Extrinsic academic motivation and social media fatigue: Fear of missing out and problematic social media use as mediators

Mechanism study of social media overload on health self-efficacy and anxiety

Previous studies have found that people's excessive use of social media may have a negative impact on their crisis coping skills. This study focuses on the effects of social media overload (information overload, communication overload and social overload) on anxiety and health self-efficacy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used an online questionnaire and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to obtain data (816 valid samples), analyze the data and validate the model. The findings revealed that social media overload (information overload, communication overload and social overload) triggers increased social media fatigue, which in turn leads to the development of anxiety and the consequence of diminished health self-efficacy; social media fatigue plays a partially mediating role between social media and health self-efficacy and a fully mediating role between communication overload and health self-efficacy. The results of this study can inform the development of crisis communication strategies during public health emergencies.

Social media usage of chinese nursing students: Attitudes, motivations, mental health problems, and self-disclosure

BACKGROUND

Excessive self-disclosure online may risk the reputations, mental health problems, and professional lives of nursing students. This study investigated nursing students' usage of social media, their attitudes towards social media, mental health problems and self-disclosures, and the relationships of these variables.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted online (n = 1054) with questionnaires of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), Social Media Fatigue (SMF), Students' Uses and Views of Social Media (SUVSM) and self-disclosure in social media which included self-information shown on social media and information viewed by others.

RESULTS

Although most of them held positive attitudes towards social media, 17.4% of the participants acknowledged that they had posted inappropriate contents online and 37.6% witnessed improper posts from schoolmates or teachers online. SMF was affected by familiar with relevant regulations on the social media usage (β = -.10, p < .001), FoMO (β = .41, p < .001), and SUVSM (β = .17, p < .001). Additionally, nearly 1/3 participants reported their net-friends could view following information: gender, age, occupation, education level and location. Self- disclosure in social media was positively influenced by education (β = .10, p < .001), sharing moments or Weibo, etc. (β = .009, P = 0.009), time spent on social media daily (β = .11, p < .001), accepting stranger's "friend request" (β = .06, P = 0.047), FoMO (β = .14, p < .001) and SMF (β = .19, p < .001). Furthermore, effect of SUVSM on self-disclosure in social media was mediated by FoMO and SMF.

CONCLUSION

Inappropriate contents are posted and witnessed by appreciable proportions of nursing students. Positive attitude towards social media may strengthen FoMO and SMF, which may increase self-disclosure in social media in turn.

Social Media Disorder, Mental Health, and Validation of the Chinese Version of 27-Item Social Media Disorder Scale in Chinese College Students

Objective

With the widespread use of social media, excessive use of social media may lead to problematic behaviors such as social media disorder, which has a negative impact on teenagers' mental health. Thus, it is an urgent need to provide a measurement tool to assess social media addiction in different cultures. The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of 27-item Social Media Disorder (SMD) Scale (developed using the diagnostic criteria of DSM-V Internet Gaming Disorder) in college students, and to verify its impact on mental health.

Methods

Two online surveys were conducted among a total of 1,539 Chinese college students, including 1,316 subjects in sample 1 and 223 subjects in sample 2. The discrimination, criterion validity, construct validity and reliability of the Chinese version of SMD-27 scale were examined.

Results

The Chinese version of SMD-27 scale showed excellent psychometric properties. The item-total correlation coefficients of the scale ranged from 0.31 to 0.56, and the item-dimension correlations of the scale ranged from 0.459 to 0.834. Findings from confirmatory factor analysis indicated a great fit of the model of the Chinese version of SMD-27, with CFI = 0.956, TLI = 0.951, RMSEA = 0.036 in sample one and CFI = 0.970, TLI = 0.967, RMSEA = 0.040 in sample two, thus confirming the second-order factor structure of the scale. The SMD-27 scale showed good internal consistency between two different samples with their respective Cronbach's alpha of 0.87 and 0.92, and good test-retest reliability over a period of 1 month. In addition, multiple regression results generally supported the impact of social media addiction on mental health.

Conclusion

This study provides evidence that the Chinese version of SMD-27 scale is applicable to Chinese college populations, and it is a promising tool for the study of social media addiction in China.

Social media fatigue: Causes and concerns

BACKGROUND

Social Media Fatigue (SMF) has seen a significant increase through the COVID-19 pandemic. It refers to high levels of information overload experienced due to extensive usage of social media.

AIM

To understand the causes and consequences for mitigating social media fatigue.

METHODS

PRISMA model was followed, and 20 papers were consolidated from the years 2014 to 2021. Seven papers were screened out due to duplication and exclusion criteria.

RESULTS

The studies found implicated the existence of four umbrella factors, like Cognitive Factors, Self and Personality Factors, Environmental Factors and Social Factors. Self and Personality Factors include personal and intrinsic factors that make one susceptible to developing SMF more easily, whereas aspects like increased boredom and information overload include cognitive factors that increase susceptibility to SMF. Environmental and Social Factors include aspects like parenting and social media role conflict respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The current findings have implications to promote research to assess the levels of social media fatigue among the individuals and to evolve psychotherapeutic interventions and digital literacy programs to manage social media fatigue among the community.