Neurocognitive function among individuals with problematic social media use
AI Summary
Findings support a behavioural addiction model: excessive users showed reduced delay of gratification on the Experimental Delay Discounting task.
They exhibited impaired selective attention to social cues, making more omission errors to the Facebook stimulus on the GO/NO-GO task.
No evidence for compulsivity emerged; fewer non-perseverative errors on the WCST indicated greater cognitive flexibility, despite elevated self-reported anxiety and depression.
Front Psychiatry. 2026 May 18;17:1825888. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1825888. eCollection 2026.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: With the development of technology and the internet, social networks gained momentum quickly and play a central role in daily activities. Despite this, there is a public health concern over excessive or problematic social media use. There is also a debate whether excessive social media use should be considered as a behavioral addiction characterized by impulsivity or an impulse control disorder characterized by compulsivity. The goal of this study is to use neurocognitive tasks to investigate impulsivity and compulsivity among excessive social media users compared with non-excessive users.
METHOD: The study included 79 participants (age range 18 to 37), divided into two groups: 34 participants who excessively use social media (Mean Age = 23.03, SD = 2.71) and 45 participants who do not excessively use social media (Mean Age = 25.47, SD = 4.3). Participants filled out a demographic questionnaire, questionnaires on social media use, impulsivity, compulsivity, anxiety, and depression. They performed computerized cognitive tasks: GO/NO-GO (with Facebook and traffic sign pictures), Experimental Delay Discounting (EDT), and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST).
RESULTS: Excessive users of social media exhibited a lower ability to delay gratification on the EDT, indicating impulsivity. They made fewer non-perseverative errors on the WCST, which indicated high flexibility and test shifting, which is a contradicting evidence for compulsivity. Furthermore, on the GO/NO-GO task, individuals who excessively use social media made more omission errors in response to the “Facebook” sign compared to traffic signs (GO condition), indicating impaired selective attention. Finally, they also showed higher subjective ratings of anxiety, depression, impulsivity, and compulsivity.
DISCUSSION: The results of this study provide evidence for impulsivity indicated by delay discounting tendency, which supports the behavioral addiction model, impaired selection attention and lack of evidence for compulsivity in excessive social media users. Further research on neurocognitive function in excessive social media users is required in order to determine whether it should be considered a behavioral addiction or an impulse control disorder.
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