Social media and its effects on the users' social life and personal well-being

Bachelor Thesis

Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of Amsterdam

Social media and its effects on the users’ social life and

personal well-being

By Joshua Buse

11441054

Supervisor: Dr. Matthew James Dennis

This document is written by Student Joshua Buse who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.

I declare that the text and the work presented in this document are original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion

Table of Contents

Abstract 3

Introduction 3

1.1 Problem and Objective 3

1.2 Methodology and Structure 5

Literature Review 6

1. Social Media and its effect on conversation, communication, and relationships 6

2. Social Media - The Paradox 8

3. Social media and well-being 10

Discussion 13

Concluding remarks 17

Abstract

This thesis is an examination of social media and its effects on the users’ social life and personal well-being. Social media has developed into an indispensable communication channel that continues to grow in influence on society and the users’ personal life. The purpose of this review is to synthesize the clustered areas of research and identify underlying areas of concern, highlight aspects beneficial to users’ well-being, and provide recommendations for sustainable social media use. The findings illustrate that social media in itself while being structurally designed to be attention draining, can be beneficial to users’ social and personal well-being, unless a

disproportional and addictive usage is predominant in the users’ life. Thus as long as social media is employed to enhance an otherwise balanced social life, it can be regarded as a socially enhancing medium.

Introduction

1.1 Problem and Objective

Modern communication technologies have undoubtedly opened vast opportunities in interpersonal, societal, and economic relations. Since the introduction of the telegraph in 1837, developments in telecommunication have skyrocketed and steadily decreased the time and distance dimensions of information travel (“The Telegraph, 2016). With the introduction and adoption of the internet in the late 20th century, came about possibilities that would, and still are, changing the world day by day (Leiner et al., 2009). Moving from the early Web 1.0, which was generally passive in terms of end-user participation, other than finding information, Web 2.0 is widely associated with the introduction of social media, user-generated content and bi-directional communication (Cormode and Krishnamurthy, 2008). Furthermore, the extent of sharable

content in terms of media formats such as pictures, audio, and video has monumentally increased as a result of growing bandwidth and accompanying mobile devices (Mack, Marie-Pierre & Redican, 2017). The development of mobile devices and more specifically, smartphones, plays a crucial role in the development of social media and its current role in society. The link between the two becomes clearly visible in connection to cell-phone activity. Social media in general and more specifically texting are the driving activities in connection to mobile phone usage (Roberts, Yaya & Manolis, 2014). When we talk about social media there is an important distinction to

make between “social media” and “social networking”. While social media generally describes the online sharing of media content ranging from pictures to ebooks in the form of one-to-many, and usually in one-directional communication (although that has changed due to the ability to interact with others content through for instance commenting), social networking usually describes a more direct, two-way communication and relies on the interaction component (Burke, 2013). However, as platforms have evolved and the internet has become increasingly connected, the line between the two has become increasingly blurred. Thus, for the scope of this paper, we will concentrate on social media with the definition of it being “[w]ebsites and

applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking” (“Social Media”, 2020). However, while social media services market themselves as helping people connect and engage better with “the people in your life” (“Facebook”, 2020), the validity of this claim has been discussed and investigated by various scholars, with differing results (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2011; Kraut et al., 2002; Boyd and Ellison, 2007; Sutcliffe, Binder & Dunbar, 2018; Greenhow and Robelia, 2009). Moreover, many individuals that are or were directly involved in the creation of smart devices or social media design, have come forth to openly criticize their creations. Statements such as “We’ve unleashed a beast, but there’s a lot of unintended consequences” or “I don’t think we have the tools we need to understand what we do every day… we have zero data about our habits on our devices”, by Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iPod and the co-inventor of the iPhone, or “the short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works”, by a former vice president of user growth at Facebook are alarming statements, coming from industry specialists (Wisdom 2.0, 2018; Hern, 2018).

