Tell me why are you using social media (SM)! Relationship between reasons for use of SM, SM flow, daily stress, depression, anxiety, and addictive SM use – An exploratory investigation of young adults in Germany

Highlights

• Reasons for social media (SM) use may be assigned to five main categories.

• SM flow positively predicts the search for positive emotions on SM.

• SM flow positively predicts the escape from negative emotions on SM.

• Depression symptoms negatively predict the search for positive emotions on SM.

• Use of SM to escape from negative emotions positively predicts addictive tendencies.

Abstract

Social media (SM) such as Facebook and Instagram are daily used by many people. The current study investigated the reasons for social media use (SMU), as well as their relationships with daily stress, depression and anxiety symptoms, experience of flow during the usage process and tendencies of addictive SMU. In a sample of 485 users of different social platforms (age: M (SD) = 24.75 (6.24), range: 18–58), five main categories of usage reasons were identified by an inductive qualitative content analysis: “Search for Information and Inspiration”, “Search for Social Interaction”, “Beat of Boredom and Pastimes”, “Escape from Negative Emotions”, and “Search for Positive Emotions”. Flow experiences positively predicted the categories “Escape from Negative Emotions” and “Search for Positive Emotions”. The last one was additionally predicted by less depression symptoms. Only the category “Escape from Negative Emotions” positively predicted tendencies of addictive SMU. Present findings contribute to the understanding of the development of addictive online behavior. They should be considered when assessing individuals at risk for problematic use of SM like Facebook and Instagram and when developing intervention programs to deal with it.

Introduction

In the year 2020, more than two decades after the release of the first social networking site (SNS) SixDegrees (Prall, 2010) use of online social media (SM) belongs to daily life of many people (Roth, 2020). They write status updates and upload photos on social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to inform online friends about daily experiences, follow updates of other users, and engage in long-lasting public conversations in discussion groups (Sarmiento et al., 2018). A life without social media use (SMU) is inconceivable for many people (Singh, Halgamuge, & Mouess, 2019).

Social platforms are used for different reasons (Marino, Gini, Vieno, & Spada, 2018b; Ryan, Chester, Reece, & Xenos, 2014). Previous research applied the uses and gratifications approach to explain tendencies to intensive use of the Internet in general and of SM in particular (Dunne, Lawlor, & Rowley, 2010; LaRose & Eastin, 2004; Papacharissi & Mendelson, 2011). Social interaction and connection as well as self-presentation belonged to the main identified reasons for the use of SNSs such as Facebook (Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, 2008; Vilnai-Yavetz & Tifferet, 2015). The online communication facilitates relationship formation, contributes to the overcome of shyness and satisfies the need for social belonging (Valkenburg, Schouten, & Peter, 2005; Young, Len-Ríos, & Young, 2017). The possibility to present the own person by various descriptions and photo-sharing to the online community satisfies the need for self-promotion and the need for self-expression (Tifferet & Vilnai-Yavetz, 2018; Vilnai-Yavetz & Tifferet, 2015). Further dominant usage reasons were information or novelty seeking, entertainment, pastimes, relaxation, and escapism (LaRose & Eastin, 2004; Lee, Lee, Moon, & Sung, 2015; Smock, Ellison, Lampe, & Wohn, 2011; Wang, Jackson, Wang, & Gaskin, 2015; Whiting & Williams, 2013; Young et al., 2017). Thus, the gratification of different individual needs may result in intensive use of SM (Ryan et al., 2014).

