I think a reasonable definition for addiction is the compulsion to keep doing something even though on some level you realize that what you are doing is harmful to you because it either gets in the way of life’s basic necessities or there is simply something better you can be doing, whether it’s work on longer term goals or even just enjoying an activity that is more fun or relaxing than whatever it is you are addicted to.

For example, in my case, my technology addiction for the last few years has been hacker news, which I consider to be in the “social media” sub-category of tech addiction. After procrastinating work with an hours long session on hacker news, it is often annoyingly apparent that nothing of value was gained (at the cost of my job) and if I wasn’t going to work anyway, that there were actually much more enjoyable ways I could have spent those hours, like maybe doing a hobby, talking to friends, or even playing a quality video game.

I know it might seem contradictory to play a video game if I’m claiming to be a “tech addict”, but in my case, I don’t count that as part of my addiction because I don’t have a huge compulsion to play video games, and when I do, it usually feels like enjoyable time well spent afterwords (unless the game is shitty, but I avoid those).

However I do know people with video game addictions (which I also categorize under “tech addiction”) that play games even though it doesn’t feel like time well spent for them afterwords and they know they should be doing something else.

I think this is essentially sort of it tho, it hasn't been studied properly, but addiction is commonly misused as a term and misunderstood