Students' perceptions of the effect of social media ostracism on wellbeing

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to examine perceptions of online social media ostracism among school and university students in order to further test Williams' need threat model. In both studies, participants were randomly assigned to read a vignette describing either inclusion or exclusion on Facebook, they were asked to imagine that they were the target of this inclusion/exclusion, and to estimate how they would feel. In study 1 (N=61, Mean age=16.98), participants in the excluded condition estimated a significantly higher threat to their sense of belonging compared to their sense of self-esteem, control and meaning. Study 2 (N=172, Mean age=18.83) replicated and extended these findings by comparing school and University students' views of social media ostracism whilst controlling for their technological familiarity with Facebook. Both school and university students detected social media ostracism and anticipated impacts on their mood and psychological needs. Social media vignette interacted with educational institution demonstrating that university students perceived social media ostracism more negatively and social media inclusion more positively. Taken together, these findings suggest that whilst both school and university students perceive social media ostracism as psychologically painful, those in their first year at University, who are particularly reliant on online social media, may be more sensitive to the potential effects of exclusion and inclusion on this platform.

Fear of death mediates ostracism distress and the moderating role of attachment internal working models

“…Bullying and ostracism are commonplace in the school system and can lead to school failure (Allen, 2017;Smith, Morgan, & Monks, 2017). Teachers can provide ostracized students with support and then a secure base by asking them to recall a recent secure attachment event or encouraging pupils to recall this type of event by themselves.…”

When Nobody “Likes” You: Perceived Ostracism Through Paralinguistic Digital Affordances Within Social Media

“…This contentious axiom of communication (cf. Segrin, 2016) highlights a critical paucity, one only recently starting to be addressed in the literature addressing communication in social media (Smith, Morgan, & Monks, 2017): how the absence of communication, or the perception of being ignored, impacts individuals' well-being.…”

“…In their survey of Facebook users, Scissors et al (2016) found that 16% of respondents felt bad when they believed their posts did not receive enough Likes, but did not examine specifically why that was, or resulting feelings. While Smith et al (2017) included Likes aggregated with comments and direct messages in their vignettes examining perceived exclusion, the role PDAs, the most frequently used communicative tool and social currency of social media, play in perceptions of ostracism has been examined in situ only once to date and only on Facebook, with Reich et al (2018) finding that precursors to perceived ostracism, sense of belongingness, and self-esteem were negatively impacted by receiving no or few Likes, especially from relationally close individuals. This intriguing finding generates more questions about how lack of receipt of PDAs more generally (and on other platforms) might impact perceptions of social exclusion and other psychological effects.…”

Comparison between students’ and instructors’ perceived use and effectiveness of online social technologies

“…A "digital dissonance" is also said to exist, due to the fact that although most university students have access to social media some find it not relevant for studies as they find no link between the social media and education since they are mainly used for socialising and their academic endeavours (Sobaih et al, 2016). Also mostly due to the nature of the digital natives, articles such as (Smith, Morgan & Monks, 2017) report that students find it painful to be left out of social media particularly the younger students such as first year students being more sensitive to this exclusion.…”