An exploratory study of Internet and social media addiction in Millennials

Abstract

This paper examines the prevalence and themes of Internet and social media addiction in Millennials. It first examines current research on Internet addiction and social media addiction, then looking at habit versus addiction. This paper also involves responses from a deprivation study performed with Millennial college students as participants. Several themes emerged from the qualitative responses in this study, adding significant knowledge to the issue of social media addiction. While significant research exists on Internet addiction as a whole, this paper is one of the first to examine social media addiction specifically.