The Psychological Effects of Mass Media and Social-Media

 

The Psychological Effects of Mass Media and Social-Media

Abstract

            The purpose of this study was to explore an individual’s emotional response in direct reflection of social-media usage (SMU), a growing online environment that is approximated to have 4.48 billion users worldwide according to the University of Maine’s 2021 Social Media Statistics (University of Maine, 2022). By conducting a observational experiment where a small sample size of 20 individuals were asked to participate in engaging with their social media platforms for thirty minutes to monitor each individual’s emotional responses from the mass media effects of social media, this research analyzes positive and negative emotional reactions, as well as considers possible factors to improve the effects of social media. The type of sampling that will be used for the purposes of this study is systematic sampling, a selection of elements from an ordered sampling frame. This research considers the Uses and Gratifications theory for explanations as to why individuals become dependent on social media.

 

Keywords:

Social-Media Usage (SMU), Uses and Gratifications Theory, Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), Dual Climates of Opinions, Self-esteem Contingency Theory, Digital Natives

 

The Psychological Effects of Mass Media and Social-Media

            The social-media phenomenon has globally connected individuals and expanded the access of availability to a range of content for individuals to engage with. For example, photography, videography, and literature-based content have social media platforms specifically designed for users to contribute with as a form of expression or entertainment. However, this wave of phenomenon has also generated questions as to what happens when individuals are exposed to too much social media content. The question that this research investigates in particular asks what the psychological implications of excessive social media usage (SMU) are.

The Uses and Gratifications Theory

            With the societal transition adapting to technology and telecommunication, there has been questions that arise along with the psychological effects that occur from excessive use of social media usage (SMU). Uses and Gratifications is a user-centered approach that emphasizes the role of the media consumer in relation to potential media effects (Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974). U&G is also a psychological approach to media effects, in that individuals are assumed to be capable of determining their needs and making purposeful choices in fulfilling those needs (Ferris, L. A. and Hollenbaugh, E. E., 2018). We understand computer-mediated communication (CMC) as an inclusive umbrella term for multimodal human-to-human social interaction mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs). These ICTs have been at the canter of recent public concern and research mental health effects (Meier, A. and Reinecke, L., 2021). It is important to study the effects of social media usage in respect to the Uses and Gratifications theory because it is important to understand what motivates individuals to engage with social media, the direction of telecommunication, and the psychological effects of an individual’s well-being from social media. This research can predict the direction of social media effects and provide insight to minimize any negative emotional effects. There are several potential explanations for the complexity of determining the effects of SMU. With small errors, meaning that individuals’ perception of whether they are in the minority is largely accurate, the spiral of silence likely manifests itself; otherwise, different patterns including dual climates of opinions, people experience the climate of public opinion through mass media, might arise (Sohn, D. 2022).

Antecedents to Emotional Stimulation

Factors of an individual’s emotional state may determine the media effects as a consequence. Individuals who may already have a higher risk of experiencing depression or anxiety from either biological or environmental factors, may also have a higher risk of experiencing lower self-esteem after engaging with social media. Oppositely, individuals who have a higher drive and self-esteem may thrive on social media and have a more positive experience. Taking the uses and gratifications into consideration, individuals who are susceptible to either a positive or negative emotional response from social media may develop a dependency of social media for validation purposes. Valkenburg et al states, “An important proposition of Sociometer theory is that self-esteem changes are accompanied by changes in affect (mood and emotions). Self-esteem (and Affect) goes up when people succeed or when others accept them, and it drops when people fail or when others reject them. The results of Thomaes et al. confirmed Sociometer theory: When preadolecents’ online social media profiles were approved by others, their self-esteem increased, and when their online profiles were disapproved, their self-esteem dropped” (Valkenburg, P. et al., 2021).

