Symposia
Technology
Melissa J. Dreier, PhD
Graduate student
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Saskia L. Jorgensen, PhD
Lab Coordinator
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Ella Diab, None
Undergraduate student
Notre Dame University
South Bend, Indiana
Sarah Bregna, None
Undergraduate student
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Jessica L. Hamilton, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Rutgers
Piscataway, New Jersey
Background: Adolescents use social media frequently and for most social interactions, but less research has examined the relationship between social media use and affect during that use. This study examined how positive affect while on social media may render it rewarding, driving further increases in use among adolescents. It also examined whether negative affect while on social media may reduce social media use.
Method: This study followed 19 adolescents [Mage=15.8 (1.0); 37% girls/58% boys/5% non-binary; 79% white/10.5% black/10.5% Asian] for M=30.6 (5.6) days. We used an application to passively monitor and measure objective amount of time spent on social media and number of times social media was checked. We used ecological momentary assessment to assess daily positive and negative affect while using social media.
Multilevel models were used to examine whether positive affect and negative affect while using social media was associated with within-person changes in 1) daily time spent on social media and 2) number of times adolescents checked social media that day. To isolate the effect of within-person relationships, we controlled for between-person (or average) affect while using social media.
Results: Daily positive affect while using social media was associated with within-person increases in how many times adolescents checked social media each day (b=0.75, p=.003). However, positive affect was not associated with within-person increases in amount of time spent on social media per day (b=.23, p=.430).
Negative affect while on social media was not associated with amount of time spent on social media (b=0.21, p=.50) or number of times adolescents checked social media (b=0.33, p=.33).
Discussion: Adolescents check social media more frequently—but do not necessarily spend more time on social media—when social media elicits positive feelings. Yet, they do not limit their social media use when use elicits negative feelings. These findings add to growing evidence that social media use is rewarding for adolescents and is hard to self-regulate, even after negative emotional consequences. Furthermore, these findings highlight that social media ‘screen time’ may not paint a full picture of adolescent social media use, and social media checking may be a useful metric to consider.