Data 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.

已有大量研究指出，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，并通过随机试验对该模型进行参数估计。旨在减少社交媒体使用的临时性激励措施可产生持续影响，这表明社交媒体具有习惯养成特性。允许用户为未来的屏幕使用时长设定限制，可大幅降低其使用频率，这反映出用户存在自我控制问题。额外的实证结果表明，用户对习惯养成过程缺乏关注，且部分人群并未意识到自身的自我控制问题。基于本研究模型对上述事实进行分析后可知，自我控制问题可解释31%的社交媒体使用行为。