Abstract
Social media use is almost ubiquitous among adolescents and emerging adults. Although much has been studied about the psychological implications of social media use, there is currently no integrative model in which multiple dimensions of social media are considered. The goal of this theoretical article is to introduce the Multidimensional Model of Social Media Use (MMSMU), which aims to provide a useful framework for researchers and practitioners to study and understand young people’s social media use in relation to their psychological well-being. The model attends to three major dimensions: activities performed on social media, motives for social media use, and communication partners connected through social media. We present empirical evidence showing whether each dimension is associated with better or poorer well-being and identify or propose mechanisms explaining the associations. Before concluding the article, we discuss clinical implications and possible ways to further expand the proposed model.
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Notes
boyd prefers that her name be presented in lower case throughout. See her website: https://www.danah.org/
In computer-mediated research, self-presentation and self-disclosure can be used interchangeably because both concern self-expression (Kim & Dindia, 2011). We follow this convention and include studies of online self-disclosure in our discussion of self-presentation.
Jin (2014) found a positive relationship between escapism and well-being in the context of social network game use. However, as the author pointed out in the discussion, there were validity issues with the scale used. Investigating this further, the scale incorporated few references to escape, problems, worries, and other common characteristics of escapism. Generally, escapism should relate with poor well-being, although more studies with valid scales are needed.
The studies by Lin and Utz (2015) and Liu et al. (2016) are among the cornerstones of this conclusion, and thus it is important to make it clear that their samples were adults (including emerging adults and adults of other ages; Mage = 25 to 41.7). Although the samples were not strictly youth, given the prominence of these two studies in the research of relational closeness and social media browsing, we still include them in our review and model development.
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Yang, Cc., Holden, S.M. & Ariati, J. Social Media and Psychological Well-Being Among Youth: The Multidimensional Model of Social Media Use. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 24, 631–650 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-021-00359-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-021-00359-z