How is Social Media Usage Associated With Social Connectedness

A new experimental task involving a mock social networking site can group people into three distinct styles of social media use: passive, reactive, and interactive. The findings are published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. Moreover, data from a large online sample suggests that these styles of social media use may be related to psychological well-being, with more interactive users reporting greater feelings of social connectedness than passive or reactive users.

What Social Media Usage is Teaching About Social Connection

Despite the wealth of research into the psychological impact of social networking site (SNS) usage, inconsistent findings have prevented any firm conclusions from being drawn. While some studies have concluded that social media usage is associated with increased social connectedness and reduced loneliness, others report detriments to loneliness and well-being with greater use of such platforms.

In the new work, the researchers developed a computerized task to measure styles of usage on a mock SNS platform. They administered the SNS Behavior Task (SNSBT) online to 526 individuals, who also completed questionnaires on their levels of loneliness, sense of belonging, social connectedness, and online social capital, and answered questions about their Facebook usage and friend network.

The SNSBT grouped users into three discrete groups depending on how often they clicked “Next,” “Like,” or “Share” on 90 images presented to them on the mock SNS. On average, passive users, about 39% of those in the study, clicked “Next” most often, on 85% of images. Reactive users, 35.4% of the study, most often clicked either “Next,” 59% of the time, or “Like,” 36% of the time. Interactive users, 25.7% of participants, mostly clicked “Like,” 51% of the time, or “Share” 20% of the time.

Stay Socially Connected with Social media

Analysis of the data revealed that interactive users had, on average, more Facebook friends, spent more time on Facebook, and reported greater feelings of social connectedness and social capital than passive or reactive SNS users.

However, this study could not determine if any causative or directional link between these factors exists, and more work is needed to understand the effects of potential confounding factors on these relationships.

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The new tool with which researchers can measure different styles of engagement on social networking platforms, indicates that our style of engagement can be more important for our psychological well-being than the amount of time we spend on social media.

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Source-Eurekalert