Reacción a "Adults who use Instagram a lot overestimate its “addictive” nature, making self-control difficult dificulta el autocontrol"

The study recently published in Scientific Reports reports that most people overestimate their addictive use of the Instagram app when, in reality, they do not meet the diagnostic criteria for it (18% believe they are addicted when only 2% meet the requirements). 

The article actually encompasses two different studies: one observational (in which certain questions relating to the use of the Instagram app are asked) involving 380 adults in the US; and another experimental study involving 824 people divided into two groups. In the experimental study, two groups were established. In the first group (the experimental group), the subjects first reflected on their addiction to Instagram and were then asked questions related to their feelings of control and guilt about their use of the app. In the other group (the control group), the same questions were asked, but without the initial reflection. As the authors expected, the first group perceived themselves as having less control and felt greater guilt about their use of Instagram. 

The most significant practical implication of the study is that it advocates discontinuing the use of the term addiction to refer to these types of behaviours, which are more indicative of a habit or, in this case, problematic use of social media. Therefore, treatments focused on combating social media addiction may not be effective for most people who, according to the study's findings, do not have such an addiction (understood mainly as the presence of withdrawal symptoms when the substance, in this case the use of Instagram, is absent or prohibited, and the presence of problems in daily life resulting from the use of the application). To reduce screen time, some recommendations are provided, such as changing social media settings to stop notifications, placing the phone out of sight, or using grayscale mode to create design friction. 

These erroneously named “behavioural addictions”, according to the authors of the study, sometimes also called non-substance addictions (which could also include, for example, compulsive online shopping or video game use), can be very difficult to differentiate from a habit. In general terms, in psychology, a behaviour becomes problematic when it causes us suffering or affects our daily lives (work or studies, relationships, family, etc.). In the case of (substance) addictions, we know that the awareness of having a problem may never come, or may take a long time to emerge; as for the use of new technologies, there is still no clear position on this issue. 

The most important limitation of the study is that the sample consists of adults with an average age of 44. It would be highly advisable to replicate this study with a sample of young people and adolescents, from 12 years old (the average age at which they get their first mobile phone) to 30 years old. This is the population that tends to make the most use of platforms such as Instagram and is therefore most vulnerable to excessive and inappropriate use of them, without being fully aware of the time they spend on them and whether their use is intentional (with a purpose) or merely accidental (by constantly scrolling through videos that come their way without stopping to think about whether or not the content is desired).