In 2006 only 16% of all surveyed American adults reported using one social networking site, in 2020, 3.75 billion people worldwide, nearly 50% of all people reported using social media, a monumental increase (Perrin, 2015; Chaffey, 2020). Boyd states in his concluding remarks of his 2008 (written in 2007) paper that “the long-term implications of being socialized into a culture rooted in networked publics are unknown” (Boyd, 2008). Now, 12 years later, as social media has evolved to be such a prevalent part of many users’ life as well as society as a whole, this paper strives to identify the patterns and implications of social media use of users and their real-life connections and well-being. Therefore, this thesis will be examining “How does social media impact the user’s real-life social life and well-being?”. As will be discussed,

numerous studies have been conducted, investigating various aspects of social media usage and its impact on users.

1.2 Methodology and Structure

Therefore, this thesis will be structured as a literature review. Compounding the results of various scholars, will extend the general insight into the state of the research and will provide a synthesis of different theoretical research topics and provide a widely applicable insight into the

large variety of aspects in social media use and their impacts. The width of relevant research

topics on this topic is extensive. From a macro perspective, aspects such as the spreading of conspiracy theories, fake news, and other misinformation result in political polarization and can amplify unrest within a society (Pennycook, Cannon & Rand, 2018; van der Linden, 2015). From a micro perspective, the role of influencers, the type of usage, and temporal shifts in the usage, are all relevant factors to take into account. However, for the scope of this literature review, we will focus on research directed at the social component and examine the literature in this domain.

Therefore, firstly we will explore the area of interpersonal relationships and social media’s role and influence. From a more genre angle, we will explore trends in friendships and relationships. Social media’s effect on the size and quality of people’s offline social networks will enlighten larger areas of interest and showcase quantifiable shifts in people’s relationships. Furthermore, we will explore how its use can influence general activity settings and how it brought about certain shifts in the engagement levels as a result of extensive social media use. These impacts will be examined further. By studying the underlying hypocrisy of social media services’ business models and it’s supposed value proposition, we will dissect underlying mechanisms and features that social media services/platforms employ, which could lead to undesired side effects of social media use and are often overlooked by society and the user’s themselves. Lastly, we will scrutinize the previously more tangible areas of this debate, and take a deeper look at the psychological effects that some users may experience. Finally, we will analyze our findings and give recommendations about interventions that could mitigate the harmful site of social media.

Literature Review

1. Social Media and its effect on conversation, communication, and relationships In our modern, technology-driven lives, social media is a tool that is indispensable to maintaining and obtaining an increased level of social support and interaction for individuals (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2011). As social media eases long-distance communication (Schawanen and Kwan, 2008), it’s use can significantly increase and enhance an individual's overall social network size, online as well as offline (Kraut et al., 2002; Boyd and Ellison, 2007; Sutcliffe et al., 2018). Nevertheless, studies have made contradictory findings and indicate there to exist no direct link between a larger offline (real-world) social network size, as a result of increased social media use, while agreeing that the overall number of Facebook friends does correlate with the offline social network (Dunbar et. al, 2015). However, several studies agree that social media use generally “supplement[s] rather than supplant[s] offline social

relationships” (Sutcliffe et al., 2018 P. 228). In addition to its debatable contribution to the

general size of networks, it’s using has been linked to further user’s emotional support (Greenhow and Robelia, 2009), as well as perceived social support (Kim and Lee, 2011).

