Is Social Media Addiction a Real Addiction?
Do I Have a Social Media Addiction?
How to Overcome Social Media Addiction
What does recovery from social media addiction look like?
- Should I Stop Using Social Media Completely?
- Bookend Your Time on Social Media
- A Path Forward: a Healthy Relationship with Social Media
- Resources from Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous (ITAA)
- Resources from Media Addicts Anonymous (MAA)
Step Back from Social Media with our Expert Management
Social media users—and, to a lesser extent, even some app creators—recognize the problem of social media addiction and want to change the role social media plays in our lives. In the past few years, we’ve seen a rise in popularity in new social media apps that offer non-addictive interfaces, such as BeReal and Lapse, the former prompting users to take just one photo a day, and Lapse asking users to wait several hours for their photos to “develop.” These examples are, unfortunately, the exceptions to the rule.
For the most part, social media app creators and developers profit off of the amount of time we spend on social media, to the tune of $244 billion spent in 2024 on social media advertising, with 2025 figures estimated to be upwards of $270 billion. Sprout Social has found that ads on social media account for 3 in every 10 dollars spent on online advertising.
On and offline, people have begun to notice the addictive nature of social media and want to improve their life by learning how to overcome social media addiction.
Is Social Media Addiction a Real Addiction?
The problem with a social media addiction, for me, has been that it has, ironically, kept me from being social. Hours spent endlessly scrolling through social media has resulted in my being isolated and forming unhealthy, unsupportive habits. And I’m not alone. Researchers have estimated that over 210 million people worldwide suffer from social media addiction.
The 2025 SensorTower State of Mobile Report states that people spent 4.2 trillion hours on social media in 2024, which equates to 500 hours on average for every person on Earth that year. This is the same as spending 42 of your 12-hour waking days on social media. When something that doesn’t even count as a hobby has begun to consume over a month of our time every year, it’s safe to say that our society has a problem.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2023, 3,275 people were killed in distracted driving incidents involving the driver looking at their phone. This is more than a quarter of the 12,429 deaths caused by drunk driving that same year.
So while being addicted to social media may not kill you directly, being on your phone too much has real-life consequences, and it could seriously impact your quality of life. Another behavioral addiction, gambling, has had its validity reach great levels of cultural acceptance, with billboards offering help hotlines lining our nation’s highways and backroads. Although social media hasn’t been around as long as gambling, I predict we one day will see similar ads for social media addiction recovery.
It’s time we as a culture take this behavioral addiction as seriously as we do addiction to substances.
Do I Have a Social Media Addiction?
This is a tough question, and, unfortunately, it’s only one you can truly answer yourself. You can, of course, seek insight from your loved ones to see what they think. However, it is important to note that, often, with behavioral addictions, people suffering tend to hide their behavior from their loved ones, meaning sometimes even the people closest to us may not have an accurate view of whether or not our social media use has become an addiction.
I recommend reading the Do I Have an Addiction? Guide from Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous (ITAA) to help you understand if your social media use is veering towards an addiction.
You can also always seek the advice of a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist to seek a formal diagnosis of addiction.
How To Overcome Social Media Addiction
It has been said that the opposite of addiction is not sobriety; it’s connection. Consider the rat park experiment: Rats put in a cage without any opportunities for social interaction or play would more often choose drug-laced water, become addicted to it, and die, whereas rats in enclosures with lots of enrichment and other rat friends would resist the drug-laced water.
There’s a reason rural areas have higher rates of opioid addiction than even big cities: when people (or rats, or any creature) are isolated and not engaged with their surroundings, addiction can offer a temporary balm to our pain. This is why when COVID-19 lockdowns hit, TikTok saw a 180% use increase among its 15-25 year old users.
Enough of my nerding out with stats, let’s get back to the question at hand: how to overcome social media addiction. If the opposite of addiction is connection, we can understand why community-minded 12-step recovery programs have become cultural institutions for those suffering from addiction. As my hero Brené Brown often says: Name it to Tame It–sometimes, just talking about our struggles helps us to overcome them.
