Authors

• Castrén, Sari (University of Helsinki)
• Hylkiä, Krista (University of Oulu)
• Peltonen, Aino (University of Oulu)
• Karhulahti, Veli-Matti (University of Jyväskylä)

Keywords

addiction, internet addiction, mobile phones, smartphones, social interaction, social media

Abstract

The dataset consists of interviews with young adults on their experiences of voluntarily limiting their social media use.

The interviews were divided into four sections. The first questions were related to the identification and initial stages of the interviewees' problematic social media use. The interviewees were asked to describe, among other things, at what point they started to consider their use of social media as problematic. The question also investigated how the interviewees had initially tried to manage their social media use and how they had sought help for the issue. The second set of questions explored whether the interviewees had experienced similar problems in the past and whether they had witnessed similar problems in their immediate circle or elsewhere. The third set of questions focused on what the interviewees thought had led to their problematic use of social media. The interviewees were also asked to reflect on whether there was anything specific in their own life at the time the issue started that could help to explain the development of the issue. Additional questions were asked about the treatment and support the interviewees had received, and how the problem was perceived by those close to the interviewees. The final set of questions charted the impact that problematic social media use had on the interviewees' lives, on their self-perception and on how they are perceived by others. The interview framework used was based on the McGill Illness Narrative Interview (MINI) interview protocol.

Background information included the interviewee's gender, age group, and economic activity. The data were organised into an easy to use HTML version at FSD.

The dataset is available only in Finnish.