Guilt and Media Use

2020

The Positive Side of Social Comparison on Social Network Sites: How Envy Can Drive Inspiration on Instagram

2018

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…

Too Much or Too Little Messaging? Situational Determinants of Guilt About Mobile Messaging

2021

Abstract Mobile messaging has been associated with guilt. Guilt about too much messaging may result from self-control failures during goal conflicts. Conversely, guilt about too little messaging may result from violating the salient norm to be available. This research considers both boundary conditions of guilt about mobile communication—goal conflicts and availability norm salience—simultaneously for the first time. We conducted two preregistered experiments to investigate their interplay. Results from a vignette experiment, but not from a laboratory experiment, support the hypotheses that goal conflicts trigger guilt about using messengers and that guilt about not using messengers arises …

Permanently online and permanently connected : development and validation of the Online Vigilance Scale

2017

Smartphones and other mobile devices have fundamentally changed patterns of Internet use in everyday life by making online access constantly available. The present paper offers a theoretical explication and empirical assessment of the concept of online vigilance, referring to users' permanent cognitive orientation towards online content and communication as well as their disposition to exploit these options constantly. Based on four studies, a validated and reliable self-report measure of online vigilance was developed. In combination, the results suggest that the Online Vigilance Scale (OVS) shows a stable factor structure in various contexts and user populations and provides future work i…

“Facebocrastination”? Predictors of using Facebook for procrastination and its effects on students’ well-being

2016

Procrastinating with popular online media such as Facebook has been suggested to impair users well-being, particularly among students. Building on recent procrastination, self-control, and communication literature, we conducted two studies (total N=699) that examined the predictors of procrastination with Facebook as well as its effects on students academic and overall well-being. Results from both studies consistently indicate that low trait self-control, habitual Facebook checking, and high enjoyment of Facebook use predict almost 40 percent of the variance of using Facebook for procrastination. Moreover, results from Study 2 underline that using Facebook for the irrational delay of impor…

Meier_Reinecke_Meta_Review_Online-Appendix_R3_no_fieldcodes – Supplemental material for Computer-Mediated Communication, Social Media, and Mental Hea…

2020

Supplemental material, Meier_Reinecke_Meta_Review_Online-Appendix_R3_no_fieldcodes for Computer-Mediated Communication, Social Media, and Mental Health: A Conceptual and Empirical Meta-Review by Adrian Meier and Leonard Reinecke in Communication Research

Inspired by Friends: Adolescents' Network Homophily Moderates the Relationship between Social Comparison, Envy, and Inspiration on Instagram

2019

© Copyright 2019, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Research on the negative psycho-emotional implications of social comparisons on social network sites such as Instagram has rapidly accumulated in recent years. However, little research has considered the extent to which such comparisons can elicit positive motivational outcomes for adolescent users, specifically inspiration. Furthermore, little is known about whether it matters whom young people compare themselves to on Instagram (i.e., network composition) and how this may modulate the emotional outcomes of Instagram social comparisons. The present study thus sought to determine how adolescents' Instagram comparisons of ability associate with inspir…

The relationship between trait procrastination, Internet use, and psychological functioning : results from a community sample of German adolescents

2018

Adolescents with a strong tendency for irrational task delay (i.e., high trait procrastination) may be particularly prone to use Internet applications simultaneously to other tasks (e.g., during homework) and in an insufficiently controlled fashion. Both Internet multitasking and insufficiently controlled Internet usage may thus amplify the negative mental health implications that have frequently been associated with trait procrastination. The present study explored this role of Internet multitasking and insufficiently controlled Internet use for the relationship between trait procrastination and impaired psychological functioning in a community sample of N = 818 early and middle adolescent…

How and when do mobile media demands impact well-being? Explicating the integrative model of mobile media use and need experiences (IM3UNE)

2021

Using mobile media can be both detrimental and beneficial for well-being. Thus, explaining how and when they elicit such effects is of crucial importance. To explicate boundary conditions and processes for digital well-being, this article introduces the Integrative Model of Mobile Media Use and Need Experiences (IM³UNE). Instead of assuming mobile media to be pathogenic, the IM³UNE offers a salutogenic perspective—it focuses on how we can stay healthy when using mobile media ubiquitously in daily life. More specifically, the model assumes that both the satisfaction and the frustration of basic psychological needs are key underlying mechanisms linking demanding mobile media use to well-being…

Procrastination out of Habit? The Role of Impulsive Versus Reflective Media Selection in Procrastinatory Media Use

2018

The pervasive access to media options seriously challenges users’ self-regulatory abilities. One example of deficient self-regulation in the context of media use is procrastination—impulsively ‘giving in’ to available media options despite goal conflicts with more important tasks. This study investigaes procrastinatory media use across 3 types of media (TV, computer, smartphone) from a dual-systems perspective, taking both person-level and situation-level predictors into account. Results from a 14-day long diary study (N = 347) suggest that procrastinatory media use is driven by automatic media selection, which is facilitated by strong media habits (person level) and low motivation for beha…