Notably, the level of perceived social support is correlated in a negative curvilinear relation with the number of Facebook friends (Kim and Lee, 2011). Yet this perceived social support seems to not have an effect on the subjective well-being of users (Kim and Lee, 2011). This is an

interesting finding, as it indicates a discrepancy between users' perceived effect of social media and this translating to their actual emotional state Moreover, Xu and Tang suggest that for certain individuals, social media use can become a “mechanism to relieve stress, loneliness, or

depression”, which is where social media use becomes problematic and can lead to poorer socializing in real life (Xu and Tan, 2012 in Griffiths, 2013). Furthermore, while Sutcliffe et al. 2018) found evidence for social media helping to maintain the real-world social network, they found no link between the use frequency and the users’ social support level (which are positively correlated), translating into higher levels of social satisfaction. Social satisfaction, referring to the level of content individual users experience in relation to their social life as well as

loneliness, is an interesting variable as it seems to prove that disregarding the number of connections and relationships, the quality and emotional intensity of relationships does not increase with more social media use (Sutcliffe et al., 2018). Furthermore, the findings of Sutcliffe et al. (2018) suggest that the frequency of social activities is the major predictor

variable, positively influencing the social satisfaction variable. This begs the question of the type of social media use and its effect on the quantity and quality of the resulting real-world social interaction and relationships, as these seem to be the dimensions that most greatly influence the users’ level of social satisfaction.

Regardless of these negative implications, on offline socializing, according to Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe (2011), social media can actually digitally create and substitute social

capital, “the benefits individuals derive from their social relationships and interactions: resources such as emotional support, exposure to diverse ideas, and access to non-redundant information” (Ellison et al., 2011 P. 873). This again sheds a different light on the previous findings and indicates that there are multiple sides to the larger picture.

As social media has morphed from a purely conversational medium to more content related sharing medium (Rosenblatt, 2019), this is an interesting and crucial dimension of social media to pay closer attention to. With photo sharing being one of the most frequent uses of social media (Smith, 2016), it is interesting to explore its effect on users. Whilst up until recently, photos were taken during an activity, but only evaluated and/or shared after actively engaging in that activity, social media services have integrated features that allow and even call for instant sharing (e.g. Instagram stories and Snapchat/+stories) during the activity. These are relatively recent possibilities that have opened an entirely new facet to social media use and presence in our daily life.

Barasch, Zaubermann & Diel (2017) investigated the effects of photo-taking with the intent to share and came to the conclusion that a clear link between the intended purpose of said photo-taking and the level of enjoyment and engagement while participating in the activity exists. They compared the “traditional” photo-taking, to preserve the memory or to share it with close friends or family, to this new, social media sharing related picture taking with near-instant uploading. They found that the latter can significantly reduce the level of participatory

enjoyment in the activity. The reasoning behind this is that when taking pictures with the intention to share them, firstly, directly lowers the engagement in the activity and also for many individuals self-presentational concerns can trigger anxiety and further insecurities.

Lastly, the 2019 study by Mullan and Chatzitheochari (2019) analyzed how kids and families spend their time at home in the digital age. They found that overall families spent more time at home and have considerably higher screen-times than ever recorded in history. At the

same time though, the overall time they spent communicating face to face amongst each other went down. Interestingly enough, the time they spend engaging in family activities like for instance watching TV together or having communal meals has not dressed accordingly (Mullan and Chatzitheochari, 2019). Overall, people still engage in “traditional” activities but keep their mobile screens on them at the same time. The concept of alone-together time (physically together, but mentally apart due to focusing attention on technological devices) seems to have become very common within families (Mullan and Chatzitheochari, 2019).

2. Social Media - The Paradox

Social media sites' marketing messages portray themselves as helping people to be more social and connect people (“Facebook”, 2020a). As mentioned above, this can be attributed to their ability to connect with the existing social network, as well as easing the expansion of said network due to its ability in assisting the seeking out of like-minded individuals (Ellison et al., 2011; Kraut et al., 2002; Boyd and Ellison, 2007; Sutcliffe, et al., 2018). At the same time, while peoples’ networks have been growing offline as well as online, the amount of screen time has been steadily increasing, which can be attributed to the widespread adoption of mobile devices (Mullan and Chatzitheochari, 2019). As a central part of Mullan and Chatzitheochari’s (2019) study, they explore the concept of so-called alone-together time. Their findings indicate a general increase in the use of social media and mobile screen time (social media plays a major role in mobile device use (Roberts, Yaya & Manolis, 2014), but especially while participating in social activities. In relation to screen-time, Auhuber et al. (2019) researched trends in leisure activities amongst German children and adolescence. Their results suggest an increase in screen time (not only specifically social media related), was directly linked to a decrease in physical activity and outdoor time, as well as a shift away from leisure activities involving arts and music. Furthermore, Twenge et al. (2018) found, in their US-wide survey amongst adolescence, that an increase in new media screen time, did not displace in-person interaction on an individual level, which they based on differences in the individual’s sociability, yet they found supportive evidence for it generally displacing offline social interaction and non-screen activities like the reading print media and physical activity.

