Addicts without Substance? Social Media Addiction when Facebook Shuts Down

Abstract: In March 2018, a series of anti-social and racial riots in Sri Lanka led to a government-controlled ban of all social media use in the country for 14 days. This nation-wide ban included the use of all social media such as Facebook, Twitter and communication apps like WhatsApp, Viber and WeChat. Until the day of the sanctions, a population of 23 million in Sri Lanka had never experienced government sanctions, restrictions or interventions on social media use. This sudden ban provided a unique window of opportunity to investigate social media non-use and use and how it might lead to psychological distress. Using a longitudinal study design of two surveys, analyzing data of 476 and 205 respectively, this study makes insightful preliminary observations of social media non-use and use continuum.