RESEARCH4

Association of Social Media Use With Social Well-Being, Positive Mental Health, and Self-Rated Health: Disentangling Routine Use From Emotional Connection to Use

•references

Andreassen, C. S. (2015). Online social network site addiction: A comprehensive review. Current Addiction Reports, 2, 175-184. doi:10.1007/s40429-015-0056-9

Google Scholar | Crossref

Antoci, A., Sabatini, F., Sodini, M. (2015). Online and offline social participation and social poverty traps: Can social networks save human relations? Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 39, 229-256.

Google Scholar | Crossref

Araujo, T., Wonneberger, A., Neijens, P., de Vreese, C. H. (2017). How much time do you spend online? Understanding and improving the accuracy of self-reported measures of internet use. Communication Methods and Measures, 11, 173-190.

Google Scholar | Crossref

Bargh, J., McKenna, K. (2004). The internet and social life. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 573-590. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141922

Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI

Barry, C. T., Sidoti, C. L., Briggs, S. M., Reiter, S. R., Lindsey, R. A. (2017). Adolescent social media use and mental health from adolescent and parent perspectives. Journal of Adolescence, 61, 1-11.

Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline

Bekalu, M. A., Eggermont, S. (2014). The role of communication inequality in mediating the impacts of socioecological and socioeconomic disparities on HIV/AIDS knowledge and risk perception. International Journal for Equity in Health, 13, 16. doi:10.1186/1475-9276-13-16

Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline

•objectives

By collecting data from social media conversations and applying them to consumer profiling efforts, brands can better understand consumers, create more highly targeted campaigns, and improve efficiency with informed decision-making processes. Social media intelligence enables brands to: Heighten brand awareness.Social networking can help you find and build relationships with other thought leaders and influential individuals and brands. Relationship building – Your customers and prospects are online talking about brands. Social media can be an effective way to monitor and respond to customer service questions and issues.

•methodology

More

Download PDF

Open EPUB

Association of Social Media Use With Social Well-Being, Positive Mental Health, and Self-Rated Health: Disentangling Routine Use From Emotional Connection to Use

Mesfin A. Bekalu, PhD, Rachel F. McCloud, ScD, K. Viswanath, PhDFirst Published November 19, 2019 Research Article Find in PubMed

https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198119863768

Article Information Open epub for Association of Social Media Use With Social Well-Being, Positive Mental Health, and Self-Rated Health: Disentangling Routine Use From Emotional Connection to Use

Article has an altmetric score of 137 Free Access

Abstract

Most studies addressing social media use as a normal social behavior with positive or negative effects on health-related outcomes have conceptualized and measured social media use and its effects in terms of dose–effect relations. These studies focus on measuring frequency and duration of use, and have seldom considered users’ emotional connections to social media use and the effects associated with such connections. By using a scale with two dimensions capturing users’ integration of social media use into their social routines and their emotional connection to the sites’ use, the present study has brought preliminary evidence that may help map where social media use, as a normal social behavior, may be considered beneficial or harmful. Data from a nationally representative sample (n = 1,027) of American adults showed that while routine use is associated with positive health outcomes, emotional connection to social media use is associated with negative health outcomes. These associations have been consistent across three health-related outcomes: social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health. The data also showed that the strength of the positive and negative associations of routine use and emotional connection with the health outcomes varies across socioeconomic and racial/ethnic population subgroups. Our findings suggest that the link between social media use and health may not only be captured by and explained in terms of conventional dose–effect approaches but may also require a more sophisticated conceptualization and measurement of the social media use behavior.

Keywords 

measurement, social media

Social media use is an ever-increasing phenomenon of the 21st century. In the United States, about 7 of 10 individuals use social media to connect with others, receive news content, share information, and entertain themselves (Pew Research Center, 2018). According to a recent study, young individuals pervasively use social media for a variety of reasons including entertainment, identity formation, social enhancement (augmenting offline social status through online interactions), and maintaining interpersonal connections (Ifinedo, 2016). Such uses may hold promises to compensate for the diminishing face-to-face social interaction and the economic, social, and health outcomes resulting from it (Antoci, Sabatini, & Sodini, 2015). Studies suggest that social media can provide individuals with a platform that overcomes barriers of distance and time to connect and reconnect with others and thereby expand and strengthen their offline networks and interactions (Antoci et al., 2015; Hall, Kearney, & Xing, 2018; Subrahmanyam, Reich, Waechter, & Espinoza, 2008).

