The interplay between Facebook use, social comparison, envy, and depression

Abstract

Highlights • Facebook use has recently been linked to depression and negative affectivity. • Unflattering social comparison and envy are common experiences for Facebook users. • Envy and social comparison mediate correlations between Facebook use and depression. • Facebook research sheds new light on the relationship between envy and depression. • Further experiments and experience sampling should corroborate causal links.

Social Comparison as the Thief of Joy: Emotional Consequences of Viewing Strangers’ Instagram Posts

“…Research to date suggests that social media use increases the feeling that others are doing better and, as a result, increases negative affect and decreases positive affect (for a review see Appel, Gerlach, & Crusius, 2016). In survey research among college-aged young adults, social media use was positively related to the belief that others are better off (Chou & Edge, 2012;de Vries & Kühne, 2015).…”

“…The negative effects of general social media use on mood (Appel et al, 2016;Chou & Edge, 2012;Feinstein et al, 2013) have been attributed to the positivity bias on social media, that is, people's ability and tendency to present the most positive sides of themselves and their lives on these platforms (Lin & Utz, 2015;Qiu et al, 2012;Reinecke & Trepte, 2014). The current study tests if exposure to positively biased Instagram posts from strangers has consequences for positive and negative affect relative to viewing no posts or neutral posts by the same strangers.…”

“…The belief that others are better off, in turn, was negatively related to emotional wellbeing (Feinstein et al, 2013). Furthermore, crosssectional, prospective, and experience sampling research has shown that Facebook use is related to the negative emotion envy (for a review see Appel et al, 2016). In addition, university students reported in interviews that social comparison on Facebook made them feel jealous (Fox & Moreland, 2015).…”

Is envy harmful to a society's psychological health and wellbeing? A longitudinal study of 18,000 adults

“…Studies such as Appel, Gerlach, & Crusius (2015), Tandoc, Ferrucci & Duffy (2015), Verduyn et al (2015), Taylor & Strutton (2016), Christakis & Shakya (2017), and Shensa et al (2017) document recent evidence on connections between social-media use, envy, and lower mental well-being. A second literature, on related concerns about advertising and psychological well-being, is beginning to emerge (Opree, Buijzen, & van Reijmersdal, 2016).…”

Need for Containment as a Motivation for Facebook Use

“…, most recent findings associate Facebook use with negative psychological effects such as depression, loneliness, anxiety, envy and concerns about one's body image [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]. Although most recent studies point out the negative psychological effects associated with Facebook use, some have documented its positive effects with more segmented populations such as reducing stress among women [21] [22] and the mentally ill [23].…”