Browse Econ Literature

  • Working papers
  • Software components
  • Book chapters
  • JEL classification

More features

  • Subscribe to new research

RePEc Biblio

Author registration.

  • Economics Virtual Seminar Calendar NEW!

IDEAS home

Netiquette: Ethic, Education, and Behavior on Internet—A Systematic Literature Review

  • Author & abstract
  • 16 References
  • 2 Citations
  • Most related
  • Related works & more

Corrections

(Department of Education Sciences, University of Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain)

(Department of Didactics and School Organization, University of Granada, 51001 Ceuta, Spain)

Suggested Citation

Download full text from publisher, references listed on ideas.

Follow serials, authors, keywords & more

Public profiles for Economics researchers

Various research rankings in Economics

RePEc Genealogy

Who was a student of whom, using RePEc

Curated articles & papers on economics topics

Upload your paper to be listed on RePEc and IDEAS

New papers by email

Subscribe to new additions to RePEc

EconAcademics

Blog aggregator for economics research

Cases of plagiarism in Economics

About RePEc

Initiative for open bibliographies in Economics

News about RePEc

Questions about IDEAS and RePEc

RePEc volunteers

Participating archives

Publishers indexing in RePEc

Privacy statement

Found an error or omission?

Opportunities to help RePEc

Get papers listed

Have your research listed on RePEc

Open a RePEc archive

Have your institution's/publisher's output listed on RePEc

Get RePEc data

Use data assembled by RePEc

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

  • We're Hiring!
  • Help Center

paper cover thumbnail

Social Media Netiquette and Digital Citizenship on Grade 12 Students in Tagum National Trade School

Profile image of Charlie Avataria

Related Papers

Najah Ghamrawi

This study explored the Lebanese teachers' perceptions regarding their knowledge, practice and self-efficacy pertaining to digital citizenship. Data were collected from 378 teacher participants from public schools in Beirut, Lebanon. The study used mixed methods employing an adapted form of Ri-ble's (2015) survey on digital citizenship, alongside a structured focus group interview with 8 teachers drawn randomly from the pool of participant schools. Findings suggest that Lebanese teachers have dispersed and unbalanced perceptions of the concept of digital citizenship, limited practice, and recessive self-efficacy. The study recommends that successful endeavours towards establishing efficient digital citizenship should start with the reconstruction of teachers' knowledge and level of awareness pertaining to digital citizenship.

social media netiquette research paper

Dr Abdulrahman M Al-Zahrani

The current study aims to understand digital citizenship, based on the assumptions of Ribble (2014), by examining factors affecting participation and involvement in the Internet virtual societies among higher education students. A quantitative approach using a survey questionnaire was implemented. The participants were 174 students from the Faculty of Education at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. The descriptive statistics show that the students generally have good levels of perceived Internet attitude, computer self-efficacy, and digital citizenship, especially in terms of respecting oneself and others online. The factors affecting digital citizenship are computer experience, daily average technology use, students’ attitudes toward the Internet, and computer self-efficacy. Students with higher levels of computer experience are more involved in activities related to educating oneself and connecting with others online compared with students with less experience. Further, students with higher levels of daily average technology use tend to protect themselves and others online more compared with students with lower levels of technology use. Moreover, higher levels of students’ Internet attitude and computer self-efficacy are associated with higher levels of respect for oneself and others, of educating oneself and others, and of total digital citizenship. Based on the current study findings, appropriate recommendations are proposed in terms of policy and practice.

Princess Julia

jamal salimi

The purpose of this study was twofold, i.e. to examine the extent to which students' self-reported use of digital technology constituted meaningful and interpretable dimensions of the digital citizenship construct, and to test the adequacy of the construct in terms of its reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and measurement equivalence for male and female students. The sample consisted of 391 undergraduates from 15 institutions of higher education in Malaysia. The data were collected using a self-reported 17-item questionnaire measuring university students' digital citizenship behaviours. The results of the study supported and extended the results of previous work on students' behaviors when using digital technology. The study found evidence that students' digital citizenship is a valid and reliable multidimensional construct, and the measurement is gender-invariant. The findings are useful in making evidence-informed decisions in choosing and developing instructional interventions to produce ethical and responsible technology users, and in informing future research in the area.

Dawn M Armfield , Shadow Armfield

The implementation of social media environments has exacerbated the use and visibility of degrading language and imagery, and shaming in online spaces is often different from that in face-to-face environments. Those who shame can hide behind anonymity or create images that are not associated with any one person, but that target a specific person or group of people. This research investigates ways in which shaming is used in social media and develops an argument for why and how it must be addressed within the learning environment. Teachers and students, working collaboratively, can create learning environments, including face-to-face and online interactions that involve positive digital citizenship, quality learning, and increasingly advanced communication skills.

Josie Ahlquist

Social media tools permeate the college student experience including for those students who hold leadership positions on campus. The purpose of this study was to document the experiences and online behaviors of 40 junior and senior student leaders on digital communication tools. The study was conducted at two institutions in the western United States. Three research questions guided the sequential exploratory mixed methods study connecting student leadership, the presentation of identity, and decision-making with social media use. The study involved a three phase mixed methods analysis of focus group interviews and 2,220 social media posts. Five major findings surfaced, including (a) social media impact starting in K-12 (b) college student leaders’ navigation of social media (c) presentation of digital identity (d) the beginning of leadership presence and possibilities and (e) significance of social media guidance in college. These findings suggest college student educators should implement holistic digital leadership education. Initiatives should begin early, prior to student enrollment in higher education, focusing on identity expression, positivepossibilities-based perspectives, with a focus on social media’s potential impact on student groups, social communities, and social change. Findings from this study can mobilize higher education professionals, student peers, and parents to become digital educators, providing tools for students to implement in their digital practices.

