Social Network Sites and Well-Being: Is it Only a Matter of Content?

Abstract

Are social network sites harmful to our well-being? Despite the topicality of this question, the literature is still inconsistent. Possible reasons include the over-use of cross-sectional designs, the centration on Facebook, and the omission of the different ways of using these platforms. Two preregistered experimental studies were therefore conducted to investigate the effects of passive and active usages of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on subjective well-being. For both the first (N = 244) and the second (N = 164) study, the results did not yield any significant effects of the type of social network sites and their passive-active usages on subjective wellbeing. In contrast, surfing content was associated with subjective well-being in Study 2: the more positive the content was, the more life satisfaction increased, and the more the negative affect decreased. Further investigation of this research question will be necessary in larger samples, including longitudinal studies that could provide greater ecological validity while testing the effects of social network sites in the long-term. These findings are therefore to be taken with caution; above all, they open new avenues of research to understand the relationship between social network sites and subjective well-being.