University at Albany: Study shows addictive social behaviors may lead to drug addiction

Psychologists at the University at Albany have found that not only can social media (particularly Facebook) itself be addictive, but people who use it may also be at greater risk for impulse control problems, such as substance abuse.

The researchers surveyed 253 undergraduate students, asking them questions about social media use, internet addiction, emotion regulation and alcohol use. They found that about 10 percent of users had disordered social media use, meaning they showed signs of addiction to platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. To assess disordered social media use, the researchers used criteria that mirror alcohol dependence, such as, "How does Facebook make you feel?" and "Do you check Facebook first thing when you wake up in the morning?"

Those who struggle with social media addiction are more likely to be addicted to the internet (as tested by the Youth Internet Addiction Test), have emotion regulation problems (such as poor impulse control), and have alcohol problems.

Psychologist Julia Horn, who led the study, said Facebook was particularly addictive, with respondents spending an average of a third of their online browsing time on Facebook and 67% of their time on Facebook mobile push notifications.

"Notifications of new or updated content in your newsfeed act as a reward. The inability to predict when new content will be released keeps us refreshing more often," Horn said in a statement. "This uncertainty when a new reward is available is called a 'variable interval reinforcement schedule' and is highly effective in building habitual behaviors that resist extinction." Facebook also makes it easier for users to constantly be connected to its platform, for example through push notifications to mobile devices.

The researchers hypothesize that disordered social media use may be a symptom of impaired emotion regulation, which exacerbates susceptibility to various types of addiction.

"Our findings suggest that disordered online social networks may emerge as part of a cluster of risk factors for increased susceptibility to substance and non-substance addictions," Horn said.

The new findings join a growing body of research investigating addictive use of social media and the internet. MRI data suggests that compulsive internet users show similar changes in their brains to those addicted to alcohol and drugs. A 2012 Harvard study provided some insight into why Facebook use is particularly addictive.

Disclosing information about ourselves, the researchers found, is intrinsically rewarding. It activates the nucleus of the bed of the stria terminalis, a brain region that responds to the ingestion of cocaine or other drugs. But it's not just about posting on Facebook that's addictive—receiving those likes and comments is also an addiction. Another study found that receiving positive feedback about ourselves also activates the brain's reward center.

However, Horn and other studies cannot be used as definitive evidence that disordered social media use constitutes a full-blown addiction.

“Whether or not disordered online social networking use can be considered a ‘true’ addiction is a tricky question,” Horn said in an email to The Huffington Post. “I guess the answer really depends on what you define as ‘addiction.’ Many people think of addiction as involving the ingestion of a substance. However, if we think of addiction more broadly as involving some kind of reward, then it’s easier to see how a behavior could be addictive.”