Overall there seems to be a general consensus, that new media, and social media more specifically, has directly shifted our leisure activities, firstly due to it’s using, taking out a

considerable amount of time and attention in itself, and secondly, due it influencing people's level of engagement in other activities (Auhuber et al., 2019; Twenge et al., 2018; Barasch et al., 2017).

Social media sites are businesses and are, like any for-profit business, driven by shareholder profit demands. Social media sites vary in their respective business models and revenue streams, but holistically, advertising is by far their most prevalent direct revenue stream (Facebook, 2020b). The showing of ads to users, while engaging in these services, is highly profitable and a sought after marketing outlet for advertisers, due to the high degree of targetability of the recipient of the advertisement (“Facebook”, 2020c). This level of targetability is achieved due to their extensive data and insight on their users’ activity

(Mukherjee, 2018). It is very simple to specifically customize and target users in terms of their preference and responsiveness to certain topics and products as a result of their interests (“Facebook”, 2020c). Thus this user data could be regarded as the prerequisite, as their most valuable revenue stream. This is, however, where the paradox begins. In order for these services to utilize this data, users need to generate it by spending time on their services. Thus, the more time users spend on these services the more specific their targetability becomes, and thus, the more attractive these sites become for advertisers (Carter-Harris, Ellis, Warrick & Rawl, 2016). Therefore, social media sites employ mechanisms to prolong their users engaged on their sites (Montag et al., 2019). This goes against their marketing message of meeting and connecting with others, as people become more immersed in the service and shift attention to it.

Montag et al. (2019) in their review, synthesize previous findings on addictive features, common amongst social media/messaging applications, that aim to make these sites as

immersive as possible. This review highlights endless scroll, social pressure, showing users

content they like, social comparison, and the Zeigarnik/Ovsiankina effect as significant features

that artificially prolong the engagement of user activity (Montag et al., 2019).

Firstly, endless scrolling aims to create a form of “flow”, with no clear endpoint. Whereas flow in itself is generally considered to be positive in terms of productivity and focus

(Csikszentmihalyi, 2002), it can be detrimental when employed to focus attention on cognitively draining activities such as excessive social media use (Montag et al., 2019). The effectiveness of flow in terms of social media and more specifically their “feeds” (main pages) is supported by a lack of goal clarity (Mukherjee, 2018) and can lead to a significant reduction in self-control to

stop, as users are presented with an endless stream of content (Campbell et al., 1996).

Secondly, social pressure can arise in many different forms, yet a very common form is the tick and double tick/sent, received, and seen feature, employed particularly in messaging services. Thereby, users are animated to respond fast and drawn to open the application, as a result of social pressure arising due to both conversational parties knowing the underlying “rules” (Montag et al., 2019). This kind of feature can also clearly be linked to the larger concept of the

fear of missing out, which we will review in the next section (Blackwell et al., 2017).

Thirdly, social media sites employ machine learning algorithms that track users' activity on the services to get to know them in more detail and cater content to their liking as well as making targeting for advertisements more specific (Rader and Gray, 2015). This way users don’t get easily bored and spend more time on the respective services (Montag et al., 2019).

