The social media see-saw: Positive and negative influences on adolescents’ affective well-being

Abstract

Social media use is nearly universal among US-based teens. How do daily interactions with social apps influence adolescents’ affective well-being? Survey self-reports (n = 568) portray social media use as predominantly positive. Exploratory principal component analysis further indicates that positive and negative emotions form orthogonal response components. In-depth interviews with a sub-sample of youth (n = 26), selected for maximum variation, reveal that affect experiences can be organized across four functional dimensions. Relational interactions contribute to both closeness and disconnection; self-expression facilitates affirmation alongside concern about others’ judgments; interest-driven exploration confers inspiration and distress; and browsing leads to entertainment and boredom, as well as admiration and envy. All interviewees describe positive and negative affect experiences across multiple dimensions. Analyses suggest the relationship between social technology usage and well-being—whether enhanced or degraded—is not confined to an “either/or” framework: the emotional see-saw of social media use is weighted by both positive and negative influences.

Motivational processes and dysfunctional mechanisms of social media use among adolescents: A qualitative focus group study

“…The present qualitative study explored adolescents' personal views and attitudes towards uses and key motivational factors for social media use and identified control processes related to motivations for SNS use in adolescence. Adolescents reported that SNS use formed a dominant part of their lives, offering both positive and negative affect experiences from use, and confirming previous findings (Weinstein, 2018). SNS use is part of a new youth culture with shared beliefs, rules, and meaning that is distinct from adult interaction (Vaterlaus et al, 2016).…”

“…A growing body of literature provides evidence of stress, anxiety, compulsive and depressive symptomatology associated with excessive social media use (Barry, Sidoti, Briggs, Reiter, & Lindsey, 2017;Griffiths, Kuss, & Demetrovics, 2014;Griffiths et al, 2018;O'Keeffe, Clarke-Pearson, & Council on Communications and Media, 2011;Reid & Weigle, 2014;Royal Society for Public Health, 2017;Weinstein, 2018). Young people present with a paradox.…”

Violence Exposure and Sexual Risk Behaviors for African American Adolescent Girls: The Protective Role of Natural Mentorship and Organizational Religious Involvement

“…Community youth workers could incorporate these findings into curriculum and programming that empower and support youth to identify sources of healthy relationships, both with peers and with natural mentors. Additionally, the prevalence of new media (e.g., Instagram, Snapchat) in the lives of adolescents (Anderson & Jiang, ; Weinstein, ) provides numerous possibilities for community youth workers to tailor and disseminate information about health‐promotive behaviors to youth. In addition, within faith‐based contexts, African Americans report involvement with religious communities that ascribes to theologies and traditions which encourage congregants to explore and use their spiritual gifts and natural talents in relational contexts (see Mattis & Jagers, ; Woods‐Jaeger et al., ).…”

Should You “Do It for the ‘Gram?” A Review of the Psychological and Sociocultural Effects of Social Media

“…The studies on effects of SM have contradicting findings. Some examples where certain situations produce polar outcomes include studies on well-being, self-esteem, social adjustment, and social support for deployed service members [48,[52][53][54]. While only a few articles [e.g., 5, 6, 10, 17] found that Facebook use could lower depression, can lower anxiety, and can increase life satisfaction in certain situations -findings which contradict the majority of research -these contradictory studies are still worth expanding and reanalyzing, as causation and directionality are hard to establish regarding SM use and respective outcomes.…”