Principles to break your internet/social media addiction

I think you can simplify this to one idea; awareness.

Once you become aware of your "addiction", you become much more sensitive of these "principles".

One of my favorite ways to do this is to take a piece of paper and tally how many times I either go to one of these websites or think about it and stop myself in the process.

Most people can just open up their ScreenTime on iOS and see these values, but it really shows you how much time you waste on it. I found myself picking up a phone every 15 minutes in my waking day. It made me so much more aware of my bad habits.

OP's post focuses on understanding, which is informative, but maybe not so helpful. Here's my drill.

Small steps. First cut smartphone access. Delete all, but essential apps(e.g. work-related) in your phone. You can still visit whatever you want on another device you don't carry around with you e.g. a laptop. Do that for a month or until you feel ok about it.

Start to do SOMETHING ELSE that is somewhat productive, a sport, fishing, etc. Make sure over time to up prioritize that activity and down prioritize social media. Rinse and repeat :-)

Coincidentally, I removed the reddit app I use to use, planning on switching to a flip phone eventually. Reaping so many benefits from this change already! Funny how the link is to a social media site.