Emotional Dependency

            Researchers Amber L. Ferris and Erin E. Hollenbaugh find that,

An individual’s social and psychological characteristics directly relate to one’s dependency on media to fulfill goals. Characteristics such as personality traits, self-esteem, and perceived connection to others are likely to affect one’s ability to seek out and obtain communicative functional alternatives, resulting in increased media use (Rubin, 2002).

 

The user specific engagement of SMU determines the motivation behind the content engagement and the emotional responses of how the user perceives the content.

Negative Emotional Responses

It can be argued that an individual with lower self-esteem who may engage with photography-based content, such as Instagram, may utilize their social media platforms as a form of self-validation depending on if they are positively well received. It can also be argued that an individual with a low self-esteem may compare themselves to other users of social media, which in return can add to a declined sense of self. Studying the effects of SMU over time is essential because the negative emotional responses after social media usage can drastically deteriorate an individual’s self-esteem and have even led to extreme circumstances, such as suicide. Youths who are bullied (ie. cyberbullied) are more likely to report depression, low self-esteem, poor school performance, and suicide attempts (Edwards, L., Kontostathis, A. E., and Fisher, C., 2016). In addition, individual characteristics have both direct and indirect relationships with dependency. Results of Ferris and Hollenbaugh’s research revealed that those with lower self-esteem and social cohesion were more dependent (Ferris, A., and Hollenbaugh, E. E. 2018).

RQ 1: What is it about social media that lowers an individual’s self-esteem?

Positive Emotional Responses

However, there are contradictory findings regarding the negative effects of SMU. Positive emotional effects when engaging with social media can bring individuals a sense of motivation, inspiration, and relief as a distraction. Researchers Patti Valkenburg et al. states that “the social media users tend to share and receive more positive than negative information. This positivity bias also strongly holds for adolescent social media users. For example, among a national sample of adolescents, only 8% “sometimes” received negative feedback on their posts, whereas 91 % “never” or “almost received such feedback” (Suciu, P. 2021). A commonly well received opinion of social media is the connection it brings to individuals from all over the world. Individuals who are socially uncomfortable communicating at face-to-face value may thrive substantially higher as an online presence. With social media platforms such as YouTube, individuals gravitate with online communities that have similar interests and commonalities that bring individuals together, creating telecommunicative interpersonal relationships.

RQ 2: Does social media provide a positive, comfortable environment for individuals?

Person-Specific Gratifications

Valkenburg et. al. (2021), has found that the adolescents that differ in their susceptibility to the effects of SMU may lie in person-specific susceptibility to the positivity bias in SMU. The self-esteem contingency theory recognizes that people differ in the areas of life that serve as the basis of their self-esteem. In Valkenburg’s et al. (2022) study, they found that social media browsing may lead to positive, negative, or no effects among individuals depending on a variety of dispositional, developmental, social, and situational antecedents, mediators, and moderators. Considering that individuals have specific reasonings for their social media engagement, it can be argued that individuals have their own responsibility to monitor their social media content. A way of doing so would be to interact with the social media algorithms by blocking and reporting triggering content so that the person specific social media content is adjusted accordingly to what is most comfortable for that particular individual.

RQ 3: Can Algorithms improve an individual’s experience with social media usage?

Hypothesis

IV 1: Interaction (manipulated: free roam exposure vs. controlled algorithm). A set of participants will be asked to scroll through the social media platforms of their choose for about thirty minutes. A different set of participants will be asked to scroll through particular social media platforms that are algorithm concentrated for thirty minutes.

IV 2: Emotional Response (negative vs. positive). Each set of respondents will be observed on their mood prior to being asked to engage with their social media platforms. After their interactions are completed, each set of respondents will be asked to report their mood to compare any differentiations.

DVs 1 and 2: Interaction (DV 1) and emotional response (DV 2). Social media platforms (will vary from text-based content, photography-based content, and video-based content). Participants will be asked what social media platforms they regularly engage with and why they gravitate to the social media platforms of their choose in particular. Participants will also be asked what age they began interacting on social media, approximately how long they averagely spend on social media, and how engaged/ interactive they are with other individuals through the means of social media.

