preparation
4 (29 Feb, 1 Mar) 1st Debate “Should users or social media platforms hold the accountability for
social media addiction?”
5 (14, 15 Mar) Reflect on the 3 Day No Social Media Challenge
6 (21, 22 Mar) 2nd Debate “should there be regulations on the use of generative AI in social
media content? ”
7 (28 Mar, 5 Apr) Reflections & Changes on Social Media Usage
8 (11, 12 Apr) Group projet prepraration

Required / recommended readings and online materials (to be entered in the SIS / Moodle)
1. Chang, F. T., & Hard, L. A. (2002). Human-animals bonds in the laboratory: how animal behavior
affects the perspective of caregivers. ILAR Journal, 43(1), 10-18. From
https://doi.org/10.1093/ilar.43.1.10
2. Siegel, D. (2012). The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we
are (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press. [Chap. 7 “Self-regulation”; Chap. 8 “Interpersonal
connection”]
3. Cheever, N.A., Moreno, M.A., Rosen, L.D. (2018). When Does Internet and Smartphone Use
Become a Problem?. In: Moreno, M., Radovic, A. (eds) Technology and Adolescent Mental Health .
Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69638-6_10
4. Dhir, A., Yossatorn, Y., Kaur, P., & Chen, S. (2018). Online social media fatigue and psychological
wellbeing—A study of compulsive use, fear of missing out, fatigue, anxiety and depression.
International Journal of Information Management, 40, 141-152.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.01.012
5. Jacobsen, W. C., & Forste, R. (2011). The wired generation: Academic and social outcomes of
electronic media use among university students. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking,
14(5), 275-280. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2010.0135
6. Sun, Y., & Zhang, Y. (2020). A review of theories and models applied in studies of social media
addiction and implications for future research. Addictive Behaviors, 114, 106699.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106699
7. Orlowski, F. (2020). The Social dilemma. [Netflix documentary-drama]
8. Pariser, E. (2011). Beware online “filter bubbles”. [TED talk]
9. Pariser, E. (2019). What obligations do social media platforms have to the greater good? [TED talk]
10. Xu, Y., Chen, Q., & Tian, Y. (2024). The Impact of Problematic Social Media Use on Inhibitory
Control and the Role of Fear of Missing Out: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials. Psychology
Research and Behavior Management, 117-128.

THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Generic Grading Criteria

Grade & (+) A (-) (+) B (-) (+) C (-) (+) D F

Grade Point 4.3 4.0 3.7 3.3 3.0 2.7 2.3 2.0 1.7 1.3 1.0 0
Content ● Excellent ● Good ● Satisfactory ● Pass ● Fail
performance performance performance ● Unsatisfactory
performance
 ● Full coverage of ● Good coverage ● Reasonable ● Borderline ● Question / Task
the topic of the topic coverage of acceptable possibly
● Meets all basic ● Meets all basic topic performance misunderstood
and higher order and some higher ● Meets all basic ● Limited ● Key aspects of
goals order goals goals coverage topic neglected
● Very high level ● High level of ● Satisfactory ● Meets only ● Basic goals not
of skills skills level of skills basic goals met
(interpretation, (interpretation, (interpretation, ● Only basic level ● Basic skills not
application, application, application, of skills demonstrated
analysis, analysis, analysis, (interpretation,
evaluation) evaluation) evaluation) application,
analysis,
evaluation)
● Concepts very ● Concepts clearly ● Concepts ● Basic ● Many concepts
clearly understood understood understanding of not understood
understood ● Argument ● Logic of concepts ● Illogical
● Argument generally logical argument is ● Argument is argument
always logical ● Assignment satisfactory weak but can be ● Assignment
Logic &
● Assignment follows logical despite some followed rambles & lacks
Coherence
follows highly structure and minor ● Some problems structure
logical structure development weaknesses with structure or
and ● Only minor development of
development problems with assignment
structure or
development of
assignment
● Wide, ● Well aware of ● Sound ● Some awareness ● Little or no
supportive relevant awareness of of relevant evidence of
reading of literature relevant literature reading
relevant ● A high level of literature ● Basic ● Uncritical
Reading & literature reflective ● Evidence of understanding acceptance of
Research ● Good critical understanding reflective but limited others’ views
understanding ● Referencing understanding reflection ● Referencing
● Referencing clear & ● Referencing ● Some problems inadequate
very clear & appropriate satisfactory with referencing
appropriate
● Expresses ● Expresses ● Expresses ● Expression of ● Meaning often
meaning very meaning clearly meaning meaning is unclear
clearly ● Fluent and satisfactorily acceptable, ● Unacceptable
● Highly fluent mostly accurate ● Satisfactory although: grammar and/or
and accurate use use of grammar level of ● Some confusion vocabulary use
Language
of grammar and and vocabulary grammar and caused by
vocabulary vocabulary use grammatical
errors and/or
inappropriate
vocabulary
● Very high ● Good standard ● Satisfactory ● Acceptable ● Poor
standard of of presentation presentation despite some presentation
presentation ● Format* ● Format* weaknesses in ● Unacceptable
Presentatio
● Format* requirements requirements presentation format*
n
requirements met mostly met ● Format*
fully met requirements
partially met
*Format includes APA referencing style