Is social media addictive by design and can you beat the algorithm?
Social media features such as infinite scroll and personalised feeds can drive compulsive use. Experts argue that Big Tech should change its business models for meaningful change.
A recent European Commission ruling that TikTok’s “addictive design” breaches EU law has reignited the debate over whether social media is truly addictive.
Infinite scroll, autoplay, notifications, and a personalised feed were flagged by the Commission as potentially harmful to users’ mental and physical well-being.
Across the Atlantic, a California social media “addiction” trial is evaluating similar claims against Google and Meta platforms.
The plaintiff, known as KGM, and her lawyers argue that apps such as Instagram are deliberately engineered to keep young users hooked.
Are these platforms designed to be addictive, and if so, what can be done to beat them?
Is social media addictive?
Social media platforms work similarly to slot machines as they deliver unpredictable rewards, offer rapid feedback, such as comments and likes, said Natasha Schull, associate professor of media, culture and communication at New York University.
Design features on social media platforms, such as the “like” button, “For You” pages that recommend new content and “infinite scroll,” where the feed never ends, can also lead to compulsive use of the platforms, said Christian Montag, professor of cognitive and brain sciences at the University of Macau in China.
“Getting a like feels good,” Montag told Euronews Next. “Then they want to feel good again, so they post something again, [which] can lead to habit formation.”
TikTok adds autoplay and short-form videos into the mix, which creates an even faster reward cycle.
“The human brain responds strongly to novelty, and here something new is happening all 15 seconds,” Montag said. “So even if the current video snippet is not great, I’m always already in the expectation mode that the next one at least could be.”
The European Commission warned in its decision that users can slip into “autopilot mode,” on platforms like TikTok, where they passively consume content rather than actively engaging with it, said Daria Kuss, programme leader at Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom.
This type of social media consumption has been linked with “poorer mental health, including addiction, upward social comparison, fear of missing out, social isolation and loneliness,” Kuss said.
TikTok rejected the Commission’s characterisation of its platform as addictive, calling its findings “categorically false.” The company said it offers screen time controls and other tools for people to regulate how much time they spend online.
Change the business model, change the behaviour
Experts argue that social media companies measure success as the amount of time spent on the device, which then drives advertising revenue. Both Montag and Schull said that the model inherently rewards maximising engagement.
“If you ask [social media companies], are you intentionally designing to addict people, they’d say absolutely not, we’re intentionally designing to optimise engagement,” Schull said, noting that the companies likely did not design their products to create addictions.
Montag and Schull suggest that platforms shift to subscription models. If users paid a small fee, platforms would no longer depend on advertising and personal data tracking for profit, which means some of those features could be removed.
Montag’s research found that people are not willing to pay for social media subscriptions because they are not used to the idea. However, once his participants learned how that model could reduce screen time or hire fact-checkers to fight misinformation, he said they were more likely to pay.
Another possibility is directing public funding that goes to legacy media organisations to also fund alternative platforms, Montag added.
Some public bodies have already tried that. In 2022, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) launched EU Voice and EU Video, two European social media channels for EU institutions. The platforms shut down in 2024 due to a lack of funding.
The Public Spaces Incubator, a working group of public broadcasters from Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, and Australia, said they developed over 100 prototypes to improve online conversation.
One example from Canada’s Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) shows a “public square view,” embedded in a live video feed. The feature allows users to watch together and comment in real time, offering more nuanced opinion options such as “respectfully disagree,” “made me think,” or “changed my mind.” It is immediately unclear which tools, if any, have been deployed or whether they could replace social media.
Schull said that meaningful change for the Big Tech social media platforms may only come through legal action.
“If you'reyoure a designer and you'reyoure working for a company, your purpose is to increase engagement … and the only way I think that that is going to be stopped is if there are just cold and hard limits put on it, limits on time and access and age,” she said.
Are there alternatives?
The Fediverse, a decentralised social media network where independent platforms connect users without adverts, tracking or data sharing, offers alternatives to Big Tech’s platforms.
These sites include Mastodon, a replacement for X (formerly Twitter), Pixelfed, an Instagram-like picture-sharing app, and PeerTube, a video app similar to YouTube.
As of 24 February, there are 15 million accounts in the Fediverse, with 66 percent of them on the social media platform Mastodon.
Mastodon gained in popularity when billionaire Elon Musk acquired Twitter, now X, in 2022. However, Montag notes the difficulty for more responsible social media companies.
“[I think it] will be a pretty hard task, to be honest, to come up with platforms which are convenient on the one hand, but not overdoing it in terms of user engagement and prolonging online times,” Montag continued.
How to limit doomscrolling
Social media users can also reduce compulsive scrolling themselves.
Schull recommends making it as hard as possible to access social media sites. One strategy is to move apps into a folder labelled “social media” on the last page of their smartphone’s screen, so it is harder to get to. She also advised setting screen time limits on phones.
And you could also consider deleting social media apps from smartphones altogether, Kuss and Montag recommended. If users want to go on social media, a better way would be to access the sites from a desktop computer, Montag added, so it is less convenient.
“I'm not saying don't use social media at all, but don't have it accessible all the time, [because] that can reduce the online time,” Montag said, noting that people should disable notifications for the apps they want to keep on their phone.
Montag also suggested that users swap their phones for analogue technology when possible, such as using a manual alarm clock or a wristwatch to check the time instead.
If all else fails, hiding the phone from a user’s direct eyesight in “everyday situations,” can also help, Kuss said.
Still, both Montag and Schull said responsibilityshouldn’t be on the consumer to self-regulate, but on the platforms to change.
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