Hourly Associations Between Uplifting, Humorous, and Hateful Social Media Content Exposure and Subjective Well-Being...

Adolescent social media experiences are diverse and may vary based on developmental stage. The associations that these experiences have with subjective well-being may also vary in that different associations may emerge when examining relations at the immediate within-person level versus the general person-level.

The current study utilized an ecological momentary assessment design to examine how exposure to three types of social media content (uplifting, humorous, hateful) related to affect and state self-esteem three times per day for 14 days. These associations were examined in a cohort of late adolescents (N = 51; aged 18-20, M = 18.39; 63% women) and early adolescents (N = 67; aged 11-14, M = 12.37; 52% girls). Cohorts were from the same racially and ethnically diverse community in the southeastern U.S., and data collection took place in 2023-2024.

Adolescents reported the greatest exposure to humorous content, followed by uplifting content and finally hateful content. Younger adolescents reported greater exposure to humorous content compared to late adolescents. Within-person, there was a positive hourly association between exposure to uplifting content and state self-esteem, and a negative hourly association between exposure to hateful content and low arousal positive affect. At the person-level, exposure to uplifting social media content was associated with greater positive affect, and exposure to hateful content was associated with greater negative affect. Person-level associations were typically stronger for older adolescents.

Nuance is needed to holistically understand how social media content can differentially relate to subjective well-being.