Social Media Addiction and Problematic Use in the Context of Brain Rot: Evidence from Count Data Models
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This study basically scrutinizes the relationship between social media addiction and problematic social media use. Drawing on the digital consumption approach, this research aims to explain how patterns of social media use related to addiction are linked to more problematic usage behaviours. Especially, the concept of “Brain Rot” is a crucial concept for the healthy mental development of future generations. We can apply C.S. Lewis’s statement, “the quickest way back is to go back” (Omolesky, omolstudents enrolled in social sciences and natural sciences programmes. The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) has used to measure behavioural addiction, and the Social Media Disorder Scale (SMD) has used to measure problematic use. Because of the dichotomous nature of the SMD items, a total score has calculated and analysed as count data. Hence, Spearman’s correlation and Negative Binomial (NB) regression analyses have employed. The results revealed a significant and positive relationship between social media addiction and problematic use (rₛ=0.456, p<0.001). In addition to, the NB regression analysis showed that social media addiction significantly predicted problematic social media use (β=0.104, p<0.001). The exponential coefficient indicated that a one-unit increase in addiction has related to an approximate 11% enhance in levels of problematic use. The distribution parameter confirmed that the NB model has a better fit than the Poisson regression. The findings exhibit that problematic social media use is not only a pathological condition, but also a behavioural outcome shaped by habitual and increasingly compulsive social media engagement. By applying a count-based data modelling approach to digital consumption behaviour, this study contributes to the literature and underlines the importance of behavioural addiction in understanding patterns of problematic use. In this context, future research should expand this model to include cognitive outcomes such as attention deficit and mental fatigue to further investigate the effects of excessive digital consumption.
Authors: Cihat Kartal, Recep Yücel, Şebnem Yücel
Institutions: Kırıkkale University, Selçuk University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7215818058