Browsing makes you feel less bad: An ecological momentary assessment of passive Qzone use and young women's negative emotions

Measuring users' psychological self-withdrawal on mobile social media: the development of a context dependent instrument

Introduction

MSM users have many concerns when disclosing information, such as role conflicts and privacy risks, which can result in nondisclosure. We call these negative feelings associated with MSM use "psychological self-withdrawal" (PSW).

Methods

Using a mixed-methods design, this study develops and validates an instrument for measuring PSW in the WeChat context, based on focus-group interviews (seven participants), one-on-one interviews (eight participants), and a survey of 1200 WeChat users.

Results

The result shows that PSW measure is a four-item instrument designed to measure PSW in the WeChat context. The results of two exploratory factor analysis pilot tests (n = 91 and n = 81) and a final confirmatory factor analysis test (n = 1200) indicate that the PSW measure has good internal consistency (α = 0.839), factorial validity, and a single-factor structure.

Discussion

The study defines PSW as "users' series of negative feelings when using WeChat" and develops and validates an PSW measurement, using focus groups, interviews, and a survey. A four-item PSW with acceptable reliability and validity was finally developed.

The double-edged sword effects of active social media use on loneliness: The roles of interpersonal satisfaction and fear of missing out

Introduction

Social media' impact on loneliness has attracted widespread scholarly attention. One hypothesis is that active social media use (ASMU) is associated with a decrease in loneliness. However, several empirical studies did not find a significant correlation between ASMU and loneliness, and ASMU may even increase loneliness. This study explored the mechanism of the double-edged sword effects of ASMU on loneliness.

Methods

Data were collected through convenience sampling from three universities in China. A total of 454 Chinese college social media users (Mean age 19.75 ± 1.33; 59.92% female) completed an online questionnaire.

Results

ASMU was positively related to interpersonal relationship satisfaction, which was negatively related to general trait-fear of missing out (FoMO) and loneliness. Further structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that ASMU could negatively predict loneliness through the mediation pathways of interpersonal satisfaction and "Interpersonal satisfaction → Trait-FoMO." At the same time, ASMU was also positively associated with online-specific state-FoMO, which was positively associated with trait-FoMO and loneliness. Further SEM analysis found no mediation effect of state-FoMO between ASMU and loneliness, but state-FoMO and traitFoMO sequentially mediate the relationship between ASMU and loneliness.

Discussion

This study indicates that ASMU may increase and decrease loneliness. Interpersonal satisfaction and FoMO explained the double-edged mechanism of ASMU on loneliness. These findings contribute to dialectically understanding the effectiveness of active social media use and provide theoretical guidance for promoting the beneficial aspects of social media while weakening its harmful consequences.