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Social Media Addiction: The Problem and Solutions Name: Institutional affiliation: Course: Date: Introduction Social media generally refers to third-party internet platforms that allow users to socially interact, share content, and engage in community-based input. According to report by Datareportal (2024) there are 5.04 billion social media users as at January 2024 spread across different social media spaces such as YouTube (2.5 billion users), WhatsApp (2 billion users), Facebook (3.049 billion users), Instagram (2 billion users), TikTok (1.6 billion users), Snapchat (750 million users), WeChat (1.3 billion users), and X (368 million users) (Datareportal, 2024). More evidence indicates that a typical social media user visits an average of 6.7 different social media platforms monthly, spending an average of about 2 hrs. 28 minutes on social media every day. With humans supposedly meant to sleep an average of 7-8hrs in every 24 hours, the figures suggest that people spend about 15-20% of their working lives on social media (Xu, Han, & Liu, 2023). But while social media offers incredible advantages to human lives, several studies continue to link excessive social media usage to negative mental health consequences such as anxiety, suicidality, and loneliness. In a report published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) excessive usage of social media by teens and preteens triggers “Facebook depression” (White et al., 2018). Overall, social media addiction poses major challenges to mental health, productivity, and overall human well-being, and finding solutions to mitigate its harmful effects is critical. Problem Statement Social media addiction is classified as a behavioral addiction broadly defined as a compulsive engagement in social media platforms that over time disrupts one's functioning in critical life domains such as mental health, interpersonal relationships, physical health, work, and study performances. According to Griffiths, M. (2005), social media addiction is conceptualized as a set of symptoms about six problematic behaviors namely: (1) salience which refers to the dominance of social media activities in one’s mind; (2) tolerance which is the tendency to increase time on social media to attain more pleasure and satisfaction; (3) mood modification, which is the use of social media as a tool to avoid or suppress unwanted life events; (4) relapse which refers to failure to regulate time on social media after attempts of abstinence; (5) withdrawal which refers to psychological pressure or pain experienced when one cannot log in to social media; and (6) conflict which is the impact of excessive social media usage on studies, life, mental health, and others. According to Alotaibi et al., (2022) social media if not well utilized is so dangerous that it rewires people, especially young ones, to constantly pursue immediate gratification, leading to compulsive and addictive behaviors. Several authors agree that excessive usage increases the risk of mental disorders described majorly as “fear of missing out,” depression, and social comparison orientation (Pahlevan Sharif & Yeoh, 2018). Other possible risks include stalking, sexting, cyberbullying, improper utilization of technology, and privacy breaches. It is for these reasons that people who use social media dangerously are three times more likely to get anxious, and depressed, develop reduced self-esteem, get more isolated in life, get poor sleep quality, and image dissatisfaction (Tripathi & Ahad, 2019). Too much social media usage triggers unhealthy lifestyle patterns and other life-threatening habits and behaviors such as alcohol usage and illicit drugs. More so, excessive social media usage is correlated with performan...