Characterizing Adolescent Social Media Experiences and Links to Momentary Affect

Social media (SM) use is ubiquitous among adolescents, and questions remain regarding the impact of SM on youths' emotional health. Understanding what adolescents are experiencing on SM is critical for answering these questions.

The present study uses ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to characterize SM experiences (SMEs) over 15 days in 94 U.S. adolescents ages 12-15 years (53% female, 64% White). At each EMA observation, participants used a pre-specified list to indicate which (if any) socially threatening and rewarding SMEs they had since the last observation. Online communication behaviors and valence-ambiguous SMEs were also explored. In addition to characterizing the frequency of these SMEs, associations between SMEs and momentary positive and negative affect (PA/NA) were tested using multilevel modeling.

Adolescents more frequently reported rewarding (e.g., receiving supportive or encouraging comments) than threatening (e.g., getting bullied, blocked, or told mean comments) SMEs. Moreover, 41% of participants failed to endorse any threatening SMEs that were assessed over the 15-day EMA period. While rewarding and threatening SMEs were associated with higher concurrent PA and NA, respectively, SMEs were not prospectively related to changes in within-person affect from one survey to the next.

Identifying what adolescents are experiencing when using SM is crucial for better understanding how SM might be impacting youths' well-being. Findings help characterize common SMEs among adolescents and suggest that even threatening SMEs may not drive short-term changes in youths' affective health.