The Impact of Internet and Social Media Use on Well-Being
The present research examines the longitudinal average impact of frequency of use of Internet and social networking sites (SNS) on subjective well-being of adolescents in Germany. Based on five-wave panel data that cover a period of nine years, we disentangle between-person and within-person effects of media use on depressive symptomatology and life satisfaction as indicators of subjective well-being. Additionally, we control for confounders such as TV use, self-esteem, and satisfaction with friends. We found that frequency of Internet use in general and use of SNS in particular is not substantially related subjective well-being. The explanatory power of general Internet use or SNS use to p…
The Positive Side of Social Comparison on Social Network Sites: How Envy Can Drive Inspiration on Instagram
A growing body of research finds social network sites (SNS) such as Instagram to facilitate social comparison and the emotional experience of envy in everyday life, with harmful effects for users' well-being. Yet, previous research has exclusively focused on the negative side of social comparison and envy on SNS. Thereby, it has neglected two important aspects: (a) comparison processes can also elicit a beneficial emotional reaction to other users' online self-presentations (i.e., benign envy) and, thus, (b) comparisons can be motivating, with positive outcomes for well-being. The present study aims at closing this research gap by investigating how social comparisons and envy on SNS are rel…
Die Bedeutung der sozial-kognitiven Theorie für die Gesundheitskommunikation
Der Beitrag gibt einen Uberblick uber die Bedeutung der sozial-kognitiven Theorie fur die Gesundheitskommunikation. Dabei werden insbesondere das symbolische Lernen und die Bedeutung von Selbstwirksamkeit fur gesundheitsbezogene Verhaltensanderungen intensiver betrachtet. Nach einer eingehenden Thematisierung der jeweiligen Grundlagen werden ausgewahlte empirische Studien aus unterschiedlichen Bereichen der Gesundheitskommunikation vorgestellt, die zeigen, inwieweit die psychosozialen Determinanten und Mechanismen der sozial-kognitiven Theorie Verhaltensanderungen bewirken konnen. Schlieslich werden auch die Grenzen der vorgestellten Theorien und Implikationen fur die Gestaltung von Kampagn…
Illusion of knowledge through Facebook news? Effects of snack news in a news feed on perceived knowledge, attitude strength, and willingness for discussions
Abstract Research indicates that using social network sites as a source for news increases perceived knowledge even if, objectively, people fail to acquire knowledge. This might result from the frequent repetition of topics in news posts caused by multiple news outlets posting about the same news topics and the algorithm that favors similar postings. These repeated encounters can have a positive effect on the perception of knowing more, even if actual learning hardly occurs. An experiment (N = 810, representative of German Internet users) tested these assumptions. Participants were assigned to one of four groups and received a news feed with no information, few news posts, many news posts, …
How do university students’ web search behavior, website characteristics, and the interaction of both influence students’ critical online reasoning?
The Internet has become one of the main sources of information for university students’ learning. Since anyone can disseminate content online, however, the Internet is full of irrelevant, biased, or even false information. Thus, students’ ability to use online information in a critical-reflective manner is of crucial importance. In our study, we used a framework for the assessment of students’ critical online reasoning (COR) to measure university students’ ability to critically use information from online sources and to reason on contentious issues based on online information. In addition to analyzing students’ COR by evaluating their open-ended short answers, we also investigated the stude…
Selective attention in the news feed: An eye-tracking study on the perception and selection of political news posts on Facebook
Social networking sites such as Facebook are becoming increasingly important as a source for news. However, few studies have investigated what drives attention to content within the news feed and what influences the selection of news posts. We hypothesized that attitude consistency, the credibility of a source, and comments of other users raise interest in a news post in the news feed and influence the selection decision. A 2 × 2 × 2 laboratory experiment ( N = 103) using eye-tracking measurement showed that attitude consistency did not influence attention distribution in the news feed, but users preferred to select news posts with content reinforcing their attitudes. Participants spent mor…
Latent Mean (Comparison)
Hate Speech as an Indicator for the State of the Society
Abstract. Previous research indicates that user comments serve as exemplars and thus have an effect on perceived public opinion. Moreover, they also shape the attitudes of their readers. However, studies almost exclusively focus on controversial issues if they explore the consequences of user comments for attitudes and perceived public opinion. The current study wants to find out if hate speech attacking social groups due to characteristics such as religion or sexual orientation also has an effect on the way people think about these groups and how they think society perceives them. Moreover, we also investigated the effects of hate speech on prejudiced attitudes. To explore the hypotheses a…