11. Factors in Social Media and Well Being

Question 1

factors in type of use

Answer 1

1. active → facilitates exchanges with others: chatting, posting, sharing
   
   • Helps to build and enhance social relationships
   • Social relationships → positive for well-being
2. passive → lurking, consuming information without exchanges
   
   • Passive inspires more envy
   • Envy → poor well-being

Question 2

Study looking at teens time on social media

Answer 2

+ correlation between passive use and higher rates of depression
- correlation between active use and rates of depression

Question 3

experimental design on active vs. passive

Answer 3

Measured mood immediately after using social media and again at end of day

FINDINGS

• No difference immediately after
• At the end of the day:
  active = increased well-being
  passive = negative well-being

Question 4

dispositional factors

Answer 4

Personality, mental health, etc.

Question 5

who is at greater risk?

Answer 5

1. Adolescents with heightened mental health concerns (linked with envy -> less enjoyment)
2. Adolescent girls (body image)
3. ppl w/ Challenges with self-regulation (inability to control use or stop using)
4. ppl with FOMO

Question 6

contextual factors?

Answer 6

social / environmental

Question 7

what contextual factors -> greater risk?

Answer 7

1. Low income youth
   - less parental monitoring
   - spend more time on screens
2. Racialized youth → both more risk and more benefit?
   • Mixed patterns
   • Exposure to negative images and stereotypes online
   • More community
     
     • Study interviewing black girls → traumatized by representation of black hate crimes online (risk), however; they use it as a safe space to connect with and chat with other youth

Question 8

who has more benefit

Answer 8

• LGBTQ+ youth
  
  • Beneficial to coming out, identity development, community, support

Question 9

what age is at more risk?

Answer 9

• Younger adolescents
  
  • 11-13 girls, 14-16 boys
  • (age of puberty)
• Also in late adolescence?
  
  • Around 19 years for both
  • (time for great life transitions → moving out of home, first year in university, etc.)

Question 10

4 ways to improve the research

Answer 10

1. More experimental studies
2. More accurate measurements of social media use
   a. Beyond just total time, but also what is being accessed
3. Research beyond NA and Europe
4. More data
   a. Dispositional, contextual, and developmental factors
   b. On motivations for use
   c. On time period
   d. Systemic evaluations of age

Question 11

SOCIALIZATION

Answer 11

The process by which we learn the behaviours, values, skills, beliefs, and norms of our society

Question 12

conclusion on. the effects of media ?

Answer 12

• The effects of media on how we develop, how we behave and think, are CONTROVERSIAL!
• Most scholars agree that media does impact us–though this effect is likely small-ish
• The impacts of media can be both “negative” and “positive”

Question 13

media effects across development

Answer 13

• Infants → struggle to learn from media
• Younger children → may be more impacted by some media, given more difficulty distinguishing fiction vs reality
• Adolescents → may be more impacted in areas of identity, sexuality, and relationships

Question 14

in what ways do the effects differ across individuals?

Answer 14

• Race/ethnicity
• Gender
• Temperament
• Identification with media characters
• Reasons for using media
• Ways of using media

Question 15

why is media so hard to study

Answer 15

change so fast, so many variables, social media is like an umbrella term

Question 16

what can the family do

Answer 16

• An awareness of content and how media is being used
• Co-viewing and commenting
• At-home media literacy

Question 17

educators can do?

Answer 17

Media education in schools?

Question 18

policy makers ?

Answer 18

• Should there be regulation of media?
• Funding for beneficial media?