H1: Participants who freely engage on social media for the purposes of this experiment will experience a more negative emotional response compared to individuals who have a controlled algorithm.

H2: Participants who have a controlled engagement on social media for the purposes of this experiment will experience a more negative emotional response compared to individuals who freely engage on social media.

H3: Participants who engage with social media platforms that are text-based (ie. Reddit) will have a more informative/ educational experience than individuals who engage with video/ photography based social media platforms.

H4: Participants who engage with social media platforms that are video based (ie. TikTok, YouTube, etc.) will have higher influential effects than individuals who engage with text-based or photograph-based (Instagram) social media platforms.

Method

For the purposes of this research, a qualitative, observational experiment will be conducted where voluntary participants will be divided into two groups (controlled vs. free) and be asked to interact with their social media platforms for thirty minutes. The purpose of conducting this experiment is to understand the psychological effects of individuals who engage with social media. The participants will be asked to report their emotional state before and after engaging with their social media to analyze any differences to their psychological well-being after interacting with social media. In addition, this research considers the Uses and Gratifications theory to better understand what motivates individuals to engage with social media

Participants

            This study will recruit 20 participants within the interpersonal relations of the researcher. Considering that this study will be focusing on the participants psychological evaluations, interpersonal relationships will not interfere with the purposes of this study. 10 participants will be considered a controlled group and will be asked to engage with different, specific types of social media platforms depending on their media content (video content, photography content, or literature content) for thirty minutes. The other 10 participants will be asked to freely engage with their social media platforms for thirty minutes without any restrictions on the different types of social media content. The gender of the participants is not important to consider for the purposes of this research and will vary from male, female, and non-binary. The ages of the participants will vary from 14-30 years old to understand how mass media effects various age groups depending on maturity level. This research will be conducted multiculturally, with a diverse selection of participants.

Design and Procedures       

            Considering this research conducts an experiment that analyzes the cause-and-effects of social media to an individual’s psychiatric well-being, this research will conduct a quasi-experiment. A 2 (Manipulated: Free roam exposure vs. controlled exposure) x 2 (Emotional Responses: Negative vs. positive) independent group quasi-experimental design will be employed. With one set group of participants organized as a manipulated controlled group and the other set group of participants being freely interactive, the two groups will then be compared to analyze content based social media platforms to determine if the type of content is an attribute to any emotional responses, as well as, if algorithmics can benefit an individual’s emotional state when engaging with social media depending if a social media platform structure allows users to customize their contents algorithms by blocking, muting, and taking control of what kind of content is being advertised.

Instrumentation

     Variable A

Emotional Responses (negative vs. positive): This variable will be measured through the process of levels of measurement: Nominal (determining emotional responses (including discouragement, motivation, self-doubt, anxiousness, happy, sad)), Ordinal (ranking emotional responses from a 1-5 scale range). Correlation will determine the positive, negative or zero relationship between the participants emotional responses and the social media effects.

Emotional Responses:	Ordinal Ranking: 1-5	Ordinal Ranking: 1-5
Happy
Motivated
Well received, self-reflection
Sad
Discouraged
Self-doubt

 Figure 1.1

Variable B

Interaction (free roam exposure vs. controlled algorithm): This variable will be measured similarly to the emotional responses to determine the emotional states contrasting the content on social media. Correlation will determine the positive, negative or zero relationship. This will provide insight if algorithms can elevate the emotional state when individuals engage with their social medias.

Proposed Analytic Strategy

Correlation analysis involves two variables that are tied together. In this research, correlation analysis will be the proposed analytic strategy used to determine the positive vs. negative emotional reactions that the participants report as a result of the mass media effects of social media.

