Social media addiction refers to excessive, compulsive use of social media platforms that interferes with daily life.
It often involves a fear of missing out (FOMO) – anxiety about missing social experiences or updates.
Studying this phenomenon is crucial as social media use continues to grow globally, potentially impacting mental health, relationships, and productivity.
Understanding the mechanisms behind social media addiction can inform interventions, policies, and education to promote healthier digital habits.
HO, W. Y., Lau, Y. H., Leung, L. Y., Li, E. K., & Ma, R. K. Enigma of Social Media Use: Complexities of Social Media Addiction through the Serial Mediating Effects of Emotions and Self-presentation. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1448168. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1448168
Key Points
- Social media use (SMU) does not directly predict social media addiction (SMA), but the relationship is fully mediated by positive affect, negative affect, fear of missing out (FoMO), and offline and online self-presentation.
- Both positive and negative emotions play significant roles in the development of SMA.
- Longer engagement with social media intensifies positive affect, exacerbating FoMO and fostering inconsistent offline and online self-presentation.
- Extended social media engagement can heighten negative affect, leading to anxiety about missing rewarding experiences and inducing FoMO.
- The study raises concerns about the exclusion of Internet Addiction Disorder from the DSM-5-TR due to insufficient empirical evidence.
- Educational tools such as SimCity video games, scenario-based learning activities, and virtual reality experiences focused on SMU and SMA could offer valuable pre-exposure to related risks and challenges.
Rationale
The widespread adoption of social media has led to concerns about its potential negative impacts on mental health and well-being.
While excessive social media use is considered unhealthy, it is no longer formally categorized as an addiction or disorder in diagnostic manuals like the DSM-5-TR.
This lack of consensus highlights the need for further research into the complexities of social media addiction.
Previous studies have shown associations between social media use and negative outcomes such as addiction, depression, loneliness, and anxiety (Houghton et al., 2018; Hunt et al., 2018).
However, the potential positive aspects of social media use, such as satisfaction and a sense of belonging, have been underexamined (McKinsey Health Institute, 2023).
This study aims to investigate the intricate relationships between social media use, positive and negative affect, fear of missing out, offline and online self-presentation, and social media addiction.
By examining these factors as serial mediators, the research seeks to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying problematic social media use.
Method
The study employed a cross-sectional design using an online survey to collect data from participants.
Procedure
Participants completed a self-administered online survey that took approximately 20 minutes.
The survey was divided into five parts: an introductory page, an informed consent statement, questions about social media use habits, questionnaires of four scales, and demographic questions.
Sample
The study included 385 participants (324 females, 61 males) aged 18-60 years (M = 25.37, SD = 8.61). The majority of participants (79.5%) belonged to Generation Z.
Most had completed a bachelor’s degree (39.2%) or sub-degree programs (33.8%), and over half (54%) were working part-time.
Measures
- Social Media Use Scale (10 items, α = 0.75): Assesses various aspects of social media use, including time spent, platforms used, and frequency of different activities.
- Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (20 items, α = 0.93): Measures positive and negative emotions experienced over the past week.
- Fear of Missing Out Scale (10 items, α = 0.89): Evaluates participants’ anxiety about missing out on rewarding experiences that others might be having.
- Presentation of Online Self Scale (21 items, α = 0.86): Assesses how individuals present themselves online, including ideal self, multiple selves, and online presentation preference.
- Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (6 items, α = 0.82): Measures the risk of problematic social media use and addiction symptoms.
Statistical measures
The study used IBM SPSS 29 for quantitative analyses. Bivariate correlations were computed to examine relationships between variables.
Harman’s single-factor test was used to check for common method bias. Sequential mediation models were analyzed using Model 6 of the PROCESS macro in SPSS (version 4.3.1) with 10,000 bootstrap samples and 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals.
Results
The study found no direct relationship between social media use (SMU) and social media addiction (SMA).
However, this relationship was fully mediated by several factors. Both positive and negative affect, as well as offline and online self-presentation, significantly mediated the SMU-SMA relationship.
The research revealed serial mediation effects, with positive affect and fear of missing out (FoMO) jointly mediating the SMU-SMA relationship, as did negative affect and FoMO.
Similar serial mediation effects were found for both positive and negative affect when paired with offline/online self-presentation.
