The effect of social media on well-being differs from adolescent to adolescent

The question whether social media use benefits or undermines adolescents' well-being is an important societal concern. Previous empirical studies have mostly established across-the-board effects among (sub)populations of adolescents. As a result, it is still an open question whether the effects are unique for each individual adolescent. We sampled adolescents' experiences six times per day for one week to quantify differences in their susceptibility to the effects of social media on their momentary affective well-being. Rigorous analyses of 2,155 real-time assessments showed that the association between social media use and affective well-being differs strongly across adolescents: While 44% did not feel better…

• NO
  Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

  Awards: 024.001.003, 452.17.011, VIDI grant (NWO VIDI Grant 452.17.011)
• UV
  Universiteit van Tilburg