Discussion

            A generation of digital natives are born in a post technological world with social media being a center of internet usage. With social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Youtube, Tumblr, Pintrest, Twitter, and many more, individuals can devote their engagement with content specifications. This aligns with the U&G theory because the user is fulfilling their needs. Considering the social media effects to an individual’s psychological well-being, why social media can lower an individual’s self-esteem, if social media can provide a positive, comfortable environment for individuals, and if algorithms can improve an individual’s experience with SMU, it can be assumed that maturity level plays an important attribute to the emotional responses of SMU because individual’s with a higher maturity level are able to set proper boundaries of their social media content, interaction, and engagement. In “The Dangers of Social Media for the Psyche”, author David Brunskill argues that the cognitive processing of compartmentalization assists individuals to separate the online spectrum of social media (and its negative effects) and rationally come to terms that social media is a glorified perception that individuals personally select to engage with. Brunskill states,

Compartmentalization has been traditionally defined in pathological terms as keeping separate parts of one’s personality that should be kept together. Whilst it may alternatively be conceived of as an everyday defense mechanism – serving to increase efficiency in a world with complex and competing demands on our time and emotions – such compartments will clearly need to be periodically processed in order for an authentic psychological self to thrive and the personal integration necessary for good mental health to occur (Brunskill, D. p. 403).

 

This suggests that individuals reassess the circumstances of what creates discomfort and negative emotional responses in order to provide a beneficial engagement. In Valkensburg et al. study, it is stated that “social media have become a fixture in adolescents’ social media life, and the use of these media may thus result in negative experiences. Among all adolescents need their parents or educators to help them prevent, or cope with, these potentially negative experiences. Parents and educators can play a vital role in enhancing the positive effects of SMU and combatting the negative ones” (Valkenburg, P. et. al. p. 18, 2021).

Limitations

            A small sample size is difficult to determine the attitudes and emotional responses to SMU of the total population of social media users. In addition, although this research was an all-inclusive when seeking participants and interpersonal relationships does not alter the emotional responses of an individual’s psychiatric well-being, not expanding the geographical demographics of participants limited the results of this study. The limitations of this research indicate that it is difficult to determine the overall emotional response of an entire population with conflicting attributes. Many things must be taken into consideration as to why social media effects individuals a certain way and differently for other individuals. Each experience of social media engagement is dependent on an individual’s overall psychological well-being, the individual’s attitudes and beliefs, the content of each individual’s algorithm, the maturity level of the individual, environmental factors, and so on. Not every individual will experience a negative emotional reaction after engaging with social media, whereas not every individual will experience a positive emotional reaction after engaging with social media. For example, an individual who is already having a relatively bad day may go into interacting with their social media platforms with a negative mindset, which can negatively portray their perception of their experience: the content their engaging with could further trigger an individual’s negative emotional state or increase an individual’s emotional state. Although this can explain what motivates individual’s to seek certain content to reflect their current emotional state (for example, looking a animal videos for enjoyment or watching a sad video to relate to), it creates difficulty in determining the emotional responses in direct reflection of mass media effects.

Future Research

            Going forward, it is important to continue surveying and researching the psychological effects of SMU because as technology advances, it is important to be cautious of any negative implications to prevent negative mass media effects that can potentially cause harm. As each generation enter as digital natives, social media will be an element of influence in a post technological society, so it is important to consider the mass media effects of social media, and therefore “a need for scrutiny of these experiences of youth, considering the broader landscape of rapidly developing communication technologies and the general discussion of the social media’s impact on young psychological prosperity” (Avinash, R. Marginalization and Social Media). A beneficial solution of understanding the effects of SMU would be by conducting a larger study asking participants to reflect their overall emotional experience with SMU and analyze if it has been an overall positive or negative experience. This potential study would benefit by being all inclusive and seek out individuals of other demographics and geographical locations to expand the response feedback. This can also generate further questions to consider the effects of SMU. Does the geographical location attribute to the algorithms of social media and the content being advertised to individuals; either politically through local governmental advertisements, or environmentally by suggesting locations and weather adjustments.

