The Meanings of Social Media Use in Everyday Life: Filling Empty Slots, Everyday Transformations, and Mood Management

Abstract

Since their emergence in the early 2000s, social media have continued to increase in popularity, particularly among adolescents and young adults. Even though they have been studied in relation to a wide range of topics, including their role in politics, social relationships, activism, identity construction, and youth cultures, the rise of social media is also connected to a number of less dramatic, yet pervasive, shifts relating to their integration into the mundane practices of day-to-day life. In this article, we explore the uses of social media as part of everyday life, a perspective that has gained less attention in research about social media. We take an interest in how young adults create meaning around their daily practices, involving many different social media platforms. Doing so, we draw on in-depth individual and small group interviews with 67 young adults, aged 18–26, conducted in Sweden during 2019–2021. We approach social media as a joint environment, consisting of a wide range of different platforms traversed by the user. The empirical analysis identifies three significant meanings of social media: filling empty slots, everyday transformations, and mood management. These three different meanings are shaped by different temporal, spatial, and technological characteristics and emphasize the importance of social media use in the lives of the young adults.

Adolescents' motivation to use social network sites from a psychological needs perspective

“…In contrast, a focus group study with UK adolescents suggested that adolescents who perceive SNS as different from face‐to‐face interactions are more likely to engage with strangers online (Gray, 2018). A qualitative study with adolescents and young adults in Sweden identified three types of SNS use, namely interval, ritual, and emotional use (Bengtsson & Johansson, 2022). Interval use was described as a way to fill time gaps in the day, ritual use referred as a mundane task at the beginning of the day, and emotional use as a way to manage moods, for example, to relax or relieve boredom (Bengtsson & Johansson, 2022).…”

“…A qualitative study with adolescents and young adults in Sweden identified three types of SNS use, namely interval, ritual, and emotional use (Bengtsson & Johansson, 2022). Interval use was described as a way to fill time gaps in the day, ritual use referred as a mundane task at the beginning of the day, and emotional use as a way to manage moods, for example, to relax or relieve boredom (Bengtsson & Johansson, 2022). Different descriptions of how adolescents approach SNSs or use SNSs contribute significantly to understanding adolescents' SNS use and contextualizing their motivation for using it.…”

Role of Brand Awareness on Marketing and Purchase Intention in Service-Based Businesses

“…Furthermore, social media has ingrained itself as a fundamental aspect of daily existence for numerous individuals. An examination of the meanings attributed to social media usage in everyday life uncovered that it fills vacant time slots, facilitates simple changes, and manages emotions (Bengtsson & Johansson, 2022).…”

Does Perceived of Risks and Benefits Drive Customers’ Intention to Share Information in Social Media? - Moderating Role of Customer Satisfaction

“…People today have more freedom and ability to share their thoughts, opinions and experiences with a wider audience through just a few simple steps that can be done on a device (Sanders and Scanlon, 2021). As a result, currently social media platforms have even become an integral part of people's daily lives and are often considered by people as a reference for their lifestyle (Bengtsson and Johansson, 2022). It cannot be denied that currently social media is widely used as an instrument for personal branding and selfpresentation (Bailey et al, 2020;Cocq and Ljuslinder, 2020).…”

“…This then led to the development of the idea of an "ideal life" and the phenomenon of constantly comparing oneself with others (Verduyn et al, 2020;Han, 2022). These explanations also indirectly explains that due to the development of social media platforms, individuals today are increasingly connected to the desire and need for validation in social relationships (Bengtsson and Johansson, 2022).…”