Social media is a modern necessity - here's how bosses can help employees avoid getting addicted

ShutterstockTechnology addiction is damaging our personal and work lives.

Studies suggest people are increasingly unhappy with their use of screen time and social media. The endless refresh cycle of major apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, and so on are highly addictive and designed to distract.

But people still need to use social media and technology at work.

People who work in engineering, marketing, sales, recruitment or communications need to be on social media during the day, and they would reject paternalistic efforts to reduce tech use.

For the past 10 years I've helped organizations of all sizes use gamification to engage employees and customers. I believe things have gone too far, and I know intimately how important these addiction-algorithms are to most contemporary businesses.

Now I dedicate my time to helping people achieve tech-life balance, through my work with Onward, an app that helps people manage their tech use through machine learning. In the battle for your employee's wellbeing, here are a number of techniques that can really help.