In the previous chapter, I discussed research over the past decade which concludes that passive use of social media negatively impacts well-being. Passive use is found to provoke social comparisons and envy, which have negative consequences for well-being. Other mechanisms that may underlie negative associations between passive usage and poor well-being are perceptions of having wasted time (Sagioglou & Greitemeyer, 2014), anxiety (Shaw, 2015), and information overload (Koroleva, Krasnova, & Günther, 2010). For example, an individual passively using Instagram may be more likely to get lost in the easy, scrolling motions of social content feeds, and kill more time than they intended online, skimming through the lives of other people instead of doing things that matter to them.
Using social media passively creates a one-sided experience for the individual, where they are consuming information without engaging with others or sharing information themselves, therefore undermining the potentially positive influences that social media provides. In contrast, when active use of social media predicts positive influences on well-being, it seems to do so by creating social capital and connectedness (Kim & Lee, 2011), and reducing feelings of loneliness (Matook, Cummings, & Bala, 2015; Ryan & Xenos, 2011). If an individual uses Instagram with a specific intent, they may be less susceptible to the draw of the ‘infinite scroll,’ and less likely to experience anxiety due to perceptions of wasted time or information overload. The problem is that social media is found to be used passively by consumers most of the time (Constine, 2012; Pempek, Yermolayeva, & Calvert, 2009; Verduyn et al., 2015).
Marketers, on the other hand, use social media with a specific goal in mind, thereby driving their activity with clear intentions. Marketers, by definition, use social media actively. Additionally, they support the platforms financially and are the recipients of social media companies’ attention and guidance. For example, social media companies assign sales representatives to guide high spenders on their marketing efforts, and keep them informed of platform changes that might affect their experience. For this reason, marketers are also more likely privy to the mechanisms that work to keep consumers coming back to the platforms and increase their time spent.
My research is designed to further examine the nuances of passive versus active social media use among consumers. My hypothesis is that consumers who work in marketing and related fields, or whose Instagram behavior exhibits a similar level of awareness of Instagram as a marketing channel, are more likely to use the platforms actively, resulting in positive associations with their social media use and improved well-being scores.
Ethics Statement
The Glasgow Caledonian New York College Institutional Review Board approved this study. Electronic informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to participation in the survey.
Photo by Guillermo Velasquez
Research Sample and Data Sources
I used an electronic survey as my primary method of research, limiting the scope of participants to social media users who predominately use Instagram. I chose Instagram for the focus of my research as it is more popular among the younger demographics I hope to inform. Additionally, Instagram is owned and operated by Facebook, Inc., and marketers buy advertising on both platforms through the same technology portal, known as Business Manager.
76 total participants
I posted an announcement on my own Instagram account asking for interested volunteers to participate in the research. Therefore, the sample is confined to my network. The announcement specified my research topic, but did not reveal my research questions nor hypothesis. Using an Instagram poll, I asked people to vote “Yes” if they were interested in participating, then followed up individually to get their email addresses. The survey was sent via email to about 100 potential participants of various demographic profiles. I collected responses anonymously from 76 total participants. Participants answered questions in four sections, in the order outlined below.
1. Demographic Information
Using the information collected in this section, I identified participants working in marketing and related fields to determine the impact this has on areas addressed in the following sections, such as amount of time spent online, Instagram activity, and subjective well-being.
2. Smartphone Screen Time
This data was captured for iPhone users only, using the Screen Time app provided by Apple. Screen Time provides objective usage data, however it should be noted that this data was self-reported, therefore allowing for human error. Apple iPhone users were given instructions to navigate their Screen Time app, and retrieve their last full week’s worth of data to provide: 1) their weekly average time spent online, 2) their total time spent on social networking applications, and 3) their total time spent on specifically the Instagram app. In this section, iPhone users were also asked if they set time limits on any of their apps using the ‘App Limits’ function of the Screen Time. If they answered “Yes”, they were asked to identify which apps they limit, choosing from a list of social networking sites. Participants had the opportunity to select “None” or specify “Other” apps that were not listed.
Android users did not provide screen time data. Android users were, however, asked to confirm whether or not they set time limits on any of their apps, using Google’s equivalent of Screen Time called “Digital Wellbeing.”