Conclusion

In conclusion, an important topic of consideration for SMU effects is age. The maturity level in social media users play a significant role in the emotional responses of SMU for a variety of factors. Adolescents are physically going through an emotional transition as their developing bodies are processing hormones. Adolescents are beginning to navigate life through trials and tribulations of their own life experiences and therefore have not fully developed a sense of wisdom, which can hinder their engagements with social media. Brunskill states, “social media (and the internet) therefore has the capacity to be influential during every stage of dynamic identity formation and appears likely to directly contribute to the fluxes which are part of the modern adolescent experience for many (and thus potentially and agent of change: for better or for worse)” (Brunskill, D. p. 407). Furthermore, the uses and gratifications theory provide explanations as to what motivates individuals to become invested with social media. Individuals of all ages, races, and genders are motivated to engage with their social media platforms differently. That being said, maturity level is not a solution to a more positive experience of SMU because low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety can affect any individual. Jessie M. Quintero Johnson et al. researched how mental health information being advertised on social media platforms can educate individuals on how to properly asses their psychological well-being, stating that “as social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook become popular vehicles for disseminating mental health information, it is important to consider how these platforms might influence users’ perceptions about how the presentation of health testimonials” (Quintero Johnson, J. M., et al., 2017). Providing adequate information and resources to the users of social media can direct individuals to the right direction in improving their psychological well-being and live a well sustained life going forward.

References

Avinash, R. (2019). Marginalization and Social Media. Language in India, 19(9), 46-49

Brunskill, D. (2014). The Dangers of Social Media for the Psyche. Journal of Current Issues in Media & Telecommunications, 6(4), 391-415

Computer-Mediated Communication, Social Media, and Mental Health: A Conceptual and Empirical Meta-Review. (2021). Communication Research., 48(8), 1182-1209.

Edwards, L., Kontostathis, A. E., & Fisher, C. (2016). Cyberbullying, Race/Ethnicity and Mental Health Outcomes: A Review of the Literature. Media & Communication, 4(3), 71-78. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/10.17645/mac.v4i3.525

Ferris, A. L, & Hollenbaugh, E. E. (2018). A Uses and Gratifications Approach to Exploring Antecedents to Facebook Dependency. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 62(1), 51-70. https://doi-org,ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/10.1080/08838151.2017.1375501

Quintero Johnson, J. M., Yilmaz, G., & Najarian, K (2017). Optimizing the Presentation of Mental Health Information in Social Media: The Effects of Health Testimonials and Platform on Source Perceptions, Message Processing, and Health Outcomes. Health Communication, 32(9), 1121-1132. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/10.1080/10410236.20

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Appendix (1): Table Measurement

Emotional Responses:	Ordinal Ranking: 1-5	Ordinal Ranking: 1-5
Happy
Motivated
Well received, self-reflection
Sad
Discouraged
Self-doubt

 Figure 1.1

This figure was created by using the Microsoft Word software and is intended to be used individually for each participant of this research (20 charts, specific for each individual response from participants. The feedback provided will come from the participants response of their emotional well-being before and after their engagement with SMU. This data will later be measured to determine the overall response feedback and determine if the responses are relatively positive, negative, or show no significant feedback.

Appendix (2): Technology

            The tools utilized for the purposes of this study are all technologically demonstrated by the participants cell phones. Utilizing their own personal cell phones already provides the structured algorithms tailored to the specific individuals and provides the proper information of how the emotional response after SMU aligns with the participants everyday life.

Appendix (3): Social Media Platforms 

            The social-media platforms utilized for the purpose of this study were Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit. These social media platforms are a combination of photography, videography, and literature-based content that can demonstrate the mass media effects of persuasion, and priming. Similar to the cell phone, each social media profile is tailored to the specific individual participating in this study and can reflect the algorithms accustomed to the participants.