Although these three aspects have been central in thinking about addictions, in the literature, addiction has involved six core components:
(1) salience—the activity dominates thinking and behavior;
(5) conflict—the activity causes conflicts in relationships, in work/education, and other activities; and
(6) relapse—a tendency to revert to earlier patterns of the activity after abstinence or control
(Brown, 1993; Griffiths, 1996, 2005).
In line with this, studies have shown that social network site use can lead to a variety of negative consequences such as decrease in real-life communities, worsening of academic performance, and relationship problems (Kuss & Griffiths, 2011).