As I was wondering how to overcome social media addiction, I stumbled across the Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous (ITAA) website. I joined an online ITAA meeting and was, honestly, at first, at little intimidated by the recoveryspeak I heard during the meeting. I had some intermediate-to-intense Googling to do after the meeting was over, researching the definitions for “double winner” (someone who has faced multiple addictions, and, as a result, is in multiple 12-step programs) and “crosstalk” (the practice of responding to someone else’s share in your own share during a meeting, which is forbidden during most formal meetings, but is sometimes permitted WITH PERMISSION in after-meeting discussion).
Intimidated as I was, I was at a point where I had no choice but to keep an open mind. Social media and my phone felt like they were taking over my life, and I knew this wasn’t what I wanted out of my one wild and precious life. I took notes, asked questions of my incredibly kind co-recoverers, joined a 12-step workshop, and made sure to try to connect with the people in my life, not just in ITAA, but in my community of family and friends as well.
I’ll be honest, recovery is messy and lifelong. I won’t lie and say that I don’t still have slips, or that I wasn’t on Instagram for over an hour this past Sunday morning. But, now, I try to move through the world with intention and mindfulness, and I’m better able to catch myself when I can tell I am creating habits I’m not proud of and that I want to course-correct away from.
The following are some actionable steps I learned from my fellow ITAA members to make my use of social media more healthy and supportive, as I navigated how to overcome social media addiction.
1. Reach Out for Support In the Moment
It likely comes as no surprise to you that my first suggestion is to reach out to a loved one when you feel an urge to compulsively use social media. And, by reach out, I mean, call, not text. I know, I know, it’s a tough sell for us introverted Millennials (and Gen Z-ers) to want to make any phone call we don’t have to, but there’s something about connecting with someone and hearing their voice that you just can’t get from texting. Plus, phone calls force you to stop looking at your phone, which is helpful when you’re struggling to look away from social media.
In a world where addiction is still so taboo, and where many people wonder (and doubt) “is social media addiction real?”, it can be hard to talk to your loved ones about struggling with a social media addiction. This is why I was so grateful for the opportunity to connect with my fellow social media addicts in recovery through Outreach Calls in ITAA.
Outreach calls give Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous members the chance to connect with each other and offer support in their recovery. What I loved most and what I took into my personal life as well as the option to have time-bound calls, capping conversations at under 10 minutes with 3/3 or 4/4 share calls, which give each member the chance to share (with or without feedback from the listener) for 3 or 4 minutes. As someone who tends to self-isolate when I’m going through a hard time, these bite-sized calls were perfect and were structured enough to convince me that I really did have the time to reach out when I was in the moment of considering or starting my compulsive use of social media.
If it helps, when you reach out to a friend or loved one, you don’t even have to mention your addiction or why you’re calling. Just ask them how their day is going and let them know you were thinking of them. Odds are, you’ll end up improving their day just as much as you do your own, and you’ll distract yourself long enough that you can give yourself a chance to make a healthier choice with your time after you hang up.
2. Be More Mindful of Your Habits
If you’re anything like me, you hate seeing “change your habits” as a suggestion in any self-help literature. Oh, sure, it’s just that easy, why didn’t I think of or try that before? Insert eternal eyeroll here.
While habits can be hard to break, it’s helped me to try to be more mindful of my habits, good and bad. Now, before I find myself in a situation where I am likely to use social media compulsively, such as when I feel sick or I’m waiting for an appointment, I try to create a plan so that I can make a better choice at that moment. Here’s what that plan could look like:
- Bring Alternatives: If I know I will be in a situation where I’m tempted to use social media, I try to bring alternative activities with me, like a book to read, so I make it easier for myself to stay off of social media.
- Pick Another Activity from a Pre-Made List: Refer to my list of Things That Bring Me Joy in my planner, and try to do one of those activities instead, such as calling a friend or a relative.
- If you Have to Use Social Media, Stay Accountable: If I really do actually need to use social media for something useful (planning a party, checking event details, or reaching out to an international friend), I make sure I stay accountable to limiting my time on the app or website by letting a friend know what time I will be logging in and what time I will be logging out.