3. Subjective Well-Being
This section evaluated participant’s subjective well-being using three well-being constructs: the Fear of Missing Out Scale (FoMOs), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item Scale (GAD-7), and the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale. Participants were encouraged to answer all questions as honestly and as accurately as possible, however no question in this section was required for participants to continue and complete the survey. Therefore, some users may not have answered this section completely.
Fear of Missing Out Scale (FoMOs) is a validated measure of distress related to missing out on social experiences. It consists of 10 items scored on a scale of 1 (not at all true of me) to 5 (extremely true of me). Items include statements such as “I fear other people have more rewarding experiences than me,” and “Sometimes I wonder if I spend too much time keeping up with what’s going on.”
Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item Scale (GAD-7) measures severity of anxiety over a 2-week recall period. Participants can respond on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 4 (nearly every day) to recall how often they have been bothered by problems such as “worrying too much about different things” and “becoming easily annoyed or irritable.”
Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale operationalizes psychological well-being in 6 dimensions. I selected 4 dimensions most relevant to the potential effects of social media use. These dimensions include: 1) autonomy, measuring independence and self-determination, 2) self-acceptance, measuring attitudes towards oneself and one’s past life, 3) purpose in life, measuring belief that one’s life is meaningful, and 4) environmental mastery, measuring ability to manage one’s life. Participants can respond on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). Each dimension consists of 7 items, totaling 42 questions for this section. Items included statements such as, “I tend to worry about what other people think of me” (autonomy), “I feel like many of the people I know have gotten more out of life than I have” (self-acceptance), “my daily activities often seem trivial and unimportant to me” (purpose in life), and “I am quite good at managing the many responsibilities of my daily life” (environmental mastery).
The Fear of Missing Out Scale and several dimensions of Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale have been used in previous research on well-being as it relates to social media use. These studies used experimental designs that allowed researchers to establish stronger relationships between social media use and well-being than my survey design can provide. In my research design, I intend to further investigate variables that influence passive versus active use of social media, specifically whether someone works in marketing and related fields, or demonstrates an equivalent level of awareness of their Instagram activity. Then I will cross-reference to see if earlier research findings about the negative impacts of passive use on well-being are reflected in participants’ answers in this section.
4. Instagram Account Types, Activity, and Attitudes
The final section examines participants’ Instagram account types, activity, and attitudes toward the platform. Participants were asked questions about why and how they use Instagram. To understand how participants use Instagram, I included questions about their networks (e.g. “How many accounts are you following?”, “Which of these groups have you become more connected with on Instagram, via the accounts you follow?”), their engagements with others (e.g. “Where do you spend the most time engaging with people on the platform?”), their consumption behaviors (e.g. “Where do you spend the most time looking at content?”), their posting behaviors (e.g. “Where on the platform do you most often post to?”, “On average, how often would you say you post on Instagram?”), and the quality of their engagements. Questions assessed the quality of engagements in terms of key metrics that the Instagram algorithm uses to determine what posts users want to see (e.g. “How likely are you to Comment on posts?”). For example, Instagram prioritizes Comments as a higher form of engagement than Likes, therefore boosting a post with a lot of Comments higher in the feed. Additional questions were designed to determine if a user is aware of or leverages marketing hacks that boost engagement and post reach (e.g. “How often do you add hashtags in the caption of comments of your posts?”). More questions in the second half of this section address the topic of marketing overtly (e.g. “Do you use Instagram to sell things?”, “Do you use Instagram for promoting your work/passions?”).
Following questions measure participants' attitudes toward Instagram (e.g. “Have you considered creating another Instagram account in the past 30 days?”, “Have you considered deleting the Instagram app in the past 30 days?”). The last multiple choice questions asks participants to specify whether they have a Personal Profile, a Professional Account, or both types of accounts on Instagram. Using a professional account signifies that the participant actively converted their Instagram profile to either a “Business” or “Creator” profile, which gives them access to additional platform features, like Instagram analytics, that helps them grow their business or platform. Participants who answered “Professional Account” or “Both” were asked to choose a category that best describes their Business or Creator account. All users, both Personal and Professional, were asked to indicate their level of agreement to the statement “Instagram adds value to my life” on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree).
Finally, this section concludes with open-ended questions that ask participants to describe 2-3 things Instagram has most positively impacted in their lives and 2-3 things Instagram has most negatively impacted in their lives. These questions aim to supplement the rest of this section with qualitative insights.