A narrative Overview About Psychosocial Characteristics as Risk Factors of a Problematic Social Networks Use

Abstract

Purpose of Review Social networks use disorder describes the problematic use of social networking sites and onlinecommunication applications. Social characteristic of social networks use emphasizes the special relevance of psychosocial factors and social cognitions in this context. The current review aims at summarizing findings on individual psychosocial characteristics to analyze the relevance of social processes as potential mechanisms of a social networks use disorder. Recent Findings The empirical overview illustrates that, aside from psychopathological factors, individual psychosocial characteristics and social cognitions as well as their interactions appear to be relevant risk factors for a problematic use of social networks. However, empirical findings are mixed. Summary We propose two hypotheses on the development of a potential social networks use disorder that might account for mixed results: the fear-driven/compensation-seeking hypothesis including compensatory use expectancies and the reward-driven hypothesis including positive use expectancies as key elements, both of which could lead to symptoms of social networks use disorder depending on interindividual differences in predisposing and reinforcing factors.

Neglecting Long-Term Risks: Self-Disclosure on Social Media and Its Relation to Individual Decision-Making Tendencies and Problematic Social-Networks-Use

“…During the last two decades, research on problematic use of social media applications has grown steadily, including authors that account this overuse as a clinical phenomenon (e.g., Montag et al, 2018;Wegmann et al, 2018a). Although the phenomenon has various terms, for example social-networksuse disorder (Montag et al, 2019;Wegmann and Brand, 2019;Wegmann et al, 2020), Internet-communication disorder (Montag et al, 2018;Wegmann et al, 2018a,b) or social networking addiction (Guedes et al, 2016), there is growing evidence for parallels to clinically relevant disorders including gaming disorder and gambling disorder (for a current review see Wegmann et al, 2018a).…”

Problematic Social-Networks-Use in German Children and Adolescents—The Interaction of Need to Belong, Online Self-Regulative Competences, and Age

“…The findings therefore extend current research, illustrating the relevance of specific needs and motives for using social networks for children and adolescents. It can be assumed that online social networks are perceived as a possible means to feel socially integrated and to gratify individual's need for belonging [22]. Especially, young individuals may perceive a strong desire to fulfill their need to belong, since they find themselves in an important developmental part of life, in which their respective peer group occupies an important place [30,47,48] and depicts an essential source of experiencing social support [49].…”

“…We therefore use the term social-networks-use disorder (although this term has not been included in classification systems, so far) for the definition of an uncontrolled, problematic use of online-communication applications. This describes the experiences of negative consequences due to, and the diminished control over the use of, social networks, whereby the communicative and social aspect is considered as the key element the users are addicted to rather than a certain device or platform [21,22].With respect to age, being younger was associated with a more problematic social-networks-use [23] and an addictive/problematic smartphone behavior [24,25]. A recent study with a representative sample of German adolescents reported an estimated prevalence of 2.6% for a problematic social-networks-use [26], which is in line with the European-wide prevalence rates ranging from 0% to 2.1% [9].…”

“…We therefore use the term social-networks-use disorder (although this term has not been included in classification systems, so far) for the definition of an uncontrolled, problematic use of online-communication applications. This describes the experiences of negative consequences due to, and the diminished control over the use of, social networks, whereby the communicative and social aspect is considered as the key element the users are addicted to rather than a certain device or platform [21,22].…”

Cue-Reactivity Among Young Adults With Problematic Instagram Use in Response to Instagram-Themed Risky Behavior Cues: A Pilot fMRI Study

“…These studies aim to present the addicted individuals with stimuli that mimic the online environment. The addicted individuals perceived the stimuli as a rewarding experience, and achieved a sense of gratification that interacts with different cognitive and affective neuronal processes (e.g., cravings, cue-reactivity, and mood management) (Wegmann and Brand, 2019). Furthermore, the perceived rewarding experience by young adults is evident from the type of pictures with catchy hashtags ("#") that they upload to Instagram.…”