Media framing of social media addiction in the UK and the US

As extant literature on social media has generally focused on investigating the psychological factors, which makes a person more susceptible to social media addiction, it has not yet investigated how social media addiction is portrayed by the media. However, the media framing of addictions can have considerable implications for consumers, as extant literature has shown them to use media texts as cultural resources through which they attempt to understand and justify their behaviour. The media can also have more indirect effects by, for instance, driving stigmatization or public policy initiatives. Thus, this study compares the media framing of social media addiction in the United Kingdom and the United States through longitudinal, mixed-methods frame analysis. It then extends the extant literature by showing how social media addiction has been framed in both the United Kingdom and United States. It shows that concern regarding the issue has increased in both countries. In addition, the findings show that while previously social media addiction has been seen as an individual, psychological problem, concerns about the addictiveness and, thereby, about the lacking public policy measures have also increased in both countries. Implications for individual consumers, public policy and managers are considered.