Linda Castañeda , Ignacio Despujol Zabala

Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) was the European institution with more MOOC course runs done by December 2016. This paper describes and analyses the decision-making process, and rationale of the development of this low budget real MOOC institutional initiative carried out by a traditional higher educational medium sized institution. This analysis is done using an Evaluative Research (ER) method based on an iterative approach of 6 cycles of formative evaluation. It has been a multiple stage process that includes many aspects. In this paper, we will analyze two of them: the creation, organization and management of a fast and cheap MOOC production process, including the several tools, plans, and procedures that have enabled UPV to create courses fast and with a low-cost; and the technical evolution of the initiative, with the different platforms that have been used. As a consequence of this process, UPV has its own platform (upvx.es) based on openedX and is a member of edx.org, with 50 courses, 177 editions, and more than 632.000 enrollments. The completion rate is 8.69%, and post-course surveys reveal a high level of satisfaction from students. The paper will finish addressing the challenges of making this an entirely self-sustainable initiative and reflecting about what is required for evaluating this experience globally.

Monica Barbovschi

Teenagers' Action and Interaction Online in Central and Eastern Europe.

David Smahel

The chapter summarizes research about Czech adolescents using the Internet. One part of the contribution deals with online identity construction which seems to play an important role in the development of identity and self-concept. The second main division consists of the online risk behavior which adolescents may face to. The authors discuss the addiction on the Internet, pro-ana blogs as well as self-damaging in blogs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate university students' thoughts and practices concerning digital citizenship. An explanatory mixed methods design was used, and it involved collecting qualitative data after a quantitative phase in order to follow up on the quantitative data in more depth. In the first quantitative phase of the study, a digital citizenship survey, including demographics and 5-point Likert scale questions, was conducted with 435 students of a private university. Factor analysis, descriptive statistics, and parametric test were used to analyze the data gathered by the survey. One of the important findings in the first phase was that university students do not prefer to engage in political activities online. The second qualitative phase was conducted to better understand the reasons behind university students' thoughts and practices regarding digital citizenship. In this exploratory follow up, the data gathered in the first phase was tentatively explored with 10 students studying at the same university. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students and content analysis was used to analyze the data. Based on the findings, students indicated that they do not prefer to engage in political activities online because of emotional disturbance, pressure from society, and a fear of affecting their future lives in a negative way.

RELATED PAPERS

Merlyn Horton , Aynsley Pescitelli

Gavisiddappa R Angadi

Learning, Media and Technology

Ayşe Altıntaş

World Journal on Educational Technology

WJET Journal

Derya Bozdogan

Louise Stoch , Sumarie Roodt

Yih-ruey Juang

CALICO Journal, 30(2)

Caleb Prichard

Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 28(8), 1333-1361

Patient Rambe

dominic savio

Bordón. Revista de Pedagogía

Davide Diamantini , Giulia Mura , Monica Bernardi

Parisa Nadya

Children and Youth Services Review

Eun-Yeong Na

Library Philosophy and Practice

Helen Okpala

Proceedings of the 83rd Annual Conference of the Association for Business Communication. Miami FL USA: Association of Business Communications.

Clovia Hamilton , Keith Robbins , Chlotia Garrison

mustafa pamuk

Proceedings of the 13th International Educational Technology Conference

Jorge Arús-Hita

Michael Henderson

ameh goodnes

Learning & Leading With Technology, March/April, 32-34. (2010)

Meg Blanchard

Michael J Scialdone

Kara McBride

Piotr Grabowski

Aidah Abdul Karim

maria yuliastuti

Innovative approaches for investigating how children understand risk in new media. Dealing with methodological and ethical challenges, London, LSE: EU Kids Online

Despina Chronaki

Ajeng I Ilahiyah

Monica Barbovschi , Catherine Blaya , Galina Soldatova , Dunja Potočnik , Bojana Lobe , liza tsaliki , Ingrid Paus-Hasebrink , David Smahel , Leslie Haddon

maria ranieri

Contemporary Educational Researches Journal (

CERJ Journal

Scan The Journal for Educators

Rachel Buchanan

Mae Amor Ocampos

Eliana Esther Gallardo Echenique

Asia Pacific Journal of Education Perspective , Duard De Vera

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation - ICERI 2016

Stefania Manca , Valentina Grion

  •   We're Hiring!
  •   Help Center
  • Find new research papers in:
  • Health Sciences
  • Earth Sciences
  • Cognitive Science
  • Mathematics
  • Computer Science
  • Academia ©2024

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

  • Publications
  • Our Methods
  • Short Reads
  • Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

Table of Contents

Which social media platforms are most common, who uses each social media platform, find out more, social media fact sheet.

Many Americans use social media to connect with one another, engage with news content, share information and entertain themselves. Explore the patterns and trends shaping the social media landscape.

