30 research outputs found
The associations of active and passive social media use with well-being: A critical scoping review
Some socially poor but also some socially rich adolescents feel closer to their friends after using social media
Who benefits most from using social media is an important societal question that is centered around two opposing hypotheses: the rich-get-richer versus the poor-get-richer hypothesis. This study investigated the assumption that both hypotheses may be true, but only for some socially rich and some socially poor adolescents and across different time intervals. We employed a state-of-the-art measurement burst design, consisting of a three-week experience sampling study and seven biweekly follow-up surveys. Person-specific analyses of more than 70,000 observations from 383 adolescents revealed that 12% of the socially rich adolescents (high in friendship support or low in loneliness) felt closer to their friends after using social media, as opposed to about 25% of the socially poor adolescents (low in friendship support or high in loneliness). However, only 1 to 6% of all adolescents (socially rich and poor) felt closer both in the short- and longer-term. These results indicate that the rich-get-richer and the poor-get-richer hypotheses can hold both, but for different adolescents
Social Media Use and Friendship Closeness in Adolescents’ Daily Lives: An Experience Sampling Study
Some socially poor but also some socially rich adolescents feel closer to their friends after using social media
Social Media Browsing and Adolescent Well-Being: Challenging the “Passive Social Media Use Hypothesis”
A recurring hypothesis in the literature is that "passive" social media use (browsing) leads to negative effects on well-being. This preregistered study investigated a rival hypothesis, which states that the effects of browsing on well-being depend on person-specific susceptibilities to envy, inspiration, and enjoyment. We conducted a three-week experience sampling study among 353 adolescents (13-15 years, 126 assessments per adolescent). Using an advanced N = 1 method of analysis, we found sizeable heterogeneity in the associations of browsing with envy, inspiration, and enjoyment (e.g., for envy ranging from β = -.44 to ß = +.71). The Passive Social Media Use Hypothesis was confirmed for 20% of adolescents and rejected for 80%. More adolescents with browsing-induced envy experienced negative effects on affective well-being (25%) than adolescents with no browsing-induced envy (13%). Conversely, more adolescents with browsing-induced enjoyment experienced positive effects on affective well-being (47%) than adolescents with no browsing-induced enjoyment (9%). Lay summary: 'A recurrent question among academics is whether social media browsing negatively affects teens' well-being. Some scholars believe that this browsing can lead to envy and declines in well-being. Others think that it can also lead to inspiration and enjoyment, and to increases in well-being. To investigate which scholars are right, we asked 353 teens to report six times a day for a period of three weeks how often they had browsed Instagram and Snapchat in the past hour. Furthermore, we asked them how much envy, inspiration, and enjoyment they had experienced in that hour, and how well they felt at that moment. We found sizeable differences among teens in the effects of browsing on well-being at that moment. While one group of teens (20%) felt worse after browsing, another group (17%) felt better. More teens who had felt envy while browsing, experienced negative effects on well-being than teens who did not feel such envy while browsing. Conversely, more teens who had felt enjoyment while browsing, experienced positive effects on well-being than teens who had not felt such enjoyment
Social Media Use and Friendship Closeness in Adolescents’ Daily Lives: An Experience Sampling Study
The formation and maintenance of friendship closeness is an important developmental task in adolescence. To obtain insight in real-time processes that may underly the development of friendship closeness in middle adolescence, this preregistered experience sampling study [ESM] investigated the effects of social media use on friendship closeness. The study was conducted among 387 adolescents (54% girls; Mage = 14.11 years; 96% Dutch) from different educational tracks (44% lower prevocational secondary education, 31% intermediate general secondary education, 26% academic preparatory education). Adolescents reported six times per day for 3 weeks on their Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat use in the previous hour and their momentary experiences of friendship closeness (126 assessments; 34,930 observations). Multilevel analyses revealed positive between-person associations of friendship closeness with general WhatsApp use and Instagram use with close friends. In contrast, at the within-person level, we found small negative overall associations of general WhatsApp use and Instagram use (with and without close friends) with friendship closeness. However, there was large heterogeneity in the person-specific effect sizes of the within-person associations of social media use with friendship closeness. For example, person-specific effect sizes of the association of Instagram use with close friends with friendship closeness ranged from β = −.745 to β =.697. These results underline the importance of acknowledging person-specific effects in developmental and media effect theories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved