Loading…

Active social media use and its impact on well-being — an experimental study on the effects of posting pictures on Instagram

Active use of social networking sites (SNSs) has long been assumed to benefit users’ well-being. However, this established hypothesis is increasingly being challenged, with scholars criticizing its lack of empirical support and the imprecise conceptualization of active use. Nevertheless, with consid...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of computer-mediated communication 2022-11, Vol.28 (1)
Main Authors: Krause, Hannes-Vincent, große Deters, Fenne, Baumann, Annika, Krasnova, Hanna
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Active use of social networking sites (SNSs) has long been assumed to benefit users’ well-being. However, this established hypothesis is increasingly being challenged, with scholars criticizing its lack of empirical support and the imprecise conceptualization of active use. Nevertheless, with considerable heterogeneity among existing studies on the hypothesis and causal evidence still limited, a final verdict on its robustness is still pending. To contribute to this ongoing debate, we conducted a week-long randomized control trial with N = 381 adult Instagram users recruited via Prolific. Specifically, we tested how active SNS use, operationalized as picture postings on Instagram, affects different dimensions of well-being. The results depicted a positive effect on users’ positive affect but null findings for other well-being outcomes. The findings broadly align with the recent criticism against the active use hypothesis and support the call for a more nuanced view on the impact of SNSs.
ISSN:1083-6101
1083-6101
DOI:10.1093/jcmc/zmac037