The socially poor get richer, the rich get poorer: The effect of online self-disclosure on social connectedness and well-being is conditional on social anxiety and audience size

Abstract

Self-disclosure taking place in computer-mediated communication (CMC) is generally associated with enhanced well-being because it evokes a greater sense of connectedness. It has been established that the magnitude of the benefits reaped from online self-disclosure is conditional on social anxiety (under the lens of the poor-get-richer vs. rich-get-richer hypotheses) or audience size. What remains to be understood is whether those with low (compared to high) social anxiety experience greater social connectedness and subjective well-being in dyadic and/or masspersonal CMC. A sample of 411 Canadian undergraduate students (aged 17–21 years old) self-reported their anxiety in social situations, online self-disclosure in dyadic and masspersonal communication, current feelings of social connectedness, and subjective well-being. Model 7 of the PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to test the indirect effect of online self-disclosure on subjective well-being through feelings of social connectedness, conditioned on values of social anxiety. The model was run separately for dyadic and masspersonal CMC. Online self-disclosure was associated with positive outcomes only for those with high social anxiety. In both contexts, online self-disclosure was associated with enhanced social connectedness and in turn more positive subjective well-being. In contrast, for those with low social anxiety, increases in self-disclosure in masspersonal CMC was associated with decreases in social connectedness and poorer well-being. The indirect effect was not significant for dyadic CMC. Overall, the findings contribute to a more informed understanding of online self-disclosure as a double-edged sword. Theoretical implications for the poor-get-richer and rich-get-richer perspectives are discussed.

Generation Z's perception of privacy on social media: Examining the impact of personalized advertising, interpersonal relationships, reference group dynamics, social isolation, and anxiety on self-disclosure willingness

“…Existing studies mainly focus on analyzing the impact of social media on Generation Z's social and psychological aspects and attempt to understand how social media affects interpersonal relationships, social interaction (Penttinen et al, 2022;Tsai et al, 2021), a sense of belonging to a social group (Bartsch & Kloss, 2019), and the ability to establish and maintain friendships (Van Ouytsel, 2021). They also examine how they influence social norms, values, and behavior, as well as self-esteem, self-confidence, anxiety, depression, and other aspects of mental health (Desjarlais, 2022;Lyngdoh et al, 2023;Marciano et al, 2022). In the context of privacy concerns, previous studies point to a greater willingness of Generation Z to share personal data to obtain various benefits (Kezer et al, 2022;Pantano et al, 2023;Zhou & Liu, 2023) and also that the perceived pressure and lack of control over such information does not lead to active engagement in protecting personal data (Segijn et al, 2021;Stevic et al, 2022).…”