TITLE:
Social Media Addiction and Therapeutic Techniques, Screening Tools, and Interventions: A Scoping Review
AUTHORS:
Hershel Meyerowitz, Jessica Daniel-Smit, Ryan Evan du Toit, Werner de Klerk
KEYWORDS:
Social Media Addiction, Therapeutic Techniques, Screening Tools, Interventions, Scoping Review, Psychology
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.7,
July
30,
2026
ABSTRACT: One of the consequences of excessive social media usage is social media addiction. Consequently, the next critical area of interest would be identifying how social media addiction is being addressed or approached. Therefore, the purpose of this scoping review was to identify the available literature on therapeutic techniques, screening tools, or interventions for social media addiction. The final pool of literature included for analysis comprised 18 articles (published between 2010 and 2023), of which nine references represented therapeutic interventions and the other nine references represented scales and/or screening tools for social media addiction. Based on the findings, the research team recommends the following: 1) Interventions and therapeutic techniques should instead focus on incorporating reward systems, self-management, and other factors that keep individuals away from social media (e.g., academic obligations); 2) Interventions should not exclusively focus on abstinence or avoidance of social media use, but rather on monitoring and regulating the duration of social media engagement; 3) Considering that the majority of the samples in the nine scales evaluated included adolescents and university students, it would be beneficial to validate these scales for use with older populations. Regarding the testing of the reliability and validity of these scales within various contexts, such assessments are consistently recommended. Furthermore, based on some feedback provided by the original authors of the scales or screening tools, future research should also prioritize validating these scales within clinical settings. Additionally, the assessment of test-retest reliability should be conducted to ensure consistency over time.