Smartphone addiction studied in 2026
In October 2026, Scientific American published an investigation into therapists, neuroscientists, and support groups working to help internet users reduce their dependence on smartphones. The article highlighted how users addicted to scrolling often seek to escape boredom or loneliness, but the image of a simple lack of willpower does not hold up against the data.Social media linked to drug-like effects
Social media addiction activates the same reward circuits as drugs, to the point of establishing a real tolerance. This comparison suggests that the brain’s response to social media can be as intense and habitual as responses to addictive substances.Legal action against social media companies
Digital addiction is gaining recognition in legal contexts. In March 2026, a court in California ruled that addictive social networks could be held responsible for their effects for the first time. Sued by nearly all U.S. states, Meta accepted an agreement in August worth 18 billion dollars, which obliges it, among other things, to cap the screen time of adolescents at two hours per day and to disable notifications during classes.Meta's internal documents reveal concerns
Internal documents from Meta, read in court, compared Instagram to a drug and its creators to traffickers. Clinics are seeing an influx of young patients, and in a specialized center in California, nearly half of the requests now concern screens.Mechanics of personalized feeds
The personalized feed functions like a slot machine. Each swipe of the thumb can deliver a reward or a disappointment, at an unpredictable rhythm and without any signal to stop, thanks to the mechanisms designed to keep users engaged.