Next, applications like Facebook and Instagram are famous for their “like” feature. This “like” mechanism has been proven to elicit a positive neurological response when received (Sherman et al., 2016) and can trigger addictive behavior (Montag et al., 2017).

Lastly, classic psychological studies by Zeigarnik and Rickers-Ovsiankina, found that individuals have the compulsive need to finish high investment tasks, and react with emotional strain when interrupted (Zeigarnik, 1928; and; Rickers-Ovsiankina, 1927 in Montag et al., 2019). This can be seen as an overarching theme in social media design and plays a role in many of the above-mentioned, artificial, use prolonging components, but could further, clearly be linked to the first point of the continuous scroll in combination with the psychological triggers, resulting users having difficulties to stop using a service, once started.

3. Social media and well-being

With social media having become more than just a communication tool and morphing into a past time that has the potential to significantly influence the minds and behaviors of users, it is interesting to explore the psychological side of the debate. While described above,

mechanisms are in place that result in users experiencing difficulties in connection to managing their social media consumption, due to psychological impulses and designs that lead to time distortions, social media use affects individuals differently.

As touched upon above, social media, while definitely having many ups, also most certainly has downs. While the number of contacts and the total network definitely went up since

the adoption of social media and networking sites, Sutcliffe et al. (2018) found that a trade-off exists between ones’ quantity of relationships and their respective emotional quality. This could have a profound effect on certain users. Normal social media use may turn to social addiction that, in extreme cases, can be comparable to other substance addiction-related symptoms and behaviors (Kuss and Griffiths, 2017). Someone can be classified as addicted to social media, once one is unable to control one's social media use to the point where it begins to interfere with other life tasks (Ryan et al., 2014). Studying social media addiction is interesting as it represents the most extreme form of social media use and thus its effect. Whilst studies’ outcomes could theoretically be purely related to the addictive component, as a neurological response, they definitely shine a light on the overarching effects of intensive social media use.

The level of social media use and its intensity as well as the effect it has on the individual user varies, but certain personality traits may play a role. Blackwell et al. (2017) found support for extraversion being a general predictor of social media use, which supports previous studies’ findings (Kuss and Griffiths, 2011; Ryan and Xenos, 2011). This could be explained due to social media being a great way to amplify social connections (Blackwell et al., 2017; Harbaugh, 2010; Kuss and Griffiths, 2011). Due to the easing of gathering larger scale reassurance and feedback that social media offers, people high in neuroticism are more likely to be using social media and also developing addictive tendencies towards it (Kandell, 1998 in Blackwell et al., 2017).

Additionally, as social media is generally considered to be used to maintain and develop relationships, Blackwell et al. (2017) take a more in-depth look at the attachment style of

individuals. They found individuals with anxious as well as avoidant attachment tendencies were more likely to develop a social media addiction, which can be based on social media playing a mediating role for these kinds of insecure attachment styles (Blackwell et al., 2017). While these findings are contradictory to previous studies that found that attachment style did not influence social media addiction tendencies (Baek, Cho & Kim, 2014), they are consistent with further studies that identify insecure attachment style as a predictor for internet-related addictions (Schimmenti et al., 2014).

Another widely discussed topic in relation to social media use and psychological impacts is the so-called fear of missing out (FOMO). It has gained awareness as a negative psychological trigger and can be explained as an anxious psychological response to the perceived feeling of

people in one's social network living considerably more desirable lives as to oneself (Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan & Gladwell, 2013). Since on social media, people represent themselves in the most positive light possible, people can feel socially ostracized due to seeing others solely post about desirable events in their lives (Buglass et al., 2017). Buglass et al. (2017) investigated the behavioral predictors leading to online vulnerability, i.e. harmful to psychological and physical well-being, (Davidson and Martellozzo, 2013). While finding no evidence for a direct negative effect of extended social media use on users’ well-being, they did find a mediating effect of FOMO in relation to social media use on users’ well-being (Buglass et al., 2017). Thereby they indicate the level of social media use might play an important role in the likelihood of a user experiencing FOMO and the resulting FOMO has been shown to lead to higher levels of online vulnerability (Buglass et al., 2017).

