Knowledge Problems and the Challenge of Understanding in the Social Media Addiction Cases

Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat are all facing lawsuits, alleging that their platforms deliberately target young users with addictive technologies. Simultaneously, states are passing laws to limit social media addiction and similar bills have been floated in Congress. This essay attempts to connect three threads together. First, it provides a brief overview of the concept of addiction, exploring its definitions and how it is applied to social media use. Despite the colloquial use of “addiction&