On the one hand, social comparisons on social media use lead to more depressive symptoms. On the other hand, more depressive symptoms lead to more social comparison on social media. We propose an ...articulation of both effects. As users are primarily exposed to positive information leading to upward comparisons on Instagram and depressive individuals engage more in comparisons, they would be more vulnerable to negative impacts of comparisons on the self. Furthermore, at least two interindividual differences might explain this vicious circle, i.e. Instagram type of use and self-assessment motivation. The research tested it with correlation (N = 482), experimental (N = 185), and experimental diary design (N = 168). Two groups were asked to use Instagram actively or passively in the experimental studies. Structural equation modeling analysis showed that while the type of use didn't explain the effects, depressive symptoms, and self-assessment motivation did. Indeed, one with more depressive symptoms indicated perceives others being better off than oneself, which worsened the self-esteem (Cohen's d range for the three studies = 0.01 to 0.10), felt emotions (d = 0.03 to 0.06), and depressive mood (d = 0.02 to 0.06), and this process appears to be mediated by the motivation to self-assess.
•Individuals with more depressive symptoms compare more upward on Instagram.•Upward comparisons on Instagram increase depressive symptoms.•The effects of depressive symptoms and social comparisons lead to a vicious circle.•Individuals with more depressive symptoms are more motivated to assess themselves.
Instagram popularity and extended usage has been associated with several adverse outcomes towards mental health especially among youth. However, despite numerous studies on the matter, most studies ...often conceptualized usage on Instagram solely through frequency or time spent on Instagram. Therefore, there is a need for a more systematic study of the different types of Instagram use and their relationship with depression. Specifically, examining how active versus passive use of Instagram influence depression. This study, grounded on Social Comparison Theory, proposed a model explaining how active versus passive Instagram use relates to depression through social comparison. An online survey has been distributed on various social media platforms from December 2022 until the end of January 2023. A total of 163 responses were obtained. The model is evaluated using the structural equation modelling method. The results indicate that social comparison, which is associated with depression, is influenced by active usage and passive usage of Instagram. Furthermore, the results show that social comparison has a moderate effect size towards depression. This finding highlights the need to increase awareness among social media users to be more mindful when using social media and realize the psychological process that may detriment users' well-being.
There is both public and scholarly concern that (passive) social media use decreases well-being by providing a fertile ground for harmful (upward) social comparison and envy. The present review ...critically summarizes evidence on this assumption. We first comprehensively synthesize existing evidence, including both prior reviews and the most recent publications (2019–2021). Results show that earlier research finds social comparison and envy to be common on social media and linked to lower well-being. Yet, increasingly, newer studies contradict this conclusion, finding positive links to well-being as well as heterogeneous, person-specific, conditional, and reverse or reciprocal effects. The review identifies four critical conceptual and methodological limitations of existing evidence, which offer new impulses for future research.
•Social media (SM) supposedly make social comparison, envy, and well-being worse.•This review finds mixed and inconsistent evidence for this claim.•Earlier studies show comparisons and envy are common on SM and linked to ill-being.•Recent studies find positive, person-specific, conditional, and reciprocal effects.•Specific causes, online/offline differences, and user agency remain open questions.
Passively browsing social networking sites (SNSs) correlates with poorer well-being (Verduyn, Ybarra, Résibois, Jonides, & Kross, 2017). However, less research has been conducted that fully examines ...what factors may mediate this association. In particular, both online social comparison and the fear of missing out (FoMO) may play roles in how passive SNS browsing relates to depressive symptoms and self-perceptions. The current study adds to the literature by investigating how passive use relates to these outcomes through social comparison and FoMO. For an ethnically diverse sample of college students (N = 717, Mage = 21.47, SDage = 4.64, 69% female), passively using SNSs positively predicted social comparison, which was positively related to FoMO, which in turn positively predicted depressive symptoms, and negatively predicted global self-worth, self-perceived physical appearance, and self-perceived social acceptance. These findings suggest that social comparison and FoMO play a role in the link between passive SNS use, depressive symptoms, and self-perceptions, and that FoMO could result from online social comparison.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied with a pandemic of fake news spreading over social media (SM). Fact checking might help combat fake news and a plethora of fact-checking platforms ...exist, yet few people actually use them. Moreover, whether fact checking is effective in preventing citizens from falling for fake news, particularly COVID-19 related, is unclear. Against this backdrop, we examine potential antecedents to fact checking that can be a target for interventions and establish that fact checking is actually effective for preventing the public from falling for harmful COVID-19 fake news. We use a representative U.S. sample collected in April of 2020 and find that awareness of fake news and patterns of active SM use (e.g., commenting on content instead of reading it) increases the fact checking of COVID-19 fake news, whereas SM homophily reduces fact checking and the effects of SM use as users are trapped in "echo chambers". We also find that fact checking helps users identify accurate information on how to protect themselves against COVID-19 instead of false and often harmful claims propagated on SM. These findings highlight the importance of fact checking for combating COVID-19 fake news and help identify potential interventions.
