10. Social Media and Well Being

Question 1

2 components of well-being

Answer 1

1. physical
2. psychological

Question 2

2 components of psychological well-being

Answer 2

Emotional component (”Do you feel happy generally?”)
Cognitive component (”Do you feel satisfied with your life?”)

Question 3

direct effects of social media (2)

Answer 3

Accessing health information
Physical injury

Question 4

affordances of Accessing health information

Answer 4

• Affordances: anonymity and asynchronicity allows you to find specific and readily available information
• But how good / accurate is the information online?
• May lead to changes in behaviour

Question 5

percent of 14-22 year olds that go online for health info

Answer 5

87%

Question 6

percent of 14-22 year olds that say they changed behaviour bc of online health info

Answer 6

28%

Question 7

physical injury with social media ?

Answer 7

• “texting thumb”
• Dequervain Syndrome
  
  • Inflamed tendon sheath

Question 8

indirect effects of social media

Answer 8

1. sleep
   Most teens → less than 7 hours per night

Question 9

components of social media that affect sleep

Answer 9

1. bright lights
   - longer to fall asleep when using e-reader vs. real book
2. Emotionally arousing content/interactions
3. Displacement
   - Displacing time sleeping by spending time on your phone

Question 10

% that keep media device in bedroom ?

Answer 10

97

Question 11

Why do youth use social media instead of sleeping? (2)

Answer 11

• FOMO
• Norms and expectations
  
  • “need to be there because everyone else is there”

Question 12

AFFECTIVE WELL-BEING -> Does social media impact our mood?

Answer 12

yes because of emotional contagion

Question 13

what is emotional contagion

Answer 13

emotional states can be transferred to others
eg: If you are spending time with someone who is happy, you might be more likely to feel happy
- research has found evidence for in-person interactions
- does this work through social media too ??

Question 14

Facebook Mood Study

Answer 14

Does this impact what someone posts themselves?

Analyzed Facebook users (700,000)
- broadly -> not just adolescents
Examined people’s newsfeeds
- Researchers manipulated emotional content of newsfeed for 1 week

Question 15

conditions of facebook study

Answer 15

1. Positive content → reduced
2. Negative content → reduced

Question 16

FINDINGS

Answer 16

1. reduced positive -> posted less positive and more negative
2. reduced negative -> posted less negative and more positive

Question 17

IMPLICATIONS ??

Answer 17

Social media can impact mood

Question 18

CONTROVERSY

Answer 18

• Ethics → can Facebook experiment on their users?
• Are these effects large enough to be meaningful?
  
  • Very small → 1 extra positive or negative word per week in posts

Question 19

what mood affect is rising?

Answer 19

depression

Question 20

Home Net Study

Answer 20

Early studies on the internet suggested that high amounts of use were linked to depression

• Individuals with no internet → given internet
• Followed up 1 year later to see impact

Question 21

findings from study

Answer 21

Increase in depression, especially for those who use the internet often

Question 22

what do correlational studies find

Answer 22

mixed results

• Most note a small relationship between time spent on social media and depressive symptoms
• Direction of effect?

Question 23

how can longitudinal inform direction>

Answer 23

If we see higher amounts of social media before depressive symptoms, might indicate direction (and vice versa)
- more info about relationship b/w social media and depression within individuals

Question 24

what are the findings?

Answer 24

Mixed findings!
- Most longitudinal studies finds social media use predicts depression
- Other studies → no findings or complicated patterns

Question 25

what did one longitudinal study do ?

Answer 25

Followed adolescents from age 13-20 (8 years) - tested once per year - measured social media use, how much, and depressive symptoms

Question 26

findings ?

Answer 26

Between individual effects - Those who used more social media → more likely to have depressive symptoms Within individual effects - Using more or less social media don’t seem to be connected to depressive symptoms - Suggests social media doesn't cause depression

Question 27

why are these so mixed ?

Answer 27

- changes within an individual might be too small to make an impact - Variations within use in a high social media user might be too small to impact someone’s depression

Question 28

what could a third variable be

Answer 28

Family situations? → more likely to experience depression and more likely to use social media

Question 29

what about experiemntal designs ?

Answer 29

Done by randomly assigning people to reducing social media use to 10 mins per day -> mixed findings lol

Question 30

FINDINGS

Answer 30

higher levels of depression at baseline → decline in depressive symptoms when reduced social media low levels at baseline -> no impact

Question 31

what about another study that did Random assignment of no social media for either 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, or 4 weeks

Answer 31

- Found no difference No rise in well-being when restricted use of social media

Question 32

what do most studies find ?

Answer 32

1. positive impact (12) 2. no effect (5) 3. negative effect (1)

Question 33

variables in these studies ?

Answer 33

1. time of reduction - some benefits for short 2. amount of reduction - more benefit for reduction (10 mins per day) vs abstention (not using at all)

Question 34

what does research on cognitive well-being tell us ?

Answer 34

But studies are too mixed to be conclusive…

Question 35

why inconclusive?

Answer 35

Life satisfaction → more consistent than mood per day - less impacted by social media use

Question 36

sooooo what is the consistent pattern in psychological well-being and social media use ?

Answer 36

NONE - May be an overall SMALL negative effect - Meta-analyses find very small effect BUT MANY SAY THIS IS TOO SMALL TO MATTER like eating potatoes :)

Question 37

ethics in social media ?

Answer 37

Causality requires manipulation - is this ethical ? people lie about their age - 13 is way too young to study also

Question 38

biases?

Answer 38

Researchers try to partner with social media platforms - Self-report → less accurate than pulling data directly from social platforms

Question 39

why is there a small correlation b/w social media use and negative well--being?

Answer 39

1. SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS 2. SOCIAL COMPARISON 3. FOMO

Question 40

what kind of social media use decreases well being?

Answer 40

browsing -> increased worry of discrimination -> decreased well being

Question 41

what kind of social media use increases well being?

Answer 41

posting & PMing -> increased social support -> improved well-being

Question 42

is discrimination linked to higher social media use?

Answer 42

yes

Question 43

what components of social media allow for social comparision? (3)

Answer 43

1. availability 2. accessibility 3. publicness

Question 44

what leads to more upward comparision?

Answer 44

asynchronity, cues management

Question 45

whatt does this lead to ?

Answer 45

envy -> poor well being

Question 46

who feels envy? depression or no depression?

Answer 46

BOTH but higher in depression

Question 47

other factors?

Answer 47

type of use (passive vs. active) who/what is being viewed (individuals vs. content)

Question 48

what is FOMO linked with?

Answer 48

lower life-satisfaction, lower self-esteem, higher anxiety

Question 49

direction of causality b/w FOMO and social media use?

Answer 49

More evidence that FOMO causes social media use (we do know that high levels of FOMO use more social media)

Question 50

What factors matter for individual differences? (4)

Answer 50

- Content - Age (development) - Disposition (personality, mental health) - Characteristics of content