Code for: Digital Addiction

Many have argued that digital technologies such as smartphones and social media are addictive. We develop an economic model of digital addiction and estimate it using a randomized experiment. Temporary incentives to reduce social media use have persistent effects, suggesting social media are habit forming. Allowing people to set limits on their future screen time substantially reduces use, suggesting self-control problems. Additional evidence suggests people are inattentive to habit formation and partially unaware of self-control problems. Looking at these facts through the lens of our model suggests that self-control problems cause 31 percent of social media use.

诸多学者与业界人士均认为，智能手机、社交媒体等数字技术具有成瘾性。本研究构建了数字成瘾的经济学模型，并通过随机实验对模型进行参数估计。旨在减少社交媒体使用的临时激励干预展现出持久影响，这表明社交媒体具备养成行为习惯的属性。允许用户为未来的屏幕使用时长设定限制，可显著降低其使用时长，这反映出个体存在自我控制问题。额外的实证证据表明，用户往往对自身的习惯养成过程缺乏关注，且对自身的自我控制问题仅有部分认知。基于本研究构建的模型视角对上述事实进行分析可知，自我控制问题可解释31%的社交媒体使用行为。