3. Change Your Tools
Delete the Facebook App, but Keep Facebook Messenger
People who say “just delete the apps” have clearly never tried to recover from a social media addiction while still having a footprint in the modern world. First of all, deleting the apps can only go so far. After all, they’re available to re-download whenever you want. In my experience, it’s not the app’s presence that is the problem, but the way you use social media in general. I decided that, for social media to be beneficial to my life, I have to use it sparingly, for the occasional update or information search, so I changed the way I used Facebook in particular.
There are some aspects of social media that are useful or helpful to us in our lives, particularly to keep in contact with friends and family. For this reason, I personally have kept the Facebook messenger app downloaded on my phone, whereas I only download the Facebook app when I absolutely need to use it to find information I can’t find anywhere else. But, these days, I try to only access Facebook on my laptop, and logging onto Facebook is more of a last resort. I try to first find any information I need elsewhere; if I’m looking for a local event, I search local event websites first. If it’s a private party hosted by a friend, I try to text that friend directly to get the details.
Change Your Hardware: Bust out the Big (but Tiny) Guns
To help me spend less time on my phone, I decided to make a radical change in my life. I switched to a tiny smartphone, specifically, the Unihertz Jelly 2, to keep all the features of a typical smartphone—GPS, 2-factor authentication, audiobooks, etc.—but to have a phone that was just annoying enough to use that I wouldn’t be tempted to spend hours on it.
I can do everything on this phone that modern life requires in a culture where we’re expected to have tiny computers at our side at all times. But, I end up spending less time on my phone now, because I have changed how my phone serves me, making it a tool for my life, rather than the center of it. Now, although I can use voice to text or the keyboard swipe feature to respond on my tiny phone itself, I often respond to my text messages on my Chromebook. I’m less likely to snap photos compulsively since I know the quality will only be so good, so I am more present and take in more of my memories through my eyeballs than through a smartphone lens.
Don’t get me wrong; there are some challenges. Sometimes there are issues with people scanning barcodes or tickets off of my phone since the screen is so small, but I’ve been able to overcome this by screenshotting the barcodes and zooming in on them. The GPS is not always perfect, but, generally, it works; it usually just takes a minute. The battery life is about as good as you can expect it to be for a credit card-sized smartphone. But, at the end of the day, my phone is easy for me to resist endlessly scrolling on, does what I need it to do, and costs less than $200, so I am happy adjusting to the changes I’ve had to make.
While such a radical change may not be practical for everyone, there’s something to be said about trying to use your phone for fewer of your daily tasks if you’re trying to recover from addiction to your phone. Whether it’s using your laptop to respond to messages from friends, or using a handheld GPS device instead of your phone, or even listening to music on a good old-fashioned CD, there are tons of ways to use your phone less when trying to navigate how to overcome social media addiction.
For more information on phones that can help you as you learn how to use your phone less, I recommend looking into the “Dumbphones” subreddit, distraction-free Ghost Phones, and the ultra-minimalist Light Phone.
What does recovery from social media addiction look like?
Should I Stop Using Social Media Completely?
While this is something every individual in recovery from social media addiction has to answer for themselves, it is possible for some people to recover from social media addiction without giving up social media use altogether. There are several tactics that can be used to establish better boundaries around your use of social media, so that you can use these apps and websites as tools, rather than activities that overtake your life.
Bookend Your Time on Social Media
One tactic I learned from my friends in ITAA is to bookend your time on social media. Bookending is the practice of telling someone the time you plan to start being on social media and the time you plan to finish your social media session, and, importantly, keeping to it. If you need to extend your time to accomplish a task, such as creating an event for an upcoming party you’re hosting, let your accountability buddy know, and check in with them once you’ve finished your task and logged off.
Counterintuitive as it is, just like my writing, my social media use is best when done in a social setting. It’s easier to be accountable when there are other people present. And, you don’t have to have a friend physically with you. You can text a friend the start and end of your bookending sessions, or you can join an online coworking room and let your coworkers know when your bookending parameters are. There are hundreds of virtual coworking rooms available online, from free options to Discord groups to paid services you can subscribe to.
