Social media companies commonly design their platforms in a way that renders them addictive. Some governments have declared internet addiction a major public health concern, and the World Health Organization has characterized excessive internet use as a growing problem. Our article shows why scholars, policy makers, and the managers of social media companies should treat social media addiction as a serious moral problem. While the benefits of social media are not negligible, we argue that social media addiction raises unique ethical concerns not raised by other, more familiar addictive products, such as alcohol and cigarettes. In particular, we argue that addicting users to social media is impermissible because it unjustifiably harms users in a way that is both demeaning and objectionably exploitative. Importantly, the attention-economy business model of social media companies strongly incentivizes them to perpetrate this wrongdoing.

社交媒体公司通常以一种使他们上瘾的方式设计他们的平台。一些政府已经宣布网络成瘾是一个主要的公共卫生问题，世界卫生组织将过度使用互联网描述为一个日益严重的问题。我们的文章展示了为什么学者、政策制定者和社交媒体公司的管理者应该将社交媒体成瘾视为一个严重的道德问题。虽然社交媒体的好处不容忽视，但我们认为社交媒体成瘾引起了其他更熟悉的成瘾产品（如酒精和香烟）所没有的独特伦理问题。特别是，我们认为让用户沉迷于社交媒体是不允许的，因为它以一种既贬低又令人反感的剥削方式不合理地伤害了用户。重要的，