Social Networking (SNS) Addiction among University Students: A Literature Review and Research Directions

The main objective of this literature review is to provide empirical and conceptual insight into SNS addiction by exploring potential SNS addiction, examining the personalities of SNS addicted users, and exploring SNS addiction’s negative consequences on well-being, social and academic life. The results revealed that there was no concordance among previous studies on which gender is the most likely to be addicted to SNS. Moreover, the addiction symptoms linked with SNS addiction were cognitive and behavioral salience, conflict with other activities, euphoria, loss of control, withdrawal, and relapse/reinstatement. Previous SNS’s studies determined a high prevalence rate of addiction to SNS among university students. The review revealed that 18.4% of the reviewed studies agreed that SNS addiction is significantly and positively related to depression and Neuroticism. Although 78% of the reviewed previous studies have highlighted several potential negative correlations of extensive SNS usage and addiction on university student well-being, social, and academic life, however, these studies gave more attention to the negative impact on students’ academic performance.