The effects of Facebook on mood in emerging adults.

Abstract

Social media usage is on the rise, with the majority of American adults using Facebook. The present study examined how Facebook activity affects mood in a subset of emerging adults, specifically undergraduates attending a private 4-year university. Participants (N ϭ 312) were randomly assigned to one of the following 20-min activities: browse the Internet, passively browse others' Facebook profiles, actively communicate with others on Facebook via messages/posts, or update their own personal profile on Facebook. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing mood, feelings of envy, and perceived meaningfulness of their time online. The results demonstrated that using Facebook led to significantly worsened mood compared with browsing the Internet, especially when participants passively browsed Facebook. Furthermore, perceptions of meaningfulness, but not feelings of envy, mediated the relationship between online activity and mood. Overall, these findings add to the mounting evidence that social media use may, at times, adversely affect psychological well-being. Public Policy Relevance StatementCollege students reported lower mood when passively browsing Facebook compared with other online activities, possibly due in part to feelings of wasted time. Results suggest that repeated use of social media may adversely affect psychological well-being in some emerging adults.

Browsing Different Instagram Profiles and Associations With Psychological Well-Being

“…Experimental studies in which participants browse content preselected by the researchers (which usually exemplifies especially highly positive self-presentation) have found that Instagram browsing can decrease positive mood, particularly for those who are likely to compare themselves to this content (Weinstein, 2017;de Vries et al, 2018), and can also increase negative mood (Brown and Tiggemann, 2016;Weinstein, 2017). Experiments with "real" SNS content (in which participants log into their personal SNS account and browse others' content) have thus far focused on Facebook, and have found that browsing Facebook can increase negative mood (Fardouly et al, 2015), and decrease positive mood (Yuen et al, 2019). Moreover, browsing one's Facebook news feed can decrease state self-esteem and increase depressive symptoms, although the effects on depressive symptoms may only occur for those with a higher tendency to socially compare (Alfasi, 2019).…”

Abstinence from social media use, subjective well‐being, stress, and loneliness

“…Ryan et al's review suggests that problematic use of SNSs may allow its users a means to avoid the experience of a negative mood state. However, in contradiction, many other studies have found that using SNSs precipitates a commensurate deterioration in a user's mood; moreover, this decrease is usually attributed to the subjective experience of the banality of SNS use and the feeling that one's time has been wasted on a frivolous activity, Steers et al, 2016 . The evidence appears to suggest that excessive or maladaptive use of SNSs is detrimental to users’ mood states, and this is further underlined by the plethora of research that links problematic SNS use to diminished levels of subjective well‐being.…”

“…Given the extraordinary amount of time that people devote to SNSs, a now substantial body of research has emerged that has investigated the reasons motivating the use of SNSs, the personality and psychopathological correlates of excessive SNS use, and the potential consequences SNS use may have for individuals . The totality of this research evidence has converged on the notion that people are motivated to use SNSs to connect with others, to establish new relationships, to maintain existing relationships with friends and family and to browse others’ shared content; thus, the primary benefits to be had from SNS use are greater social capital and the maintenance of relationships …”

“…8 The totality of this research evidence has converged on the notion that people are motivated to use SNSs to connect with others, to establish new relationships, to maintain existing relationships with friends and family and to browse others' shared content; thus, the primary benefits to be had from SNS use are greater social capital and the maintenance of relationships. 6,[9][10][11][12] However, despite these perceived benefits, a burgeoning body of evidence suggests that people experience a range of negative outcomes associated with SNSs. These negative experiences relate primarily to concerns about privacy, SNSs' impact on interpersonal relationships, and the development of problematic use of SNSs.…”

Toward improved methods in social media research.

“…In some of these cases, study design elements were less than ideal from an ecological validity point of view. For example, in some studies, participants were overtly restricted in the ways they could behave, for instance, by prohibiting participants to share posts on Facebook (Tobin et al, 2015; for other examples of restriction, see Deters & Mehl, 2013;Yuen et al, 2019;Verduyn et al, 2015). Other studies clearly manipulated expectations, for instance, by telling participants to expect comments on their posts from coparticipants (thus rendering the fact that participants felt bad when these comments remained absent not particularly surprising, see Tobin et al, 2015).…”