Researchers from Oxford Saïd conducted a six-month longitudinal study of 1,029 adults, with participants’ daily time using social platforms on their mobile devices unobtrusively tracked and their well-being measured every two weeks.
The findings suggest a small, positive effect of time spent using social platforms on both subjective well-being and psychological wellbeing (but no significant effects on physical health or financial security). Furthermore, the research shows that time spent using social platforms that facilitate interactions with friends and family correlates with positive subjective and psychological well-being.
Prior research generally concludes that social platforms negatively affect people’s welfare. This research reopens the debate by using a robust methodology to examine the time series effects of social platform use on users’ subjective wellbeing, psychological well-being, physical health, and financial security.
Much of the research on the relationship between social platform usage and subjective and psychological well-being is based on small or unrepresentative samples or is methodologically limited. The current research sought to address these limitations by exploring the relationship between social platform use, subjective well-being, and its component factors using a robust empirical approach. We collect primary data using a large sample size of 1,029 adults and a longitudinal study design that unobtrusively measures social platform usage.
The six-month longitudinal design demonstrates how changes in social platform usage correlate with subsequent wellbeing. While not causal, the design allows the exploration of time series effects. Additionally, the study measured social platform usage without being intrusive instead of relying on self-reports. This gets rid of possible biases, such as people underreporting their usage because they are “mindlessly scrolling,” self-presentational concerns, like worrying that high usage will make them look “bad” or “lazy,” and demand effects, like people wanting to “help” researchers confirm the negative effects of social media use because they have been in the news a lot lately.
Finally, the researchers explored potential explanations for the findings by classifying social media platforms by usage type and characteristics to better understand the important factors to the effect of social platform use on well-being.
According to Andrew Stephen, deputy dean for faculty and research at Oxford Sad and founder and director of the Future of Marketing Initiative, “Billions of people use social media every day for a variety of purposes, from entertainment to commerce to keeping in touch with friends and family.” In recent years, there has been an ongoing debate around whether using social media is healthy, which this research contributes to.
“Our evidence, from studying a large group of adults in the US and UK over six months, demonstrates that time spent on social media apps can potentially have positive psychological well-being consequences when social media is used as a means of communication and engagement with people close to them,, such as friends and family, which we term ‘meaningful connections’. This does not mean that all kinds of social media use are good for us but rather shows that how people use these powerful and ubiquitous communication platforms matters.”
Importantly, the research shows a small, positive correlational effect of time spent using social platforms on subjective and psychological well-being. This positive relationship is related to using platforms that facilitate intimate interactions or using social platforms to engage with close ties such as friends and family .
While these findings contradict a large body of research that generally concludes that social platforms negatively affect people’s well-being, it aligns with past research on real-world social relationships. Research on real-world relationships emphasises the importance of social bonds and connectivity to improve well-being.
Furthermore, it extends the growing literature that finds a positive effect of specific social platform behaviour on well-being. Finally, the study shows no relationship between social platform usage and physical health or financial security.
