Psychiatric Times Suggests Classifying Social Media as an ‘Engineered Addiction’

Report follows a U.S. Surgeon General advisory last month to reduce children’s screen time to lessen the chances and effects of social media addiction.

A new report warns that the psychiatric community has not yet fully studied or developed strategies to address social media addiction, particularly among young people, even as the platforms play an increasingly large role in daily life.

A Psychiatric Times poll published on June 8 found that 164 of 197 respondents believed social media is definitely addictive, 29 said it is probably addictive, and only four disagreed. However, while other online pastimes such as gambling disorder and gaming disorder are formal clinical diagnoses, social media addiction is not.

Leah Kuntz, assistant managing editor of Psychiatric Times, suggests that social media addiction and similar behavioral addictions, including sports betting through online apps, may warrant a broader new category, such as “engineered addiction.” The term would reflect the role of technology-driven design features that are intentionally used to encourage compulsive behavior.

Social Media Addiction Risks

The lack of an official diagnosis has not stopped social media from being linked to significant negative mental health side effects, including increased anxiety, depression, suicide risk and persistent feelings of loneliness.

Last month, the U.S. Surgeon General’s office released an advisory (PDF) calling for a reduction in screen time due to social media’s potential psychological harm on children. The advisory indicates that nearly 50% of adolescents say they lose track of the amount of time they spend on their phone, which provide continuous, on-demand access to social media.

The warning states that screen time appears to increase with age, with pre-teens and teens spending an average of four hours per day. A study published earlier this year also found that regular social media use can increase the risk of loneliness and depression.

As the phenomenon has spread, parents, school districts and others have become more concerned about social media side effects, arguing that these risks may be amplified by platform features designed to maximize engagement, including algorithm-driven feeds, autoplay functions and continuous scrolling. Mental health experts warn that adolescents are particularly susceptible to compulsive use patterns, as their developing brains are more responsive to social validation and reward-based stimuli.

In light of these concerns, a growing number of social media addiction lawsuits have been filed against the creators of Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and other popular sites in courts nationwide, saying those platforms are exploiting children’s vulnerability to maximize their engagement and increase profits.

Engineered Addictions

According to the report, gambling disorder and gaming disorder have formal clinical diagnoses, such as in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5^th edition, known as DSM-5. Such diagnoses give all mental health providers a basis for both diagnosing the condition and treating it.

However, Kuntz indicates that social media and some forms of gambling have different considerations due to being “engineered addictions,” which refers to the use of algorithms tailored to increase engagement. She says that mental health experts must calculate this factor into their treatment.

Social media reinforces existing beliefs instead of challenging them, meaning it tells those using it exactly what they want to hear, and that effect grows over time as the viewer watches more and provides more data to the algorithm. This could make the addiction more potent over time.

Further compounding the problem is that stripping social media away completely is not expected to work. Limited studies conducted so far indicate that some people are just as likely to overestimate their addiction to social media as they are to underestimate it.

The article suggests this required a different approach, calling for caregivers, therapists and others to approach those suffering from social media addiction sympathetically, showing empathy and understanding for the fact that children’s social media is a tool that links them to their peers, and absolute absence from it, which could ostracize and keep them out of the loop, can cause “real harm among peers.”

While an official diagnosis has yet to be announced, Stephen Mateka, Psychiatric Times’ child and adolescent psychiatric section editor, released a list of questions therapists should use when talking to child and adolescent patients about social media use:

• What platforms do you use?
• How do you engage with them?
• How often do you use them?
• What do you like about them?
• Tell me something you learned today from social media.
• Tell me what your favorite thing that you saw on social media was.

This could help normalize talking about social media with patients, and he said those dialogues should start even without an official diagnosis on the books.

Social Media Addiction Lawsuits

More than 2,500 social media addiction lawsuits have been filed in federal courts nationwide, as concerns about the tactics used by tech companies grow. Additionally, there may be hundreds more claims that have been brought in state courts, with many filed in California.

All federal social media addiction lawsuits have been consolidated as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Northern District of California before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Judge Rogers has scheduled a series of “bellwether” trials designed to test the plaintiffs’ and defendants’ arguments and evidence before a live jury. The first trial was scheduled to begin on June 15, involving claims by Breathitt County School District. However, the parties announced last month that they had reached a settlement agreement, resolving the claims. The next bellwether trial is scheduled to begin on February 3, 2027.

Some state cases have already gone to trial, resulting in social media companies like Meta and Google being ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages. In March, a Los Angeles jury found that Meta and Google should pay $6 million in damages to a woman who said she suffered anxiety and depression due to social media addiction fostered by apps like Facebook and YouTube when she was a minor. 

Only a couple days earlier, a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in damages to the state, after finding the company liable for mental health problems linked to social media addiction among teens. 

While all of these trials are being closely watched, the outcomes are not binding on other claims. However, their results could help the parties reach more social media addiction lawsuit settlements, preventing thousands of prolonged and expensive trials.

Following completion of the bellwether trials, if no global settlement or other resolution has been reached to resolve the litigation, Judge Rogers will likely begin remanding lawsuits back to their originating districts for individual trial dates.

Sign up for more legal news that could affect you or your family.