A Path Forward: a Healthy Relationship with Social Media
As you develop a healthier relationship with social media, you will likely get excited to explore the hobbies and interests you may have neglected in favor of compulsive social media use. These activities are what people in recovery fellowships call our Top Line activities. Before starting my journey of recovering from social media addiction, I had no idea what Top, Middle, and Bottom Lines were. ITAA’s Tools of Recovery, particularly the section about Top, Middle, and Bottom Lines, helped me understand how to define compulsive social media use as my Bottom Lines, Middle Lines I need to be aware of that could lead to my compulsive social media use, and Top Line activities that I wanted to experience more of in my life (think: gardening, going to one of the many New Orleans festivals happening at any given time, playing with my dogs, volunteering at City Park, etc.) that compulsive use of social media had been taking away from me.
As you begin to identify situations that are Middle Lines, or triggers that could lead you into Bottom Line behavior (compulsive social media use), you can be more mindful of and make a plan for times when you could be prone to falling into unhealthy social media use.
As you continue to recover from your social media addiction, you will find your life begins to be filled with more Top Lines, and that you can navigate Middle Lines, or even bounce back from slips into Bottom Line behavior with more ease.
Looking for more resources?
Whether you’re wondering how to overcome social media addiction, or just seeking to create more boundaries around your relationship to social media apps, there are tons of resources available to help you develop a healthier lifestyle.
If you’re a small business owner, sometimes separation from your business’ social media accounts can be a beautiful thing as you work to recover from social media addiction. Let an Optimist expertly manage your company’s social media accounts, and shift your energy back to how you make your business great in other ways.
As you can tell from this article, I highly recommend looking into resources from ITAA, Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous, as you work to overcome social media addiction. There are many incredible free resources online you can access without ever having to join a meeting.
Resources from Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous (ITAA):
Guides and Worksheets
Before you start any social media addiction recovery work, it’s helpful to know what withdrawals may look like for you. ITAA’s Guide to Navigating Withdrawals can help you feel prepared as you work to recover from social media addiction.
The Discovering Sobriety Worksheet helped me better understand what a life without social media addiction and compulsive internet use would look like, and what the road map to getting there looked like. This is a great place to start if you’re not sure how to overcome social media addiction.
As mentioned before, the ITAA Tools of Recovery can help you outline your Top, Middle, and Bottom Lines, so you have a better idea of what your life in recovery can look like.
Meetings, Meetings, Meetings
I know, I know. Meeting with strangers to talk about your struggles may be the last thing you want to do. But, if you’re really struggling, it could be the best thing you ever do, too. The people I’ve met in the ITAA fellowship are the kindest, most welcoming bunch, and they have not only helped me figure out how to overcome social media addiction, but they’ve also become my lifelong friends. I’ve met up with friends from ITAA all around the country, and I have even introduced one of my ITAA friends to my Grandma!
Whether you join an in-person meeting, an online meeting, or a 12-step workshop, meetings are a great way to connect with people struggling with the same bad habits you’re facing. Connecting with people who understand what you’re going through and will listen to your struggles nonjudgmentally can be the best way to feel less alone and to find ways to overcome your social media addiction, particularly in moments when you’re struggling not to compulsively use social media.
Resources from Media Addicts Anonymous (MAA):
Another group offering support to those struggling with compulsive social media addiction is Media Addicts Anonymous (MAA). MAA offers support to anyone trying to overcome addiction to all types of media, whether that be social media, television, radio, podcasts, or even compulsive reading. Although I don’t have any personal experience in MAA, I know many people who have greatly benefited from their meetings and fellowship. Here are a list of resources offered by MAA for overcoming social media addiction:
- MAA Online Meetings
- MAA In-Person Meetings
- MAA Tools of Recovery
- MAA Symptoms of Media Addiction
- Back to Basics Step Study and Reset Program – Note: while all other resources are free, this month-long program is an intense reset designed to help members overcome their media addiction quickly, so MAA does ask for donations to join this closed workshop.
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