Building and breaking social media habits

Abstract

Social media habits represent one of the most common - and controversial - forms of habitual behavior in contemporary society. In this brief article, we summarize the state of research on social media habits, along with their position within the technology habit literature. First, we review the wide range of positive and negative behaviors falling under the umbrella of "social media habits." Then, we deconstruct how a given social media habit can be viewed from five levels of analysis: platform, device, interface, behavior, and motor. Last, we anticipate how future researchers and designers will have the potential to detect (un)healthy habitual processes via digital tracking. As a whole, the article demonstrates the need to break apart the components of social media habits in order to clarify their implications for well-being.

Keywords: Addiction; Automaticity; Compulsive; Design; Habit; Messaging; Platforms; Problematic; Social network; Well-being.