To better understand Americans’ social media use, Pew Research Center surveyed 5,733 U.S. adults from May 19 to Sept. 5, 2023. Ipsos conducted this National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS) for the Center using address-based sampling and a multimode protocol that included both web and mail. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race and ethnicity, education and other categories.

Polls from 2000 to 2021 were conducted via phone. For more on this mode shift, read our Q&A.

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and  its methodology ­­­.

A note on terminology: Our May-September 2023 survey was already in the field when Twitter changed its name to “X.” The terms  Twitter  and  X  are both used in this report to refer to the same platform.

social media netiquette research paper

YouTube and Facebook are the most-widely used online platforms. About half of U.S. adults say they use Instagram, and smaller shares use sites or apps such as TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter (X) and BeReal.

Note: The vertical line indicates a change in mode. Polls from 2012-2021 were conducted via phone. In 2023, the poll was conducted via web and mail. For more details on this shift, please read our Q&A . Refer to the topline for more information on how question wording varied over the years. Pre-2018 data is not available for YouTube, Snapchat or WhatsApp; pre-2019 data is not available for Reddit; pre-2021 data is not available for TikTok; pre-2023 data is not available for BeReal. Respondents who did not give an answer are not shown.

Source: Surveys of U.S. adults conducted 2012-2023.

social media netiquette research paper

Usage of the major online platforms varies by factors such as age, gender and level of formal education.

% of U.S. adults who say they ever use __ by …

  • RACE & ETHNICITY
  • POLITICAL AFFILIATION

social media netiquette research paper

This fact sheet was compiled by Research Assistant  Olivia Sidoti , with help from Research Analyst  Risa Gelles-Watnick , Research Analyst  Michelle Faverio , Digital Producer  Sara Atske , Associate Information Graphics Designer Kaitlyn Radde and Temporary Researcher  Eugenie Park .

Follow these links for more in-depth analysis of the impact of social media on American life.

  • Americans’ Social Media Use  Jan. 31, 2024
  • Americans’ Use of Mobile Technology and Home Broadband  Jan. 31 2024
  • Q&A: How and why we’re changing the way we study tech adoption  Jan. 31, 2024

Find more reports and blog posts related to  internet and technology .

1615 L St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

  • Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

© 2024 Pew Research Center

Illustration of a distant mountain with winding forest stream in the foreground

2024 Environmental Performance Index: A Surprise Top Ranking, Global Biodiversity Commitment Tested

The Baltic nation of Estonia is No. 1 in the 2024 rankings, while Denmark, one of the top ranked countries in the 2022 EPI dropped to 10 th place, highlighting the challenges of reducing emissions in hard-to-decarbonize industries. Meanwhile, “paper parks” are proving a global challenge to international biodiversity commitments.

  Listen to Article

In 2022, at the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP 15, in Montreal over 190 countries made what has been called “the biggest conservation commitment the world has ever seen.”  The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework called for the effective protection and management of 30% of the world’s terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas by the year 2030 — commonly known as the 30x30 target. While there has been progress toward reaching this ambitious goal of protecting 30% of land and seas on paper, just ahead of World Environment Day, the 2024 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) , an analysis by Yale researchers that provides a data-driven summary of the state of sustainability around the world, shows that in many cases such protections have failed to halt ecosystem loss or curtail environmentally destructive practices.

A new metric that assesses how well countries are protecting important ecosystems indicated that while nations have made progress in protecting land and seas, many of these areas are “paper parks” where commercial activities such as mining and trawling continue to occur — sometimes at a higher rate than in non-protected areas. The EPI analyses show that in 23 countries, more than 10% of the land protected is covered by croplands and buildings, and in 35 countries there is more fishing activity inside marine protected areas than outside. 

“Protected areas are failing to achieve their goals in different ways,” said Sebastián Block Munguía, a postdoctoral associate with the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP) and the lead author of the report. “In Europe, destructive fishing is allowed inside marine protected areas, and a large fraction of the area protected in land is covered by croplands, not natural ecosystems. In many developing countries, even when destructive activities are not allowed in protected areas, shortages of funding and personnel make it difficult to enforce rules.”

The 2024 EPI, published by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network ranks 180 countries based on 58 performance indicators to track progress on mitigating climate change, promoting environmental health, and safeguarding ecosystem vitality. The data evaluates efforts by the nations to reach U.N. sustainability goals, the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, as well as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The data for the index underlying different indicators come from a variety of academic institutions and international organizations and cover different periods. Protected area coverage indicators are based on data from March 2024, while greenhouse emissions data are from 2022.

Estonia has decreased its GHG emissions by 59% compared to 1990. The energy sector will be the biggest contributor in reducing emissions in the coming years as we have an aim to produce 100% of our electricity consumption from renewables by 2030.”

The index found that many countries that were leading in sustainability goals have fallen behind or stalled, illustrating the challenges of reducing emissions in hard-to-decarbonize industries and resistant sectors such as agriculture. In several countries, recent drops in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) have been the result of external circumstances, not policy. For example, in Albania, supply chain disruptions led to more expensive animal feed that resulted in a sharp reduction in cows and, consequentially, nitrous oxide and methane emissions.

Estonia leads this year’s rankings with a 40% drop in GHG emissions over the last decade, largely attributed to replacing dirty oil shale power plants with cleaner energy sources. The country is drafting a proposal to achieve by 2040 a CO2 neutral energy sector and a CO2 neutral public transport network in bigger cities.

