I've read an article like this so many times... They called it "internet addiction" before, and accused people of persistent need to check their email.

What all of these authors seem to conveniently ignore is that "social media" is not television, not a single source broadcast, even though social media companies would really want it to be. Just a single chokepoint. Social media has real people on the other end. Mediated by social media companies, sure, but perfectly real otherwise.

Saying that people are addicted to it is largely equivalent to saying that people are addicted to other people.