From Problematic Use to Algorithmic Capture: A Lacanian Critique of Adolescent Social Media Addiction

The exponential rise of adolescent engagement with algorithmically-curated digital environments has intensified scholarly debates over the boundaries between problematic use and behavioral addiction. While existing diagnostic and psychometric frameworks offer quantitative thresholds, they often fail to address the structural dimensions of compulsivity and the role of platform architecture in shaping subjective experience. In this conceptual commentary, we propose a Lacanian reinterpretation of adolescent “problematic use” as a clinical and cultural formation best understood through the dynamics of algorithmic capture. Drawing on psychoanalytic constructs such as the mirror stage, the foreclosure of the Name-of-the-Father, and jouissance, we argue that current digital ecosystems reconfigure adolescent agency by disrupting symbolic delay and reinforcing compulsive repetition. The distinction between “use” and “addiction” is reframed not as a matter of degree, but as a shift in the subject’s relation to the Other—here, embodied in algorithmic systems. We outline implications for diagnostic validity, measurement models, and intervention design, including the integration of passive digital phenotyping, friction-based interface redesign, and ethically informed AI systems. By bridging clinical psychoanalysis with behavioral science and platform ethics, this paper offers a novel lens for reconceptualizing digital addiction in adolescence—not as individual failure, but as a structurally induced, technologically mediated symptom.