Amongst a multitude of other studies, Twenge et al. in their depression-related study, found evidence for a correlation between high levels of social media usage and aggravated levels of depressive symptoms (Twenge et al., 2018; Woods and Scott, 2016; Lin et al., 2016; Aalbers, McNally, Heeren, A., De Wit & Fried, 2019). Further studies suggest added detrimental effects on sleep quality, fatigue, self-esteem, concentration problems, and overall anxiety (Woods and Scott, 2016; Aalbers et al., 2019; Dhir, Yossatorn, Kaur & Chen, 2018; Keles, McCrae &

Grealish, 2020). While other studies also generated contradictory results (Jelenchick, Eickhoff & Moreno, 2013) or identified more specific predictors such as the fear of missing out (Baker, Krieger & LeRoy, 2016). Others suggest a mediating effect, as the depressive dependencies are correlated to the condition that individuals simultaneously also only engage in low levels of in-person social activities, while also pointing out that this effect is higher amongst girls than it is for boys (Twenge et al., 2018).

Lastly, a recent experimental study in the USA explored the short-term effects of

deactivating Facebook. After just one month, amongst 1,600 students with previously regular use patterns (~1h/day), reductions in feelings of loneliness, an increase in happiness, and overall emotional well-being were observable (Allcott, Braghier, Eichmeyer & Gentzkow, 2020).

Discussion

As this literature review is centered around the question of how social media impacts its users’ real-life social life and well-being, we have discovered that there is a wide spectrum of

aspects to take into account. Firstly, while studies are in disagreement as to whether individual users’ offline network size grows as a result of social media usage, the engageable network certainly does. This is likely being supported by long-distance communication and interaction being made more accessible, and thus social media bridging the physical distance between individuals. As stated by Sutcliffe et al. (2018 p. 228), it “supplement[s] rather than supplant[s]

offline social relationships”, hence the interaction by the means of this digital channel is

supportive especially for geographically separated social connections and allows for seamless yet valuable interaction. This is a relevant topic that became exceedingly visible during the height of the 2020 COVID-19 virus pandemic and the corresponding lockdowns. With people being ordered to stay in their homes and socially distancing themselves from others, media usage went up significantly (Edelman, Hurley & Gangopadhyay, 2020). In particular, social media and video conferencing services played a crucial role in maintaining a necessary level of social interaction. Especially for highly vulnerable individuals with underlying health conditions, socially

distancing from others is a high priority. Simultaneously, social media and digital

communication used to be less adopted by older generations but have become, due to older people being exceptionally vulnerable and thus protective of, an indispensable tool to stay in contact with these people. Therefore, the value of social media has become prevalent and led to many previously adverse people adopting social media. Although the first measures to decrease social distancing have been implemented, in personal experience and others throughout my network, these communication mediums are still used widely and are being used to this date. People have become accustomed to the new communication channels and are using them more, even after their initial necessity decreased. As a result, use time went up significantly, showing that it can be a direct substitute for physical interaction, and is an appreciated tool no physical interaction is possible (Westcott et al., 2020). Besides, the aspect of social media facilitating larger networks makes/made cooperating and seeking help substantially more accessible. Nonetheless, prior to the pandemic, easy access to a large online network already proved to be immensely valuable. Finding rooms or apartments, borrowing items, or even finding jobs are just some aspects where easy access to these reachable larger networks is nearly unparalleled (yet,