Social networks, particularly offline networks, enable individuals and communities to form and maintain social capital, which allows individuals to draw on resources such as information and social support from other network members (Viswanath, 2008). In other words, individuals who are members of a social network, as opposed to those who are not, have access to information, social support, and other resources such as other network members’ skills and knowledge due to their network membership or social connections. This, in turn, is linked to a variety of positive social outcomes such as trust and reciprocity that engender better health (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007; Nabi, Prestin, & So, 2013; Nieminen et al., 2013). Different forms of social capital, including social ties, have been positively related to indices of psychological well-being, such as self-esteem and satisfaction with life (Bargh & McKenna, 2004; Ellison et al., 2007; Helliwell & Putnam, 2004; Nabi et al., 2013). Researchers now argue that online social media networks enhance the opportunity to form and/or maintain offline social capital (Ellison et al., 2007; Steinfield, Ellison, & Lampe, 2008; Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009). For example, Ellison et al. (2007) found that apart from the bonding (within a group) and bridging (across groups) forms of social capital, online network tools enable people to remain in touch with a social network after physically disconnecting from it and thereby benefit from a form of social capital called maintained social capital. They found empirical support for this among university students and argued that Facebook use might also be beneficial for users experiencing low self-esteem and low life satisfaction (Ellison et al., 2007; Steinfield et al., 2008). Similarly, Valenzuela et al. (2009) found that intense Facebook use is positively associated with students’ life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement, and participation. A study by Kim and Kim (2017) also indicated that social media use is positively associated with college students’ communication network heterogeneity, which, in turn, is positively related to social capital and subjective well-being.

Yet a growing body of research suggests that social media use is negatively associated with health-related outcomes. Although the relationship between social media use and health, particularly mental health, could be bidirectional, most studies in public health focus on the impact of social media use on health-related outcomes. For example, a recent longitudinal study found that Facebook use is generally negatively associated with well-being (Shakya & Christakis, 2017). Importantly, this study indicated that the negative associations of Facebook use are comparable to or greater in magnitude than the positive impact of offline interactions. Another study examining the influence of Facebook use on subjective well-being over time among young adults found that Facebook, rather than enhancing well-being, may undermine it (Kross et al., 2013). Several recent studies have also found negative associations of social media use with a variety of indicators of mental health among adolescents and young adults. For example, in a study drawing data from a sample of adolescents and their parents throughout the United States, Barry, Sidoti, Briggs, Reiter, and Lindsey (2017) found that social media use is moderately and positively related to adolescent-reported fear of missing out and loneliness as well as with parent-reported hyperactivity/impulsivity, anxiety, and depression. Similarly, in a national survey of U.S. young adults, Primack et al. (2017) found that compared with individuals who use 0 to 2 social media platforms, individuals who use 7 to 11 social media platforms have substantially higher odds of having increased levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. In a recent longitudinal study among U.S. adolescents, Ra et al. (2018) have also found a statistically significant but modest association between higher frequency of digital media use and subsequent symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Although the link between social media use and health has become a growing public health concern, the empirical evidence remains inconclusive (Andreassen, 2015; Berryman, Ferguson, & Negy, 2018; Pantic, 2014), with some studies finding no support for the widely held assumption that social media use decreases real-life social interactions and leads to decreased mental health functioning and well-being (Berryman et al., 2018; Hall et al., 2018). Furthermore, despite the fact that social media use has increasingly become popular across all age groups (Smith & Anderson, 2018), most studies have focused on adolescent and young adult samples in college settings (e.g., Booker, Kelly, & Sacker, 2018; Ellison et al., 2007; Kross et al., 2013). There are also conceptual and methodological issues surrounding the measurement of social media use (Jenkins-Guarnieri, Wright, & Johnson, 2012).

