Abstract

Daily social media use has been previously linked to worse everyday memory functioning in adulthood; however, the underlying mechanisms that drive these associations are unclear. One pathway in which social media use may negatively influence memory functioning is through a decrease in emotional well-being. Therefore, using a daily diary study from the Midlife in the United States Refresher cohort (MIDUS; n = 782, 25–75 years old), the current study conducted a multilevel structural equation model to examine whether social media use influenced memory failures indirectly through positive and negative affect. Analyses revealed that daily negative affect, but not positive affect, was a significant mediator at the within-person level. On days when social media use was high, individuals reported greater negative affect and in turn, more memory failures. The potential underlying socio-evaluative effects that may drive the association between social media use, negative affect, and memory failures are discussed.

摘要

此前，日常社交媒体的使用与成年后日常记忆功能较差有关；然而，驱动这些关联的潜在机制尚不清楚。使用社交媒体可能对记忆功能产生负面影响的一种途径是情绪健康下降。因此，使用来自美国中年进修队列 (MIDUS; n = 782, 25–75 岁），目前的研究进行了一个多层次结构方程模型来检验社交媒体的使用是否通过积极和消极的影响间接影响记忆失败。分析表明，日常的负面影响，而不是正面影响，是个人层面的重要中介。在社交媒体使用率高的日子里，个人报告的负面影响更大，反过来，更多的记忆失败。讨论了可能推动社交媒体使用、负面影响和记忆力障碍之间关联的潜在潜在社会评价影响。