openly accessible data such as old social media posts and pictures can also become problematic, especially in connection to job affairs). However, the COVID-19 pandemic took this cooperative potential to another level. Knowing that, for instance, the elderly in your neighborhood required shopping assistance highlighted the immense cooperative value that social media offers, and was integral to the rapid creation of networks of people supporting each other in these difficult times. Under regular circumstances, however, an individual’s emotional support level seems to be a level of concern. Studies indicate that emotional support, derived from social media usage, is often only perceived and does not translate into the same and necessary benefits of real-life emotional support derived from offline interacting and socializing (Kim and Lee, 2011). As the study by Barasch et al. (2017) points out, photo taking, a nowadays central part of social media, can actually, under non-widespread sharing intentions, be supportive in terms of people’s memory preservation of the activity. However, the simple contemplation of sharing the picture on social media can significantly lower the level of engagement, and trigger anxiety, as well as insecurities (Barasc et al., 2017). On the one hand, the act of photo-taking could be physically lowering engagement in the running activity, while however, the photo-taking in itself could also be regarded as the central activity depending on the scenario. Nevertheless, once it is intended to be shared, self-representation, anxiety, and insecurities can result in psychological distractions, leading to active physical engagement. When taking into consideration the findings of Mullan and Chatzitheochari (2019) this level of distraction is an interesting and thought-provoking issue. The concept of alone-together time could play an interesting role in the debate on social media’s effects. While according to their study, the overall time that people spend physically together did not decrease significantly, the amount of interaction, and more specifically the amount of

communication did decrease (Mullan and Chatzitheochari, 2019). This is compelling as it points to a similar direction as the findings of Sutcliffe et al. (2018), indicating that yet, while people overall engage in similar levels of offline social interaction, in terms of time spent actively participating in social activities, their corresponding level of social satisfaction decreased notably.

Therefore, the ever-presence of mobile devices and social media could play an equally important and detrimental role in lowering the social satisfaction and well-being of social media users. As studies indicate, physical and more importantly cognitional attention is diverted from the real-world socializing and sucked into the virtual world (Barasch et al, 2017; Montag et al.,

2019). As Montag et al. (2019) explored, artificially grabbing attention, and essentially trapping users on their services, is an active part of social media’s design and their underlying business models. Who does not remember a situation of sitting together with friends or family, while everyone is endlessly scrolling through one’s social media feed? With social media being an ever-present companion, that has artificial triggers for impulsive and addictive behavior built into it, the companies themselves are definitely playing an active role in the effects of social abuse. These are mechanisms that need to be widely understood by users and the general public in order to become more mindful of the time they spend on social media. Although Instagram and others already offer notifications when users exceed their pre-set daily usage time, many users are numb and accustomed to prolonged social media usage (Throuvala, Griffiths, Rennoldson & Kuss, 2019).

In addition to diverting the individual’s attention, studies researching loneliness are interesting in connection to social satisfaction and excessive social media use. Allcott et al. (2020) discovering that after one month of not using Facebook individuals reported significant improvements to emotional well-being, a reduction in the feeling of loneliness, and an increase in happiness, which presents an interesting discovery, especially due to the time-span of this study. It is unlikely that the individuals made drastic changes to their social network or interests during that short period of time, yet the simple absence of Facebook had a significant positive effect on their well-being. This could be based on the, above discussed, higher level of

engagement in the actual activity, with more cognitive engagement as well as the simple absence of attention diverting mediums.

Moreover, it needs to be recognized that the consequences of excessive social media use can be far greater than simply spending a lot of time on these services. While the benefits of social media are widely acknowledged, for extraverted people, social media can possibly be extra beneficial as, since naturally being more social, social media can magnify their social relations (Kuss and Griffiths, 2011). Besides, the amplitude that social media offers introverts in terms of easing social interaction and supporting introverts in - for instance - making new connections is immense. Yet, for individuals who might have prevailing issues with social interaction, social media use could result in a downward spiral. In light of this, personalities with neurotic, avoidant, anxious, and insecure tendencies need to be particularly careful. Especially with the artificially created mechanisms to trigger prolonged use and addictive impulses alongside the

inescapable ever-presence of the services in everyday social life, the line between constructive and destructive social media use can be blurry and individuals may simply not actively realize the effect that social media could be having on their life.

