Social media usage is on the rise, with the majority of American adults using Facebook. The present study examined how Facebook activity affects mood in a subset of emerging adults, specifically undergraduates attending a private 4-year university. Participants (N ϭ 312) were randomly assigned to one of the following 20-min activities: browse the Internet, passively browse others' Facebook profiles, actively communicate with others on Facebook via messages/posts, or update their own personal profile on Facebook. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing mood, feelings of envy, and perceived meaningfulness of their time online. The results demonstrated that using Facebook led to significantly worsened mood compared with browsing the Internet, especially when participants passively browsed Facebook. Furthermore, perceptions of meaningfulness, but not feelings of envy, mediated the relationship between online activity and mood. Overall, these findings add to the mounting evidence that social media use may, at times, adversely affect psychological well-being.
Public Policy Relevance StatementCollege students reported lower mood when passively browsing Facebook compared with other online activities, possibly due in part to feelings of wasted time. Results suggest that repeated use of social media may adversely affect psychological well-being in some emerging adults.
TTLE is known about, the origins, education, and training of Negro psychologists. Even less is known about the discrimination they have faced in the course of their professional careers. To obtain this kind of information, which would be valuable in itself and could also serve as a basis for recommendation to the Board of Directors of the APA, the Committee on Equality of Opportunity in Psychology undertook to survey psychologists in America who are Negro. 3 The findings reported below are the results of this survey. Because of the difficulty in obtaining information about race and discrimination, these findings must be taken as the best possible tentative answers under the present conditions to very complex problems.
PROCEDURE;To obtain the names and addresses of Negro psychologists and graduate students currently working and 1 The authors acknowledge the contributions of Martin Dcutsch and Thomas Pettigrew, who were members of the Committee when the survey was begun, and to Harlcy Preston, at that time APA Administrative Officer for Public Affairs. The Committee also wishes to thank Doris Chandler for work beyond the call and Angus Campbell for a critical reading of the preliminary report.Reprints available from Wispc,
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