“Estonia has decreased its GHG emissions by 59% compared to 1990. The energy sector will be the biggest contributor in reducing emissions in the coming years as we have an aim to produce 100% of our electricity consumption from renewables by 2030,” said Kristi Klaas, Estonia’s vice-minister for Green Transition. Klaas discussed some of the policies that led to the country's success as well as ongoing challenges, such as reducing emissions in the agriculture sector, at a webinar hosted by YCELP on June 3.  Dr. Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al-Amri, chairman of the Environment Authority of Oman, also joined the webinar to discuss efforts aimed at protecting the county's multiple ecosystems with rare biodiversity and endangered species, such as the Arabian oryx, and subspecies, such as the Arabian leopard. 

Satellite image of the New Haven area

Subscribe to “YSE 3”

Biweekly, we highlight three news and research stories about the work we’re doing at Yale School of the Environment.

 Denmark, the top ranked country in the 2022 EPI dropped to 10th place, as its pace of decarbonization slowed, highlighting that those early gains from implementing “low-hanging-fruit policies, such as switching to electricity generation from coal to natural gas and expanding renewable power generation are themselves insufficient,” the index notes. Emissions in the world’s largest economies such as the U.S. (which is ranked 34th) are falling too slowly or still rising — such as in China, Russia, and India, which is ranked 176th.

Over the last decade only five countries — Estonia, Finland, Greece, Timor-Leste, and the United Kingdom — have cut their GHG emissions over the last decade at the rate needed to reach net zero by 2050. Vietnam and other developing countries in Southeast and Southern Asia — such as Pakistan, Laos, Myanmar, and Bangladesh — are ranked the lowest, indicating the urgency of international cooperation to help provide a path for struggling nations to achieve sustainability.

“The 2024 Environmental Performance Index highlights a range of critical sustainability challenges from climate change to biodiversity loss and beyond — and reveals trends suggesting that countries across the world need to redouble their efforts to protect critical ecosystems and the vitality of our planet,” said Daniel Esty, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy and director of YCELP.

  • Daniel C. Esty
  • Sebastián Block Munguía
  • Ecosystem Management and Conservation
  • Environmental Policy Analysis

Media Contact

Portrait of Fran Silverman

Fran Silverman

Associate Director of Communications

Research in the News

A path in the Sinharaja rainforest in Sri Lanka

Climate Change Threatens Resilience of Sri Lankan Rainforests

 

An Inside Look at Beech Leaf Disease

An uncompleted construction project in India

Achieving Sustainable Urban Growth on a Global Scale

Connect with us.

  • Request Information
  • Register for Events

U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

  • Publications
  • Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

  • Advanced Search
  • Journal List
  • Front Psychol

Effects of Social Media Use on Psychological Well-Being: A Mediated Model

Dragana ostic.

1 School of Finance and Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China

Sikandar Ali Qalati

Belem barbosa.

2 Research Unit of Governance, Competitiveness, and Public Policies (GOVCOPP), Center for Economics and Finance (cef.up), School of Economics and Management, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

Syed Mir Muhammad Shah

3 Department of Business Administration, Sukkur Institute of Business Administration (IBA) University, Sukkur, Pakistan

Esthela Galvan Vela

4 CETYS Universidad, Tijuana, Mexico

Ahmed Muhammad Herzallah

5 Department of Business Administration, Al-Quds University, Jerusalem, Israel

6 Business School, Shandong University, Weihai, China

Associated Data

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

The growth in social media use has given rise to concerns about the impacts it may have on users' psychological well-being. This paper's main objective is to shed light on the effect of social media use on psychological well-being. Building on contributions from various fields in the literature, it provides a more comprehensive study of the phenomenon by considering a set of mediators, including social capital types (i.e., bonding social capital and bridging social capital), social isolation, and smartphone addiction. The paper includes a quantitative study of 940 social media users from Mexico, using structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings point to an overall positive indirect impact of social media usage on psychological well-being, mainly due to the positive effect of bonding and bridging social capital. The empirical model's explanatory power is 45.1%. This paper provides empirical evidence and robust statistical analysis that demonstrates both positive and negative effects coexist, helping to reconcile the inconsistencies found so far in the literature.

Introduction

The use of social media has grown substantially in recent years (Leong et al., 2019 ; Kemp, 2020 ). Social media refers to “the websites and online tools that facilitate interactions between users by providing them opportunities to share information, opinions, and interest” (Swar and Hameed, 2017 , p. 141). Individuals use social media for many reasons, including entertainment, communication, and searching for information. Notably, adolescents and young adults are spending an increasing amount of time on online networking sites, e-games, texting, and other social media (Twenge and Campbell, 2019 ). In fact, some authors (e.g., Dhir et al., 2018 ; Tateno et al., 2019 ) have suggested that social media has altered the forms of group interaction and its users' individual and collective behavior around the world.