However, even though the use of SM may contribute to the gratification of specific needs, recent research described the intensity of online activity to be negatively related to subjective well-being (Abi-Jaoude, Naylor, & Pignatiello, 2020). Investigations that considered cohort trends reported that the increase of online activity particularly in adolescents and young adults is accompanied by the increase of psychological distress, depression symptoms, and suicide-related outcomes (Twenge & Campbell, 2019; Twenge, Cooper, Joiner, Duffy, & Binau, 2019; Twenge, Joiner, Rogers, & Martin, 2018). Individuals who use Facebook have higher levels of depression symptoms and insomnia than these who waive the membership of this social platform (Brailovskaia, Margraf, Schillack, & Köllner, 2019). Those findings may contribute to the assumption of a linear causal effect of media use on well-being. However, such conclusions should be drawn with caution. Previous research emphasized that the relationship between time spent online and well-being is not linear, but rather quadratic. While high levels of screen-time are linked to decrease of well-being, moderate time spent on online activity is unlikely to cause harm, rather it may be beneficial for social interaction and socialization (Przybylski & Weinstein, 2017). Both are important reasons for SMU (Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, 2008; Whiting & Williams, 2013). Thus, usage time seems to be a significant moderator of the relationship between online media use and subjective well-being (Verduyn, Ybarra, Résibois, Jonides, & Kross, 2017).

More and more studies report intensive SMU to be positively linked to the development of a close emotional bond to the used platform that is associated with a strong obsessive need to stay permanently online (Andreassen & Pallesen, 2014; Kaye, 2019). This phenomenon was described for specific SNSs such as Facebook (Brailovskaia & Margraf, 2017), Instagram (Kircaburun & Griffiths, 2018) and Twitter (Kircaburun, 2016), as well as for the general SMU (Andreassen, Pallesen, & Griffiths, 2017). Typical characteristics of addictive SMU are salience (permanent thinking about SMU), tolerance (extended time has to be spent on SMU to experience same positive emotions as previously with less online time), mood modification (SM are typically used for mood improvement), relapse (failed attempts to reduce own SMU and return to old use pattern), withdrawal (experience of unease and nervousness without SMU), and conflicts (interpersonal offline problems caused by high intensity of SMU) (Andreassen et al., 2017; Andreassen, Torsheim, Brunborg, & Pallesen, 2012). Several studies identified positive relationships between social interaction, information seeking, entertainment and escapism – as reasons for online activity – and addictive use of Facebook (Kim & Davis, 2009; Marino et al., 2018b; Masur, Reinecke, Ziegele, & Quiring, 2014; Ryan, Reece, Chester, & Xenos, 2016) and Instagram (Ponnusamy, Iranmanesh, Foroughi, & Hyun, 2020). Thus, it can be assumed that some individuals are at a higher risk for addictive usage tendencies than others depending on why they engage in intensive online activity.

Moreover, individuals who experience high levels of daily stress were described to be longitudinally at enhanced risk to develop addictive tendencies (Brailovskaia, Teismann, & Margraf, 2018). Addictive SMU was positively related to depression and anxiety symptoms (Atroszko et al., 2018; Koc & Gulyagci, 2013; Marino et al., 2018b; Marino, Gini, Vieno, & Spada, 2018a). Depression symptoms moderated the link between daily stress and addictive SMU – the higher the level of depression symptoms, the closer the link between daily stress and addictive online behavior (Brailovskaia, Velten, et al., 2019).

Furthermore, previous research described individuals who engage in intensive SMU to experience flow (Kaur, Dhir, Chen, & Rajala, 2016; Kwak, Choi, & Lee, 2014) – a form of intense enjoyment and satisfaction when doing something with total involvement (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). SM flow was defined as a “multidimensional construct reflected by ‘concentration’, ‘time-distortion’, ‘telepresence’, ‘enjoyment’, and ‘curiosity’ as they relate to the SNS interaction” (Kwak et al., 2014, p. 295). Studies that investigated different forms of online media use such as online gaming (Chou & Ting, 2003; Trivedi & Teichert, 2017; Wu, Scott, & Yang, 2013), general Internet use (Khang, Kim, & Kim, 2013; Kim & Davis, 2009) and SMU (Brailovskaia, Bierhoff, Rohmann, Raeder, & Margraf, in press.; Brailovskaia, Rohmann, Bierhoff, & Margraf, 2018; Kwak et al., 2014) emphasized that experience of flow during the media use might be an antecedent of addictive behavior. The online flow subscale ‘telepresence’ that describes the feeling of being totally immersed in the online world linked to fading out of everything that happens in the offline world seems to be of particular importance for the association between flow and addictive media use. In contrast, only a weak association between the online flow subscale ‘enjoyment’ and addictive media use was reported (Brailovskaia, Rohmann, et al., 2018).