As this list is surely not exhaustive and moreover generations growing up fully emerged in digital media, specifically social media, many of these impacts on individual and social well-being are most likely still playing out. Therefore, this might only take a noticeable effect over an extended time horizon, thus holistically, people need to be made aware that social media use can be a slippery slope.

I would suggest that as a society, we need to educate ourselves, especially the younger generation, to become more mindful about the potentially harmful capacity of social media. Although age restrictions are in place, implemented by the services directly, many children start using these services far earlier than recommended, even by the services themselves (Ofcom, 2019). Due to the addictive potential, we should consider treating it like other addictive

substances. Programs and courses already exist, teaching children about alcohol, cigarettes, and other drugs, starting at a primary education level. Therefore, digital and social media literacy should be treated equivalently, teaching the most immersed generation about the potential and warning signs of detrimental participation in these services. Furthermore, counselors need to be sensitized to the topic and treat it with the attention that it deserves.

Contrastingly, while social media certainly can be used in a detrimental fashion, its positive capacity can be widely observable and should be put into a lot more of a central role at these companies. When the attention-grabbing mechanisms and psychological determinants for vulnerable individuals are mitigated, social media can most certainly be supportive of offline social interaction. Facebook groups (for example) are a great outlet and place to engage with other like-minded people. Whether it is groups for dog owners that organize central meetups, or groups for expatriates that help people maintain a level of connectedness to their national communities, social media is the central place where to seek out and find these kinds of otherwise communities. Especially in urban areas, life is often anonymous. These types of groups are surely beneficial to establishing new connections, which under different

circumstances could be significantly more difficult to seek out. Building on this, dating applications such as Tinder, Bumble, and many more are great examples of social media’s contribution to an increased real-life social interaction. Due to their capacity to break through the

prevailing anonymity of urban settings and directly connect people. Overall actually engaging in social activities is up to the individual, but when used constructively it opens up an entirely new world of possibilities and can lead to a decrease in the anonymity of the urban lifestyle.

Finally, social media services, since they already possess great amounts of user data, can use their power constructively and direct people to these kinds of positive engagements and real-life activities, simply by shifting the focus of their home feed to including more local activities and meet-up opportunities.

Concluding remarks

What has become prevalent throughout this research is the importance of conscious use of these modern communication mediums. It should be used as an enhancement of an otherwise balanced social life. Under these circumstances, many detrimental side-effects of social media usage can be mitigated and prevented. Additionally, more widespread societal benefits have been seen in the recent #MeToo movement, where social media was used effectively in order to connect and offer solidarity while raising awareness of a previously immensely underrepresented topic in society. Furthermore, the connective potential, resulting in physical mobilization is seen in the currently ongoing black lives matter movement and corresponding protests. This

movement has also gained a significant boost in world-wide awareness through social media and protests largely organized and mobilized through social media.

This literature review aims to give a broad overview of scholars on the topic at hand, therefore it is limited as to the comparability of individual studies. Social media has evolved exceptionally in the last decade and made considerable changes to its interface and features even on an annual basis, thus a longitudinal study would shine a light on shifts in social media’s impact, yet maybe an even greater time horizon would unearth so-far unrecognized impacts of social media use. Furthermore, the intensity of use varies amongst countries and cultures, thus comparing studies conducted in different countries, could be limited as to their type and intensity of use. Lastly, the type of activity on social media is not taken into account in a multitude of studies and thus limits findings on screen-time related comparable results.

To conclude, this review suggests that there is no clear answer to the effect of social media. There are certainly multiple negative facets, while they are amplified under certain

circumstances, they can have severely detrimental effects on the users’ well-being. Yet, constructive use can amplify a user's real-life social life, and when used consciously, negative effects can be averted. It will be interesting to see how societies' acceptance of these services will develop over time and whether the service providers themselves will take on greater

responsibility for users' well-being.

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