Consequently, there are increased concerns regarding the possible negative impacts associated with social media usage addiction (Swar and Hameed, 2017 ; Kircaburun et al., 2020 ), particularly on psychological well-being (Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ; Jiao et al., 2017 ; Choi and Noh, 2019 ; Chatterjee, 2020 ). Smartphones sometimes distract their users from relationships and social interaction (Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ; Li et al., 2020a ), and several authors have stressed that the excessive use of social media may lead to smartphone addiction (Swar and Hameed, 2017 ; Leong et al., 2019 ), primarily because of the fear of missing out (Reer et al., 2019 ; Roberts and David, 2020 ). Social media usage has been associated with anxiety, loneliness, and depression (Dhir et al., 2018 ; Reer et al., 2019 ), social isolation (Van Den Eijnden et al., 2016 ; Whaite et al., 2018 ), and “phubbing,” which refers to the extent to which an individual uses, or is distracted by, their smartphone during face-to-face communication with others (Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ; Jiao et al., 2017 ; Choi and Noh, 2019 ; Chatterjee, 2020 ).

However, social media use also contributes to building a sense of connectedness with relevant others (Twenge and Campbell, 2019 ), which may reduce social isolation. Indeed, social media provides several ways to interact both with close ties, such as family, friends, and relatives, and weak ties, including coworkers, acquaintances, and strangers (Chen and Li, 2017 ), and plays a key role among people of all ages as they exploit their sense of belonging in different communities (Roberts and David, 2020 ). Consequently, despite the fears regarding the possible negative impacts of social media usage on well-being, there is also an increasing number of studies highlighting social media as a new communication channel (Twenge and Campbell, 2019 ; Barbosa et al., 2020 ), stressing that it can play a crucial role in developing one's presence, identity, and reputation, thus facilitating social interaction, forming and maintaining relationships, and sharing ideas (Carlson et al., 2016 ), which consequently may be significantly correlated to social support (Chen and Li, 2017 ; Holliman et al., 2021 ). Interestingly, recent studies (e.g., David et al., 2018 ; Bano et al., 2019 ; Barbosa et al., 2020 ) have suggested that the impact of smartphone usage on psychological well-being depends on the time spent on each type of application and the activities that users engage in.

Hence, the literature provides contradictory cues regarding the impacts of social media on users' well-being, highlighting both the possible negative impacts and the social enhancement it can potentially provide. In line with views on the need to further investigate social media usage (Karikari et al., 2017 ), particularly regarding its societal implications (Jiao et al., 2017 ), this paper argues that there is an urgent need to further understand the impact of the time spent on social media on users' psychological well-being, namely by considering other variables that mediate and further explain this effect.

One of the relevant perspectives worth considering is that provided by social capital theory, which is adopted in this paper. Social capital theory has previously been used to study how social media usage affects psychological well-being (e.g., Bano et al., 2019 ). However, extant literature has so far presented only partial models of associations that, although statistically acceptable and contributing to the understanding of the scope of social networks, do not provide as comprehensive a vision of the phenomenon as that proposed within this paper. Furthermore, the contradictory views, suggesting both negative (e.g., Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ; Van Den Eijnden et al., 2016 ; Jiao et al., 2017 ; Whaite et al., 2018 ; Choi and Noh, 2019 ; Chatterjee, 2020 ) and positive impacts (Carlson et al., 2016 ; Chen and Li, 2017 ; Twenge and Campbell, 2019 ) of social media on psychological well-being, have not been adequately explored.

Given this research gap, this paper's main objective is to shed light on the effect of social media use on psychological well-being. As explained in detail in the next section, this paper explores the mediating effect of bonding and bridging social capital. To provide a broad view of the phenomenon, it also considers several variables highlighted in the literature as affecting the relationship between social media usage and psychological well-being, namely smartphone addiction, social isolation, and phubbing. The paper utilizes a quantitative study conducted in Mexico, comprising 940 social media users, and uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to test a set of research hypotheses.

This article provides several contributions. First, it adds to existing literature regarding the effect of social media use on psychological well-being and explores the contradictory indications provided by different approaches. Second, it proposes a conceptual model that integrates complementary perspectives on the direct and indirect effects of social media use. Third, it offers empirical evidence and robust statistical analysis that demonstrates that both positive and negative effects coexist, helping resolve the inconsistencies found so far in the literature. Finally, this paper provides insights on how to help reduce the potential negative effects of social media use, as it demonstrates that, through bridging and bonding social capital, social media usage positively impacts psychological well-being. Overall, the article offers valuable insights for academics, practitioners, and society in general.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section Literature Review presents a literature review focusing on the factors that explain the impact of social media usage on psychological well-being. Based on the literature review, a set of hypotheses are defined, resulting in the proposed conceptual model, which includes both the direct and indirect effects of social media usage on psychological well-being. Section Research Methodology explains the methodological procedures of the research, followed by the presentation and discussion of the study's results in section Results. Section Discussion is dedicated to the conclusions and includes implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research.

Literature Review

Putnam ( 1995 , p. 664–665) defined social capital as “features of social life – networks, norms, and trust – that enable participants to act together more effectively to pursue shared objectives.” Li and Chen ( 2014 , p. 117) further explained that social capital encompasses “resources embedded in one's social network, which can be assessed and used for instrumental or expressive returns such as mutual support, reciprocity, and cooperation.”

Putnam ( 1995 , 2000 ) conceptualized social capital as comprising two dimensions, bridging and bonding, considering the different norms and networks in which they occur. Bridging social capital refers to the inclusive nature of social interaction and occurs when individuals from different origins establish connections through social networks. Hence, bridging social capital is typically provided by heterogeneous weak ties (Li and Chen, 2014 ). This dimension widens individual social horizons and perspectives and provides extended access to resources and information. Bonding social capital refers to the social and emotional support each individual receives from his or her social networks, particularly from close ties (e.g., family and friends).

