Addiction in the Digital Age: A Comparative Study of Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram

Abstract

According to motivation theory, the researcher used entertainment and social interaction as the two independent variables and social media addiction as the only dependent variable. Backed by the theory of attachment emotional and functional, this study discusses the psychopathological positive features of app usage and adds to the body of knowledge on social media addiction. The target population was reached through an online survey in which the researcher invited 850 participants, of whom 586 provided usable responses. This influenced the findings, which pointed to the direction indicated by all the hypotheses; there was an indication of a direct relationship between the variables. The findings indicated that functional use of SNS increases emotional use, thus making people feel amused and socially connected, which in turn makes them more addicted to social media. People need to learn about the level of their addiction slowly rising, and that is because the application meets the need for entertainment or social interaction. However, the study has limitations: It was conducted in Pakistan only, so its application to other countries could not have been made; motivation theory was only applied to entertainment and social interaction; and the results found could not be generalized on other social networks. More research could be based on the comparison of the findings in different countries using the same indices or, for instance, the comparison of addiction levels on Snapchat and Instagram.