Corrigendum to ““Facebocrastination”? Predictors of using Facebook for procrastination and its effects on students' well-being” [Computers in Human B…

2017

Instagram Inspiration: How Upward Comparison on Social Network Sites Can Contribute to Well-Being

2020

Abstract Passive exposure to others’ positive self-presentations on social network sites (SNS) such as Instagram has been repeatedly associated with reduced well-being, particularly by triggering upward social comparison and envy. However, prior research has largely neglected that upward comparisons on SNS may also facilitate positive outcomes, specifically media-induced inspiration, a motivational state highly conducive to well-being. We conducted two experiments that tested whether and how cognitive-affective processing of visual SNS postings results in inspiration. Study 1 (N = 270) provides first evidence that users react to more positive, optimized Instagram nature and travel posts wit…

Just One More Episode: Predictors of Procrastination with Television and Implications for Sleep Quality

2019

© 2019, © 2019 Mass Communication & Society Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Sleep experts have raised concern over the effects of electronic media use on sleep. To date, few studies have looked beyond the effects of duration and frequency of media exposure or examined the underlying mechanisms of this association. As procrastinatory media use has been related to lower well-being, we used data from two survey studies (N1 = 821, N2 = 584) to investigate (a) predictors of procrastinatory TV viewing and (b) the link between procrastinatory TV viewing and sleep quality. Findings from both studies indicate that those with a stronger viewing habit, h…

Permanently online and permanently procrastinating? The mediating role of Internet use for the effects of trait procrastination on psychological heal…

2016

A growing number of studies suggest that Internet users frequently utilize online media as “tools for procrastination.” This study thus investigated the relationship between trait procrastination, Internet use, and psychological well-being in a representative sample of N = 1,577 German Internet users. The results revealed that trait procrastination was associated with an increased use of leisure-related online content and impaired control over Internet use. As a result, Internet users high in trait procrastination showed a higher risk of experiencing negative consequence of Internet use in other life domains. These negative repercussions of insufficiently self-regulated Internet use partia…

Permanently Online—Always Stressed Out? The Effects of Permanent Connectedness on Stress Experiences

2021

Abstract Concerns have been expressed that permanent online connectedness might negatively affect media user’s stress levels. Most research has focused on negative effects of specific media usage patterns, such as media multitasking or communication load. In contrast, users’ cognitive orientation toward online content and communication has rarely been investigated. Against this backdrop, we examined whether this cognitive orientation (i.e., online vigilance with its three dimensions salience, reactibility, monitoring) is related to perceived stress at different timescales (person, day, and situation level), while accounting for the effects of multitasking and communication load. Results acr…

The relationship between online vigilance and affective well-being in everyday life: Combining smartphone logging with experience sampling

2021

Contains fulltext : 220301.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Through communication technology, users find themselves constantly connected to others to such an extent that they routinely develop a mindset of connectedness. This mindset has been defined as online vigilance. Although there is a large body of research on media use and well-being, the question of how online vigilance impacts well-being remains unanswered. In this preregistered study, we combine experience sampling and smartphone logging to address the relation of online vigilance and affective well-being in everyday life. Seventy-five Android users answered eight daily surveys over five days (N = 1615) whilst having their…

Mind-wandering and mindfulness as mediators of the relationship between online vigilance and well-being

2018

Contains fulltext : 199030pub.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) As mobile technology allows users to be online anywhere and at all times, a growing number of users report feeling constantly alert and preoccupied with online streams of online information and communication - a phenomenon that has recently been termed online vigilance. Despite its growing prevalence, consequences of this constant orientation toward online streams of information and communication for users' well-being are largely unclear. In the present study, we investigated whether being constantly vigilant is related to cognitive consequences in the form of increased mind-wandering and decreased mindfulness and exam…

Computer-Mediated Communication and Mental Health

2020

The relationship between computer-mediated communication (e.g., Internet or social media use) and mental health has been a long-standing issue of debate. Various disciplines (e.g., communication, psychology, sociology, medicine) investigate computer-mediated communication in relation to a great variety of negative (i.e., psychopathology) and positive (i.e., well-being) markers of mental health. We aim at charting this vast, highly fragmented, and fast growing literature by means of a scoping review. Using methods of computational content analysis in conjunction with qualitative analyses, we map 20 years of research based on 1,780 study abstracts retrieved through a systematic database searc…

Computer-Mediated Communication, Social Media, and Mental Health: A Conceptual and Empirical Meta-Review

2020

Computer-mediated communication (CMC), and specifically social media, may affect the mental health (MH) and well-being of its users, for better or worse. Research on this topic has accumulated rapidly, accompanied by controversial public debate and numerous systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Yet, a higher-level integration of the multiple disparate conceptual and operational approaches to CMC and MH and individual review findings is desperately needed. To this end, we first develop two organizing frameworks that systematize conceptual and operational approaches to CMC and MH. Based on these frameworks, we integrate the literature through a meta-review of 34 reviews and a content analysi…