•Grandiosity/agentic extraversion is associated with adaptive SNS use.•Vulnerability/narcissistic neuroticism is associated with maladaptive SNS use.•Entitlement/self-centered antagonism had weak ...associations with SNS use.
Across two studies, the current research investigated how different dimensions of narcissism (grandiosity/agentic extraversion, entitlement/self-centered antagonism, vulnerability/narcissistic neuroticism) relate to social networking site (SNS) use and behaviors. Study 1 employed a community sample of young adults, whereas Study 2 examined college students. Participants completed assessments of narcissism and SNS use through an online survey. Grandiosity/agentic extraversion was generally associated with greater levels of downward social comparison relative to the other two dimensions. Entitlement/self-centered antagonism generally showed weak correlations with SNS outcomes. Vulnerability/narcissistic neuroticism was generally associated with greater upward social comparison and perceived social exclusion relative to the other two dimensions. Results suggest that SNS experiences may vary depending on the dimensions of narcissism.
The aim of this study was to develop a behavioral report to assess Social Media Use (SMU) distinguishing between rather active and rather passive uses, namely the Social Media Activity Questionnaire ...(SMAQ). We recruited 1230 participants (963 females) testing its goodness-of-fit. Both the exploratory and the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-factor-structure of the SMAQ. Internal consistency analyses indicated a high level of reliability for both scales. Furthermore, the results represent evidence of convergent and discriminant validity of the SMAQ scales. The results indicated that Facebook Activity as well as symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress were more closely linked to active than to passive SMU. In contrast, social comparison orientation, social media flow experience, social media addiction, fear of missing out, and the social media intensity were more closely linked to passive use than to active use. Thus, the SMAQ represents a straightforward, profound, economical, standardized, valid and reliable measure of SMU. Finally, applications of the SMAQ scales are discussed and limitations of the study are outlined.
While a number of previous studies examined the impacts of social networking sites (SNSs) on young people’s well-being, they usually focused on a single platform without considering the increasing ...use of multiple social media platforms. In addition, only a few studies have explored gender differences, and empirical evidence outside Western culture is still lacking. To this end, the present study explores how two different types of use (i.e., active vs. passive) of the two most popular SNS (social network sites) platforms (i.e., Facebook and Instagram) are related to college men’s and women’s life satisfaction via social support and social comparison in South Korea. Path analyses conducted using data from a nationwide online survey of Korean college students (N = 360) revealed that active use contributes to life satisfaction via perceived social support on SNSs, while passive use decreases life satisfaction via negative social comparison on SNSs. Both active Facebook and Instagram use are related to perceived social support, while negative social comparison tends to be related only to passive Instagram use. Gender differences were not observed in the hypothesized relationships except for those involving the control variables (i.e., the amount of overall SNS use and the number of SNS platforms used). The results suggest that the influences of SNS use on subjective well-being depend on the types of SNS use and the nature of the platforms. The practical implications for social media literacy education are discussed.
For today’s adolescents it is hard to imagine a life without social media although it remains questionable how they affect the users’ subjective well-being. In order to better understand this impact, ...we examined the relationship of active and passive Instagram use with general self-esteem and explored whether benign and malicious envy and need for relatedness function as mediators of these relationships. Six hundred eleven high school students (76.9% female; age: M = 16.20, SD = 1.12) from the City of Zagreb participated in the online survey. The participants filled an item regarding their frequency of active Instagram use, the Benign and Malicious Envy Scale, the Need for Relatedness subscale (a part of the Basic Psychological Needs Scale) and the General Selfesteem subscale (a part of the Marsh’s Self-Description Questionnaire II). The results indicate the absence of a significant relationship between active Instagram use and general self-esteem. Neither benign nor malicious envy function as mediators of this relationship. However, the need for relatedness mediates the relationship between active Instagram use and general self-esteem: adolescents who engage more frequently in active Instagram use tend to have higher levels of need for relatedness satisfaction, which in turn relates to their higher levels of general self-esteem. The obtained results indicate that, contrary to the public perception, social media can have a positive impact in the life of adolescents, but when making such claims, it is crucial to consider the type of activities behind their usage.
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