Overall, social capital is expected to be positively associated with psychological well-being (Bano et al., 2019 ). Indeed, Williams ( 2006 ) stressed that interaction generates affective connections, resulting in positive impacts, such as emotional support. The following sub-sections use the lens of social capital theory to explore further the relationship between the use of social media and psychological well-being.

Social Media Use, Social Capital, and Psychological Well-Being

The effects of social media usage on social capital have gained increasing scholarly attention, and recent studies have highlighted a positive relationship between social media use and social capital (Brown and Michinov, 2019 ; Tefertiller et al., 2020 ). Li and Chen ( 2014 ) hypothesized that the intensity of Facebook use by Chinese international students in the United States was positively related to social capital forms. A longitudinal survey based on the quota sampling approach illustrated the positive effects of social media use on the two social capital dimensions (Chen and Li, 2017 ). Abbas and Mesch ( 2018 ) argued that, as Facebook usage increases, it will also increase users' social capital. Karikari et al. ( 2017 ) also found positive effects of social media use on social capital. Similarly, Pang ( 2018 ) studied Chinese students residing in Germany and found positive effects of social networking sites' use on social capital, which, in turn, was positively associated with psychological well-being. Bano et al. ( 2019 ) analyzed the 266 students' data and found positive effects of WhatsApp use on social capital forms and the positive effect of social capital on psychological well-being, emphasizing the role of social integration in mediating this positive effect.

Kim and Kim ( 2017 ) stressed the importance of having a heterogeneous network of contacts, which ultimately enhances the potential social capital. Overall, the manifest and social relations between people from close social circles (bonding social capital) and from distant social circles (bridging social capital) are strengthened when they promote communication, social support, and the sharing of interests, knowledge, and skills, which are shared with other members. This is linked to positive effects on interactions, such as acceptance, trust, and reciprocity, which are related to the individuals' health and psychological well-being (Bekalu et al., 2019 ), including when social media helps to maintain social capital between social circles that exist outside of virtual communities (Ellison et al., 2007 ).

Grounded on the above literature, this study proposes the following hypotheses:

  • H1a: Social media use is positively associated with bonding social capital.
  • H1b: Bonding social capital is positively associated with psychological well-being.
  • H2a: Social media use is positively associated with bridging social capital.
  • H2b: Bridging social capital is positively associated with psychological well-being.

Social Media Use, Social Isolation, and Psychological Well-Being

Social isolation is defined as “a deficit of personal relationships or being excluded from social networks” (Choi and Noh, 2019 , p. 4). The state that occurs when an individual lacks true engagement with others, a sense of social belonging, and a satisfying relationship is related to increased mortality and morbidity (Primack et al., 2017 ). Those who experience social isolation are deprived of social relationships and lack contact with others or involvement in social activities (Schinka et al., 2012 ). Social media usage has been associated with anxiety, loneliness, and depression (Dhir et al., 2018 ; Reer et al., 2019 ), and social isolation (Van Den Eijnden et al., 2016 ; Whaite et al., 2018 ). However, some recent studies have argued that social media use decreases social isolation (Primack et al., 2017 ; Meshi et al., 2020 ). Indeed, the increased use of social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter, among others, may provide opportunities for decreasing social isolation. For instance, the improved interpersonal connectivity achieved via videos and images on social media helps users evidence intimacy, attenuating social isolation (Whaite et al., 2018 ).

Chappell and Badger ( 1989 ) stated that social isolation leads to decreased psychological well-being, while Choi and Noh ( 2019 ) concluded that greater social isolation is linked to increased suicide risk. Schinka et al. ( 2012 ) further argued that, when individuals experience social isolation from siblings, friends, family, or society, their psychological well-being tends to decrease. Thus, based on the literature cited above, this study proposes the following hypotheses:

  • H3a: Social media use is significantly associated with social isolation.
  • H3b: Social isolation is negatively associated with psychological well-being.

Social Media Use, Smartphone Addiction, Phubbing, and Psychological Well-Being

Smartphone addiction refers to “an individuals' excessive use of a smartphone and its negative effects on his/her life as a result of his/her inability to control his behavior” (Gökçearslan et al., 2018 , p. 48). Regardless of its form, smartphone addiction results in social, medical, and psychological harm to people by limiting their ability to make their own choices (Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ). The rapid advancement of information and communication technologies has led to the concept of social media, e-games, and also to smartphone addiction (Chatterjee, 2020 ). The excessive use of smartphones for social media use, entertainment (watching videos, listening to music), and playing e-games is more common amongst people addicted to smartphones (Jeong et al., 2016 ). In fact, previous studies have evidenced the relationship between social use and smartphone addiction (Salehan and Negahban, 2013 ; Jeong et al., 2016 ; Swar and Hameed, 2017 ). In line with this, the following hypotheses are proposed:

  • H4a: Social media use is positively associated with smartphone addiction.
  • H4b: Smartphone addiction is negatively associated with psychological well-being.

