Exploring the relationship between social exclusion and social media addiction: The mediating roles of anger and impulsivity

Phubbing and its impact on the individual's psychological well-being

Increasingly, smartphones have become a part of people's everyday lives, and are now considered by many to be an indispensable social accessory. Since attachment to a smartphone could have negative psychological consequences, a burgeoning new area of research has emerged which examines the effects of smartphones on individuals' well-being. Hence, this study focuses on phubbing - one's engagement with the smartphone during a face-to-face conversation with another person or group of people - and its association with psychological well-being. For this investigation, a quantitative descriptive approach has been adopted involving a sample of 370 women and men from Spain between 25 and 60 years old. The survey was distributed during late 2019 and the first quarter of 2020. The Phubbing Behaviors Survey was conducted, comprising five dimensions (cultural, technological, social, communicational, and psychological), and a total of 33 items requiring responses on a 5-point Likert scale. This survey was used in conjunction with the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), consisting of four categories (somatic symptoms, social dysfunction, anxiety and insomnia, and severe depression), and 7 items per category. The findings reveal a positive correlation between phubbing and severe depression and, young women under 25 years old show higher levels of somatic symptoms than men in the same age group. This study demonstrates the need to raise awareness via health education and to promote healthy use of the Internet to prevent psychological distress resulting from phubbing.

Social Exclusion and Short Video Addiction: The Mediating Role of Boredom and Self-Control

Background

Short video apps are very popular among Chinese college students, and some students even rely on them. Most of the current research has focused only on Internet addiction and has seldom focused on the phenomenon of short video addiction. Its influencing factors and formation mechanism are worth exploring.

Objective

This study aimed to explore the relationship between social exclusion and short video addiction among college students and the mediating roles of boredom and self-control.

Methods

This study adopted a multistage investigation and investigated 532 college students (39% male; mean age 19.32 ± 1.23 years) with a social exclusion scale, boredom proneness scale, self-control scale, and short video addiction scale. The mediating effect was tested with Process 3.1.

Results

The results showed that social exclusion has a positive predictive effect on college student's short video addiction. The impact of social exclusion on college student's short video addiction was mediated by boredom and self-control, and the chained mediation of boredom and self-control.

Conclusion

Theoretically, this study modified the I-PACE model, indicating that personal and distant social factors should be considered in individuals with behavioral addictions, such as short video addiction. Practically, the results suggested that schools should reduce peer rejection and improve students' mental health literacy to reduce boredom and enhance self-control, thus effectively preventing short video addiction.

Relationship between social media addiction and appearance-related social media consciousness in Turkish adolescents

PURPOSE

This study was aimed to investigate the relationship between social media addiction and appearance-related social media consciousness in adolescents.

DESIGN AND METHODS

This study was conducted in a relational-cross-sectional-descriptive model. The population of the study consists of high schools located in a provincial center in the eastern of Turkey. Cluster sampling method was applied, and the study was completed with 1009 adolescents. The research data were collected by using personal information form, Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale and Adolescents' Appearance-Related Social Media Consciousness Scale.

RESULTS

It was determined that the mean scores of adolescents' social media addiction and appearance-related social media consciousness were at a moderate level. It was determined that female adolescents had higher mean scores of social media addiction and appearance-related social media consciousness. The model established with structural equation modelling was found to be compatible with social media usage time, which was found to be related to the level of social media addiction and appearance-related social media consciousness.

CONCLUSIONS

It was found that there was a significant positive relationship between social media addiction and appearance-related social media consciousness. Time spent using social media was found to be a predictor of addiction and social media consciousness about appearance.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Pediatric nurses can educate adolescents about the potential risks of excessive use of social media and help them to act consciously. Suggest implementing school-based interventions to educate adolescents, especially females, about healthy social media use.

Problematic online anime (animation) use: It's relationship with viewers' satisfaction with life, emotions, and emotion regulation

Although there are numerous studies on problematic technology use, such as problematic video game use and problematic smartphone use, little is known about problematic online anime use. However, problematic online anime use warrants further examination because of anime's popularity and commercial importance. Furthermore, how emotion strategies and emotions (such as pleasure and arousal) invoked upon watching the online anime are associated with problematic online anime use is not examined in previous studies. To bridge these literature gaps and to contribute to the fields of emotion regulation and media psychology, this study adopts the emotion regulation theory and considers the relationships among viewers' satisfaction with life, feelings of pleasure and arousal arising from watching a particular online anime, cognitive emotion regulation strategies activated because of anime viewing, and potential to exhibit problematic behavior related to online anime use, which is operationalized as viewers' inability to control or reduce watching online anime. Data was collected from viewers who have watched the popular romantic comedy anime Kaguya-sama: Love Is War online via a major online discussion board in Taiwan through the purposive sampling method. Data analysis on the 190 online questionnaire returns (mostly from males and students) through the partial least squares analysis reveals that the emotion regulation theory can be used to examine viewers' perceptions of anime. In the online anime context, the emotion regulation strategy most likely to be invoked is positive refocusing (mean value of 3.68, measured through a 5-point Likert scale) which is in line with how people typically watch anime for immersion and escapism. Satisfaction with life demonstrates its robustness and flexibility in invoking the positive refocusing (path coefficient = 0.17) and refocus on planning (path coefficient = 0.13) strategies. It also lowers the adoption of the maladaptive strategy of catastrophizing (path coefficient = -0.18). While catastrophizing strategy (path coefficient = 0.31) and arousal (path coefficient = 0.24) add to problematic online anime use, pleasure (path coefficient = -0.27) lowers problematic online anime use. Thus, when viewers keep magnifying the severity of a bad situation they are in while watching online anime, instead of making them better, could lead them to the undesirable outcome of problematic online anime use. Although this study has provided several interesting insights, this study has only considered Kaguya-sama: Love Is War and used survey respondents' perception of their extent of problematic online anime use. To increase generalization, future studies could consider other types of anime and alternative means to measure problematic use, such as frequency of online anime viewing.