Maartje Boer

CHAPTER 9 310 onset of SMU problems, are expected to provide more insight into the causes of SMU problems. Testing Interventions or Strategies to Prevent and Overcome Problematic SMU Research testing the effectiveness of prevention and intervention programs focusing on how SMU problems can be prevented or reduced is scarce. This is understandable, because knowledge on the impact of SMU problems is limited. The development of programs on SMU problems is particularly valuable when the detrimental nature of SMU problems has been empirically established. Our longitudinal study addressed this gap and suggested that SMU problems impair adolescents’ wellbeing (Chapter 5, 6), providing a first indication that the development of such programs may be warranted. As discussed earlier, programs focusing on promoting a digital balance (Trimbos-institute, 2020), mindfulness (Du et al., 2021; Throuvala et al., 2020), and implementation intentions (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006; Schiltkamp, 2021), may be valuable in preventing or reducing SMU problems, yet their effectiveness for young adolescents have not been established empirically. Also, there may also be a corporate responsibility of social media developerstopreventor reduceSMUproblems. Thepopularfilm-documentary The Social Dilemma emphasized that social media are designed to make its users addicted, because they are full of incentives to want to use them more and more (Rhodes & Orlowski, 2020). For example, Snapchat attaches streaks to contacts, which display the number of consecutive days two people have sent Snaps (i.e., a photo or video that is visible for a maximum of 10 seconds) to each other. Long streaks typically symbolize close friendships and therefore, it may be important for young people to maintain or enhance their streaks by keep sending Snaps. In addition, Instagram users can see how many times their uploaded photo or video have been viewed by others, and furthermore, through the like -function, they can also see how many people explicitly appreciated their uploaded content. As such, users may be inclined to repeatedly return to Instagram to check for views and likes of their uploads. Changing or removing such incentives that may reinforce recurring visits may decrease the risk of developing SMU problems. For example, since this year (2021), Instagram allows its users to hide the number of views and