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. 2025 Mar 12:16:1463671.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1463671. eCollection 2025.

Exploring the relationship between social media dependence and internet addiction among college students from a bibliometric perspective

Ruotong Dong #  1 , Dongfeng Yuan #  1 , Xue Wei  1 , Jingyi Cai  1 , Zhongzhu Ai  1 , Shiquan Zhou  1
Affiliations

Exploring the relationship between social media dependence and internet addiction among college students from a bibliometric perspective

Ruotong Dong et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Background: Social media use among college students often leads to psychological dependence, resulting in a rising number of internet addictions. The link between social media dependence and addiction is garnering increasing attention.

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze and discuss the research trends and hotspots on social media dependence and internet disorder among college students by bibliometric methods.

Methods: Relevant studies on social media dependence and online addiction among college students were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database spanning the years 2013 to 2024. We delineated the distribution of publications to identify the core productivity within the field. VOSviewer software was employed to conduct network visualization analyses of countries, authors, journals, and keywords, aiding in a comprehensive understanding of the research trends and hotspots in this domain.

Results: From the WoS database, we retrieved 302 publications, and 167 publications were included after screening. The findings revealed: (1) a steady increase in publications and citations, particularly accelerating after 2019. (2) The most productive journal is Computers in human behavior, the most productive research area is Psychology, and the most productive author, institution, and country are Professor Griffiths MD, Nottingham Trent University and China, respectively. (3) Collaborative network analysis indicated that there were multiple research groups in this field, yet the connections among countries and authors remain relatively limited. (4) Co-citation analysis of journals revealed that this field was interdisciplinary, primarily integrating psychology, psychiatry, and behavioral science. (5) Keyword analysis identified two major research hotspots: the relationship between college students' social media dependence and internet addiction, and the mediating factors influencing college students' social media dependence and internet addiction. The mechanism of internet addiction is an emerging research frontier.

Conclusion: This analysis outlines the progress and directions of research on college students' social media dependence and internet addiction. It offers a comprehensive examination of the latest frontiers and trends, providing theoretical support for regulating the use of electronic products and implementing mental health interventions in college students.

Keywords: VOSviewer; bibliometric; college students; internet addiction; social media; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The flowchart of data collection and filtering.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The publications and citations per year in the field of social media dependence and internet addiction among college students.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Annual citations from 2013 to 2024 in the field of social media dependence and internet addiction among college students. (A) Top 2 publication sources. (B) Top 3 research fields. (C) Top 1 author. (D) Top 1 institution. (E) Top 3 countries.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Scientific collaboration networks between authors. Only researchers with one or more publications were considered in the analysis (n = 622).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Scientific collaboration networks between country/territories. Only countries with 2 or more publications were considered in the analysis (n = 28).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Visualization network of the co-citation in journals. Only citations with 20 or more citations were considered in the analysis (n = 71).
Figure 7
Figure 7
Visualization network of keyword co-occurrence analysis. Only keywords with 7 or more occurrences were considered in the analysis (n = 61).
Figure 8
Figure 8
Visualization network of keywords average year map from 2012 to 2024.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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