In measuring social media use, most studies rely on individuals’ self-reported frequency of use or number of social media accounts opened and/or platforms used. For example, in investigating the link between social media use and mental health indicators such as anxiety, depression, fear of missing out, loneliness, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders, Barry et al. (2017); Primack et al. (2017); Vannucci, Flannery, and Ohannessian (2017); and Ra et al. (2018) have measured social media use in terms of respondents’ self-reported number of social media accounts or number of social media platforms used, and frequency and time spent on different digital media. Similarly, in a study reporting the positive association of social media use with perception of social support and related physical and mental well-being, Nabi et al. (2013) have measured how long respondents have been on Facebook (when they opened a Facebook account), and how many Facebook friends they have. While dose–effect approaches that rely on the measurement of frequency and duration of media use and associated effects have been widely used in conventional media effects studies, the unique features of social media, such as interactivity, “always-on,” and networked-ness, may require measurement approaches that go beyond frequency and dose.

Indeed, there are studies providing preliminary empirical support for the need to go beyond dose–effect measurements. For example, in a longitudinal study, Frison and Eggermont (2015) found differential effects of Facebook use on adolescents’ well-being depending on type of use—whether it was “active” or “passive” use. According to this study, while active Facebook use (engaging in exchanges with other users) was generally associated with positive outcomes, passive Facebook use (viewing others’ posts and profiles without engaging in exchanges) resulted in a more harmful impact on well-being. Similarly, Berryman et al. (2018) found that while overall social media use was not predictive of impaired mental health functioning, one particular activity, that is, “vaguebooking” (posting unclear but alarming posts to get attention), was found to be predictive of suicidal ideation among young adults. Another study that assessed the impact of overall social media use, nighttime-specific social media use, and emotional investment in social media on adolescent sleep and well-being also found that nighttime-specific use and emotional investment are more important than overall use in determining adolescent sleep and well-being (Woods & Scott, 2016). Moreover, as argued by researchers (e.g., Jenkins-Guarnieri et al., 2012; Woods & Scott, 2016), despite increasing integration of social media into the daily lives of many users, measures employed by most studies to date fail to capture the integration of social media use into social routines and users’ emotional investment in the sites’ use. Even the few studies (e.g., Ellison et al., 2007) that have used scales with items measuring users’ emotional connection have lumped these items together with behavioral frequency items, and as such little is known whether routine use and emotional connection to use have any differential effects.

Here, it should be noted that current literature characterizes the link between social media use and health in at least two ways. One body of literature considers social media use as a normal social behavior with positive or negative effects on health-related outcomes, while the other focuses on problematic use and associated effects. In our study, social media use is conceptualized as a normal social behavior. Studies focusing on problematic use employ social media addiction scales that, in most cases, go beyond the measurement of frequency and duration of use (Andreassen, 2015).

In this study, we examined the association of social media use integration into social routines and emotional connection to social media use with three health-related outcomes: social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health. We also examined how routine use and emotional connection to social media use are associated with sociodemographic factors, and if sociodemographic factors moderate the associations of these two social media use variables with the three health-related outcomes.

•Methodology

Participants

Data for the study come from a nationally representative sample of 1,027 American adults surveyed between June and July 2018. We partnered with Knowledge Networks (KN), a survey research company that maintains a nationwide online probability-based panel (KnowledgePanel®). The KN panel was created by combining random digit dialing and address-based sampling methods. The combination of these two methods of creating the panel helps overcome the problems associated with cell phone penetration that affected many random digit dialing surveys. Because KN surveys are administered over the internet, all study participants either have or are given Internet access by KN. Participants were eligible for the study if they were adult (18 years or older).

•Results

Participants provided data on sociodemographic characteristics: gender (male = 48.5%, female = 51.5%), age (18-29 = 20.6%, 30-44 = 25.1%, 45-59 = 26.2%, 60+ = 28.1%), race/ethnicity (White, non-Hispanic = 64.6%, Black, non-Hispanic = 11.8%, Hispanic = 15.8%, Other = 8.1%), education (less than high school = 11%, high school = 28.7%, some college = 28.7%, bachelor’s or above = 31.5%), and income (<$10,000 = 4.2, $10,000 to <$25,000 = 10.9, $25,000 to <$50,000 = 19.5, $50,000 to <$75,000 = 17.4, $75,000 to <$100,000 = 13.9, $100,000 to <$150,000 = 17.1, >$150,000 = 16.9).

Routine use varied by gender and age. A t test indicated that routine use is higher among women than men. Similarly, one-way ANOVA with post hoc comparisons indicated that routine use is significantly lower among older adults (60+) compared with the other three age groups. However, routine use did not significantly vary across education, income, and racial/ethnic groups