A Web-Based Intervention for Social Media Addiction Disorder Management in Higher Education: Quantitative Survey Study

A Multidimensional Approach for Evaluating Reality in Social Media: Mixed Methods Study

BACKGROUND

Misinformation is a threat to public health. The effective countering of misinformation may require moving beyond the binary classification of fake versus fact to capture the range of schemas that users employ to evaluate social media content. A more comprehensive understanding of user evaluation schemas is necessary.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this research was to advance the current understanding of user evaluations of social media information and to develop and validate a measurement instrument for assessing social media realism.

METHODS

This research involved a sequence of 2 studies. First, we used qualitative focus groups (n=48). Second, building on the first study, we surveyed a national sample of social media users (n=442). The focus group data were analyzed using the constant comparison approach. The survey data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analyses and ordinary least squares regression.

RESULTS

The findings showed that social media reality evaluation involves 5 dimensions: falsity, naturality, authenticity, resonance, and social assurance. These dimensions were differentially mapped onto patterns of social media use. Authenticity was strongly associated with the existing global measure of social media realism (P<.001). Naturality, or the willingness to accept artificiality and engineered aspects of social media representations, was linked to hedonic enjoyment (P<.001). Resonance predicted reflective thinking (P<.001), while social assurance was strongly related to addictive use (P<.001). Falsity, the general belief that much of what is on social media is not real, showed a positive association with both frequency (P<.001) and engagement with (P=.003) social media. These results provide preliminary validity data for a social media reality measure that encompasses multiple evaluation schemas for social media content.

CONCLUSIONS

The identification of divergent schemas expands the current focus beyond fake versus fact, while the goals, contexts, and outcomes of social media use associated with these schemas can guide future digital media literacy efforts. Specifically, the social media reality measure can be used to develop tailored digital media literacy interventions for addressing diverse public health issues.

The working memory approach of persuasion: Induced eye movements lead to more social media self-control behaviours

In the framework of prevention of social media addiction, persuasive messages can be used to stimulate people to engage in social media self-control behaviours. However, the effects of these messages may be weakened by defensive reactions. In the Working Memory account of Persuasion, these defensive self-regulatory actions in the Working Memory (WM) are activated to lower a given threat. Because the WM has limited capacity, and these defensive processes take WM capacity, they can be inhibited by inducing eye movements (EMi). Adults (N = 117) from the general population listened in an online experiment to an auditory message on the negative consequences of social media use (SMU). Half of the participants were randomly assigned to the EMi condition; they were asked to keep watching a moving red square on their screen during the exposure to the auditory message. SMU self-control behaviour was the outcome measure, assessed by self-report 2 weeks later. The effects of EMi on SMU self-control behaviour were moderated by individual differences, indicating defensive self-regulatory actions: EMi significantly increased behaviour in participants who scored low on Cognitive Self-affirmation Inclination, high on SMU-control-failure, and, unexpectedly, low in SMU. This study detected defensive reactions towards persuasive information concerning SMU, using the EMi research paradigm.

The Impact of Social Media Use Interventions on Mental Well-Being: Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

There is some evidence that more social media use is related to poorer mental well-being and that social media use can become problematic when it starts to interfere with a person's daily life and mental well-being. To address this issue and improve users' mental well-being, social media use interventions (eg, abstinence from social media) have been developed and evaluated. However, there is limited understanding of the effectiveness of these interventions in improving mental well-being.

OBJECTIVE

This systematic review aimed to synthesize the literature on the effectiveness of social media use interventions in improving mental well-being in adults.

METHODS

A systematic search (January 1, 2004, to July 31, 2022) was completed across 3 databases in accordance with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. Experimental studies evaluating the impact of social media use interventions on mental well-being in adults were included. Outcomes related to mental well-being, such as depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness, were included. A narrative synthesis without meta-analysis was completed to summarize the study characteristics and effectiveness by outcome and intervention type. The Effective Public Health Practice Project Quality Assessment Tool was used to measure the quality of the studies.

RESULTS

Of the 2785 studies identified through the systematic search, 23 (0.83%) were included in the analysis. Many of the included studies (9/23, 39%) found improvements in mental well-being, some (7/23, 30%) found mixed effects, and others (7/23, 30%) found no effect on mental well-being. Therapy-based interventions that used techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy were more effective than limiting use of social media or full abstinence from social media, with 83% (5/6) of these studies showing improvements in mental well-being compared with 20% (1/5) and 25% (3/12), respectively. Depression was the most frequently investigated and improved outcome with 70% (7/10) of the studies showing a significant improvement in depression after the intervention, whereas other outcomes showed more varied results. Quality was poor, with 96% (22/23) of the studies receiving a weak global score, mostly for issues related to selection bias because most of the studies (16/23, 70%) used a convenience sampling of university students.

CONCLUSIONS

This review provides some evidence that social media use interventions are effective in improving mental well-being, especially for depression and when using therapy-based interventions. Further experimental and longitudinal research is needed with representative samples to investigate who may benefit most from social media use interventions. This will help to develop guidance and recommendations for policy makers and clinicians on how best to manage problematic social media use.

Online Gamified Learning to Enhance Teachers’ Competencies Using Classcraft

Every English language teacher should be competent enough to serve as a model of reference for students. As stipulated by the Roadmap 2015–2025, Ministry of Education, Malaysia, teachers need a minimum CEFR Level C1 qualification to teach English language at all levels. This poses a need for teachers who have not achieved this minimum requirement to re-skill and upskill themselves to the minimum competency level. Past studies have indicated that online gamification techniques have increased teacher competency levels. However, there has been a lack of studies that have investigated teachers’ language-teaching/learning competencies using online gamified learning. As such, this study aims to address this problem using experiential learning techniques on an online gamified platform, Classcraft. The online gamified learning module was developed using the Design and Development Research (DDR) methodology, and was conducted in the five-phase ADDIE Model (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation). This paper seeks to brief the reader on the design and development process of this online gamified learning using Classcraft. The findings of the design phase were derived through the Fuzzy Delphi technique to acquire the experts’ consensus on the content of the module, and the appropriate gamification elements which ought to be included in the development of the module. The findings of the development phase, as agreed by expert consensus, were used to develop the online gamified learning module. Thus, the findings portrayed the enhancement of the competencies of the English Language teachers who used this online gamified learning with the integration of Classcraft.