While smartphones are bringing individuals closer, they are also, to some extent, pulling people apart (Tonacci et al., 2019 ). For instance, they can lead to individuals ignoring others with whom they have close ties or physical interactions; this situation normally occurs due to extreme smartphone use (i.e., at the dinner table, in meetings, at get-togethers and parties, and in other daily activities). This act of ignoring others is called phubbing and is considered a common phenomenon in communication activities (Guazzini et al., 2019 ; Chatterjee, 2020 ). Phubbing is also referred to as an act of snubbing others (Chatterjee, 2020 ). This term was initially used in May 2012 by an Australian advertising agency to describe the “growing phenomenon of individuals ignoring their families and friends who were called phubbee (a person who is a recipients of phubbing behavior) victim of phubber (a person who start phubbing her or his companion)” (Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2018 ). Smartphone addiction has been found to be a determinant of phubbing (Kim et al., 2018 ). Other recent studies have also evidenced the association between smartphones and phubbing (Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ; Guazzini et al., 2019 ; Tonacci et al., 2019 ; Chatterjee, 2020 ). Vallespín et al. ( 2017 ) argued that phubbing behavior has a negative influence on psychological well-being and satisfaction. Furthermore, smartphone addiction is considered responsible for the development of new technologies. It may also negatively influence individual's psychological proximity (Chatterjee, 2020 ). Therefore, based on the above discussion and calls for the association between phubbing and psychological well-being to be further explored, this study proposes the following hypotheses:

  • H5: Smartphone addiction is positively associated with phubbing.
  • H6: Phubbing is negatively associated with psychological well-being.

Indirect Relationship Between Social Media Use and Psychological Well-Being

Beyond the direct hypotheses proposed above, this study investigates the indirect effects of social media use on psychological well-being mediated by social capital forms, social isolation, and phubbing. As described above, most prior studies have focused on the direct influence of social media use on social capital forms, social isolation, smartphone addiction, and phubbing, as well as the direct impact of social capital forms, social isolation, smartphone addiction, and phubbing on psychological well-being. Very few studies, however, have focused on and evidenced the mediating role of social capital forms, social isolation, smartphone addiction, and phubbing derived from social media use in improving psychological well-being (Chen and Li, 2017 ; Pang, 2018 ; Bano et al., 2019 ; Choi and Noh, 2019 ). Moreover, little is known about smartphone addiction's mediating role between social media use and psychological well-being. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap in the existing literature by investigating the mediation of social capital forms, social isolation, and smartphone addiction. Further, examining the mediating influence will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of social media use on psychological well-being via the mediating associations of smartphone addiction and psychological factors. Therefore, based on the above, we propose the following hypotheses (the conceptual model is presented in Figure 1 ):

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is fpsyg-12-678766-g0001.jpg

Conceptual model.

  • H7: (a) Bonding social capital; (b) bridging social capital; (c) social isolation; and (d) smartphone addiction mediate the relationship between social media use and psychological well-being.

Research Methodology

Sample procedure and online survey.

This study randomly selected students from universities in Mexico. We chose University students for the following reasons. First, students are considered the most appropriate sample for e-commerce studies, particularly in the social media context (Oghazi et al., 2018 ; Shi et al., 2018 ). Second, University students are considered to be frequent users and addicted to smartphones (Mou et al., 2017 ; Stouthuysen et al., 2018 ). Third, this study ensured that respondents were experienced, well-educated, and possessed sufficient knowledge of the drawbacks of social media and the extreme use of smartphones. A total sample size of 940 University students was ultimately achieved from the 1,500 students contacted, using a convenience random sampling approach, due both to the COVID-19 pandemic and budget and time constraints. Additionally, in order to test the model, a quantitative empirical study was conducted, using an online survey method to collect data. This study used a web-based survey distributed via social media platforms for two reasons: the COVID-19 pandemic; and to reach a large number of respondents (Qalati et al., 2021 ). Furthermore, online surveys are considered a powerful and authenticated tool for new research (Fan et al., 2021 ), while also representing a fast, simple, and less costly approach to collecting data (Dutot and Bergeron, 2016 ).

Data Collection Procedures and Respondent's Information

Data were collected by disseminating a link to the survey by e-mail and social network sites. Before presenting the closed-ended questionnaire, respondents were assured that their participation would remain voluntary, confidential, and anonymous. Data collection occurred from July 2020 to December 2020 (during the pandemic). It should be noted that, because data were collected during the pandemic, this may have had an influence on the results of the study. The reason for choosing a six-month lag time was to mitigate common method bias (CMB) (Li et al., 2020b ). In the present study, 1,500 students were contacted via University e-mail and social applications (Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram). We sent a reminder every month for 6 months (a total of six reminders), resulting in 940 valid responses. Thus, 940 (62.6% response rate) responses were used for hypotheses testing.

Table 1 reveals that, of the 940 participants, three-quarters were female (76.4%, n = 719) and nearly one-quarter (23.6%, n = 221) were male. Nearly half of the participants (48.8%, n = 459) were aged between 26 and 35 years, followed by 36 to 35 years (21.9%, n = 206), <26 (20.3%, n = 191), and over 45 (8.9%, n = 84). Approximately two-thirds (65%, n = 611) had a bachelor's degree or above, while one-third had up to 12 years of education. Regarding the daily frequency of using the Internet, nearly half (48.6%, n = 457) of the respondents reported between 5 and 8 h a day, and over one-quarter (27.2%) 9–12 h a day. Regarding the social media platforms used, over 38.5 and 39.6% reported Facebook and WhatsApp, respectively. Of the 940 respondents, only 22.1% reported Instagram (12.8%) and Twitter (9.2%). It should be noted, however, that the sample is predominantly female and well-educated.

