Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Social Issues, Psychology, Social, Psychology, FACEBOOK USE, COLLEGE-STUDENTS, SELF-ESTEEM, MEDIA USE, LIFE SATISFACTION, POSITIVE AFFECT, I AM, ONLINE, ENVY, DEPRESSION, 1605 Policy and Administration, 1608 Sociology, 4407 Policy and administration, 4408 Political science, 5205 Social and personality psychology

Abstract:

© 2017 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Social network sites are ubiquitous and now constitute a common tool people use to interact with one another in daily life. Here we review the consequences of interacting with social network sites for subjective well-being—that is, how people feel moment-to-moment and how satisfied they are with their lives. We begin by clarifying the constructs that we focus on in this review: social network sites and subjective well-being. Next, we review the literature that explains how these constructs are related. This research reveals: (a) negative relationships between passively using social network sites and subjective well-being, and (b) positive relationships between actively using social network sites and subjective well-being, with the former relationship being more robust than the latter. Specifically, passively using social network sites provokes social comparisons and envy, which have negative downstream consequences for subjective well-being. In contrast, when active usage of social network sites predicts subjective well-being, it seems to do so by creating social capital and stimulating feelings of social connectedness. We conclude by discussing the policy implications of this work.