The most complex pathways, involving affect (both positive and negative), FoMO, and offline/online self-presentation, also significantly mediated the SMU-SMA relationship.
Interestingly, FoMO alone did not mediate the relationship, nor did the combination of FoMO and offline/online self-presentation without the affect variables.
These results highlight the complex interplay of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral factors in the development of social media addiction, suggesting that the path from use to addiction is indirect and multifaceted.
Insight
This study provides a nuanced understanding of the relationship between social media use and addiction by highlighting the mediating roles of emotions, fear of missing out, and self-presentation.
Contrary to previous research, the findings suggest that social media use does not directly lead to addiction. Instead, the pathway to addiction is complex and involves multiple psychological factors.
The research extends previous studies by demonstrating that both positive and negative emotions contribute to social media addiction.
This challenges the common perception that only negative experiences drive problematic use.
The study suggests that the pleasurable aspects of social media, which generate positive affect, can also contribute to addictive behaviors through increased fear of missing out and inconsistent self-presentation.
These findings highlight the need for a more holistic approach to understanding and addressing social media addiction.
Future research could explore the specific aspects of social media use that generate positive and negative emotions, and how these relate to different user demographics or personality traits.
Additionally, longitudinal studies could investigate how these mediating factors change over time and at different stages of social media use.
Implications
The findings have significant implications for clinical practice and future research in the field of social media addiction.
Clinicians and mental health professionals should consider the role of both positive and negative emotions when assessing and treating individuals with problematic social media use.
Interventions could focus on helping users manage their emotional responses to social media and develop healthier patterns of use that minimize fear of missing out and promote authentic self-presentation.
For researchers, this study underscores the importance of examining multiple mediating factors when investigating social media addiction.
Future studies could build on this work by exploring additional psychological variables that may influence the relationship between use and addiction.
The findings also suggest a need for more nuanced measures of social media use that capture not just frequency but also the quality and nature of engagement.
From a public health perspective, these results highlight the need for educational programs that address both the positive and negative aspects of social media use.
Such programs could focus on developing digital literacy skills that help users critically evaluate their social media experiences and manage their emotional responses.
Strengths
The study had several methodological strengths:
- Use of multiple validated scales to measure key constructs
- Large sample size (N = 385) providing adequate statistical power
- Comprehensive examination of multiple mediating factors
- Application of advanced statistical techniques (serial mediation analysis)
- Consideration of both positive and negative emotional factors
Limitations
This study also had several methodological limitations, including:
- The predominantly female sample (84.2%) limits generalizability to male populations.
- The cross-sectional design prevents causal inferences about the relationships between variables.
- Reliance on self-report measures may introduce bias in responses.
- The study did not differentiate between personal, professional, and academic social media use.
- The sample was primarily composed of young adults (Generation Z), limiting applicability to other age groups.
These limitations suggest caution in interpreting the results and highlight the need for future research with more diverse samples and longitudinal designs to confirm and extend these findings.
References
Primary reference
HO, W. Y., Lau, Y. H., Leung, L. Y., Li, E. K., & Ma, R. K. Enigma of Social Media Use: Complexities of Social Media Addiction through the Serial Mediating Effects of Emotions and Self-presentation. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1448168. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1448168
Other references
Houghton, S., Lawrence, D., Hunter, S. C., Rosenberg, M., Zadow, C., Wood, L., & Shilton, T. (2018). Reciprocal relationships between trajectories of depressive symptoms and screen media use during adolescence. Journal of youth and adolescence, 47, 2453-2467. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0901-y
Hunt, M. G., Marx, R., Lipson, C., & Young, J. (2018). No more FOMO: Limiting social media decreases loneliness and depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 37(10), 751-768. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751
McKinsey Health Institute. (2023). Gen Z mental health: The impact of tech and social media. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/mhi/our-insights/gen-z-mental-health-the-impact-of-tech-and-social-media
Keep Learning
- How might the findings of this study inform the development of more effective interventions for social media addiction?
- What ethical considerations should be taken into account when designing educational tools or interventions based on these findings?
- How might cultural differences impact the relationship between social media use and addiction? How could future research address this?
- Given the mediating role of emotions, how might emotional intelligence training affect social media use patterns?
- How might the results of this study inform discussions about social media regulation and public health policies?
