Instagram Boss: You Can't Be Addicted to Social Media

Adam Mosseri describes 16 hours a day on the app as 'problematic use,' not addiction
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 12, 2026 9:13 AM CST
Instagram Boss: You Can't Be Addicted to Social Media
Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, arrives in court to testify in a landmark social media case that seeks to hold tech companies responsible for harms to children, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Adam Mosseri, the head of Meta's Instagram, testified Wednesday during a landmark social media trial in Los Angeles that he disagrees with the idea that people can be clinically addicted to social media platforms. The question of addiction is a key pillar of the case, where plaintiffs seek to hold social media companies responsible for harms to children who use their platforms, per the AP. Meta Platforms and Google's YouTube are the two remaining defendants in the case, while TikTok and Snap have settled. At the core of the case is a 20-year-old identified only by the initials "KGM," whose lawsuit could determine how thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies would play out.

Mosseri, who's headed Instagram since 2018, said it's important to differentiate between clinical addiction and what he called problematic use. The plaintiff's lawyer, however, presented quotes directly from Mosseri in a podcast interview a few years ago where he used the term addiction in relation to social media use, but he clarified that he was probably using the term "too casually," as people tend to do. Mosseri said he was not claiming to be a medical expert when questioned about his qualifications to comment on the legitimacy of social media addiction, but said someone "very close" to him has experienced serious clinical addiction, which is why he said he was "being careful with my words."

He said he and his colleagues use the term "problematic use" to refer to "someone spending more time on Instagram than they feel good about, and that definitely happens." He then said KGM spending 16 hours a day on Instagram was "problematic use," per the BBC. Mosseri said it was not in the company's best interests to "make decisions that profit for us but are poor for people's well-being." After the plaintiff's lawyer, Mark Lanier, suggested Meta was looking to profit off of teens, Mosseri countered that Instagram makes "less money from teens than from any other demographic." Lanier then pointed to research that shows people who join social media platforms at a young age are more likely to stay on the platforms longer, which he said would fuel long-term profit.

Read These Next
Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X