Considering the presented results, it can be concluded that addictive SMU might be fostered by specific reasons for online activity and by the increased level of variables such as daily stress, depression, anxiety and flow. However, to the best of our knowledge, the relationship between daily stress, depression, anxiety and flow, the different reasons for use of SM and addictive SMU has not been investigated at once. Therefore, the main reasons for SMU of individuals who experience enhanced levels of daily stress or of online flow or have increased symptoms of depression or anxiety symptoms remain unclear.

This knowledge seems to be of great importance. It can support the screening and identification process of individuals who are at specific risk for this form of addictive behavior, and the development of prevention programs for healthy people as well as therapy programs for clinical patients. The high need for such programs is emphasized by recent findings about potential negative impact of addictive SMU. Results of longitudinal studies revealed addictive use of Facebook to positively predict symptoms of insomnia in a sample of clinical patients (Brailovskaia, Rohmann, Bierhoff, Margraf, et al., 2019), and suicide-related outcomes (suicide ideation and attempts) in a sample of college students (Brailovskaia, Teismann, & Margraf, 2020).

Based on the presented empirical background, the current study had following aims. First, earlier research reported social interaction, self-presentation, information or novelty seeking, entertainment, pastimes, relaxation and escapism to belong to the main reasons for use of online media (e.g., LaRose & Eastin, 2004; Marino et al., 2018b; Masur et al., 2014; Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, 2008; Vilnai-Yavetz & Tifferet, 2015). With regard to the rapid development of new technical features on SNSs such as Facebook and Instagram in the last years (Roth, 2020), it may not be excluded that – additionally to the earlier reported reasons – further reasons impel individuals to intensive or even problematic SMU. Therefore, in the current study, it should be investigated by an explorative analysis which reasons are relevant for SMU in the end of the year 2019. The explorative character of the analysis should avoid restrictions to the earlier identified reasons only and enable a free generation of currently relevant reasons.

Second, individuals with enhanced levels of daily stress, depression and anxiety symptoms, as well as SM flow were described to engage in intensive SMU (Bányai et al., 2017; Brailovskaia, Velten, et al., 2019; Marino et al., 2018b; Verduyn et al., 2017; Xie & Karan, 2019). The present study aimed to investigate whether there are specific association patterns between the variables daily stress, depression and anxiety symptoms, and SM flow, on the one hand, and different reasons for SMU, on the other hand. It should be investigated whether the reasons for SMU may be predicted by the other investigated variables.

Third, different reasons for online activity were reported to be positively linked to addictive use of Facebook (Marino et al., 2018b) and of Instagram (Ponnusamy et al., 2020). It has been assumed that positive experiences made online by the gratification of needs enhance the use intensity of the social platforms and foster the risk to develop addictive tendencies. Particularly the gratification of information seeking, social interaction and pastimes, and of the wish to reduce negative mood were closely linked to addictive tendencies (Brailovskaia, Rohmann, Bierhoff, Schillack, et al., 2019; Marino et al., 2018b; Ryan et al., 2014). The current study aimed to investigate whether these conclusions considering addictive SMU may be replicated and/or expanded in the end of the year 2019. Thus, the relationship between reasons for SMU and addictive tendencies should be investigated.

Considering that the results of the explorative investigation (see first research aim) should reveal the reasons for SMU, and considering the currently insufficient knowledge of the relationship between different reasons for SMU and the other investigated variables, to avoid speculations, three research questions were formulated instead of hypotheses:

For what reasons do individuals engage in SMU? (Research Question 1)

Are the reasons for SMU associated with the level of daily stress, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and online flow? (Research Question 2)

Are the reasons for SMU associated with addictive SMU? (Research Question 3)