Over 70% of Americans use social media platforms, like Instagram. With this high prevalence, researchers have investigated the relationship between social media use and psychological well-being. Extant research has yielded mixed results, however, as most measures of social media use are self-reported and focus on amount of use. Even when studies account for type of social media use, such as active or passive use, there remains much to be captured. To address this, we asked participants to report their satisfaction with life and then recorded their actual Instagram activity for 10 minutes after posting a “selfie” portrait to their account. Importantly, we coded the observed Instagram activity into the following four clusters of experiences: communications received, communications sent, monitoring self-related content, exploring other-related content. We found that greater life satisfaction was associated with higher frequency of receiving communications and viewing other-related content. Life satisfaction was not associated with frequency of sending communications and self-monitoring. Surprisingly, none of the clusters of Instagram experiences were negatively associated with life satisfaction. Our findings highlight the importance of objective data and moving beyond the active/passive dichotomy of social media use to consider additional experiences.
Geographic Coverage: United States
Time Period: 7/9/2019 – 3/11/2020
Collection Dates: 7/9/2019 – 3/11/2020
Universe: Emerging adult iPhone and Instagram users, ages 18-26 attending a four-year university
Data Type(s): observational data; survey data
Response Rate: In total, 80 participants completed the online survey and had their Instagram use monitored for 10 minutes. The final analytical sample includes 70 participants, 11 individuals were excluded from analysis because they did not follow directions during the experiment (e.g., did not spend the full 10 minutes using the Instagram app).
Sampling: onvenience sample of undergraduate college students who self-selected into the research study.
Data Source: Online survey assessing satisfaction with life and observational data of real-time Instagram app use.
Collection Mode(s): coded video observation; web-based survey
Scales: Participants completed the 5-item Satisfaction with Life Scale, abbreviated SWLS (45). Example items: “In most ways, my life is close to my ideal” and “I am satisfied with my life”. Participants responded to each item using a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). The mean of each participant’s responses was calculated, with higher scores indicating greater satisfaction with life (M = 4.75, SD = 1.15).
Unit of Observation: Individuals