Respondents' characteristics.

Measurement Items

The study used five-point Likert scales (1 = “strongly disagree;” 5 = “strongly agree”) to record responses.

Social Media Use

Social media use was assessed using four items adapted from Karikari et al. ( 2017 ). Sample items include “Social media is part of my everyday activity,” “Social media has become part of my daily life,” “I would be sorry if social media shut down,” and “I feel out of touch, when I have not logged onto social media for a while.” The adapted items had robust reliability and validity (CA = 783, CR = 0.857, AVE = 0.600).

Social Capital

Social capital was measured using a total of eight items, representing bonding social capital (four items) and bridging social capital (four items) adapted from Chan ( 2015 ). Sample construct items include: bonging social capital (“I am willing to spend time to support general community activities,” “I interact with people who are quite different from me”) and bridging social capital (“My social media community is a good place to be,” “Interacting with people on social media makes me want to try new things”). The adapted items had robust reliability and validity [bonding social capital (CA = 0.785, CR = 0.861, AVE = 0.608) and bridging social capital (CA = 0.834, CR = 0.883, AVE = 0.601)].

Social Isolation

Social isolation was assessed using three items from Choi and Noh ( 2019 ). Sample items include “I do not have anyone to play with,” “I feel alone from people,” and “I have no one I can trust.” This adapted scale had substantial reliability and validity (CA = 0.890, CR = 0.928, AVE = 0.811).

Smartphone Addiction

Smartphone addiction was assessed using five items taken from Salehan and Negahban ( 2013 ). Sample items include “I am always preoccupied with my mobile,” “Using my mobile phone keeps me relaxed,” and “I am not able to control myself from frequent use of mobile phones.” Again, these adapted items showed substantial reliability and validity (CA = 903, CR = 0.928, AVE = 0.809).

Phubbing was assessed using four items from Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas ( 2018 ). Sample items include: “I have conflicts with others because I am using my phone” and “I would rather pay attention to my phone than talk to others.” This construct also demonstrated significant reliability and validity (CA = 770, CR = 0.894, AVE = 0.809).

Psychological Well-Being

Psychological well-being was assessed using five items from Jiao et al. ( 2017 ). Sample items include “I lead a purposeful and meaningful life with the help of others,” “My social relationships are supportive and rewarding in social media,” and “I am engaged and interested in my daily on social media.” This study evidenced that this adapted scale had substantial reliability and validity (CA = 0.886, CR = 0.917, AVE = 0.688).

Data Analysis

Based on the complexity of the association between the proposed construct and the widespread use and acceptance of SmartPLS 3.0 in several fields (Hair et al., 2019 ), we utilized SEM, using SmartPLS 3.0, to examine the relationships between constructs. Structural equation modeling is a multivariate statistical analysis technique that is used to investigate relationships. Further, it is a combination of factor and multivariate regression analysis, and is employed to explore the relationship between observed and latent constructs.

SmartPLS 3.0 “is a more comprehensive software program with an intuitive graphical user interface to run partial least square SEM analysis, certainly has had a massive impact” (Sarstedt and Cheah, 2019 ). According to Ringle et al. ( 2015 ), this commercial software offers a wide range of algorithmic and modeling options, improved usability, and user-friendly and professional support. Furthermore, Sarstedt and Cheah ( 2019 ) suggested that structural equation models enable the specification of complex interrelationships between observed and latent constructs. Hair et al. ( 2019 ) argued that, in recent years, the number of articles published using partial least squares SEM has increased significantly in contrast to covariance-based SEM. In addition, partial least squares SEM using SmartPLS is more appealing for several scholars as it enables them to predict more complex models with several variables, indicator constructs, and structural paths, instead of imposing distributional assumptions on the data (Hair et al., 2019 ). Therefore, this study utilized the partial least squares SEM approach using SmartPLS 3.0.

Common Method Bias (CMB) Test

This study used the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test to measure the sampling adequacy and ensure data suitability. The KMO test result was 0.874, which is greater than an acceptable threshold of 0.50 (Ali Qalati et al., 2021 ; Shrestha, 2021 ), and hence considered suitable for explanatory factor analysis. Moreover, Bartlett's test results demonstrated a significance level of 0.001, which is considered good as it is below the accepted threshold of 0.05.

The term CMB is associated with Campbell and Fiske ( 1959 ), who highlighted the importance of CMB and identified that a portion of variance in the research may be due to the methods employed. It occurs when all scales of the study are measured at the same time using a single questionnaire survey (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986 ); subsequently, estimates of the relationship among the variables might be distorted by the impacts of CMB. It is considered a serious issue that has a potential to “jeopardize” the validity of the study findings (Tehseen et al., 2017 ). There are several reasons for CMB: (1) it mainly occurs due to response “tendencies that raters can apply uniformity across the measures;” and (2) it also occurs due to similarities in the wording and structure of the survey items that produce similar results (Jordan and Troth, 2019 ). Harman's single factor test and a full collinearity approach were employed to ensure that the data was free from CMB (Tehseen et al., 2017 ; Jordan and Troth, 2019 ; Ali Qalati et al., 2021 ). Harman's single factor test showed a single factor explained only 22.8% of the total variance, which is far below the 50.0% acceptable threshold (Podsakoff et al., 2003 ).

Additionally, the variance inflation factor (VIF) was used, which is a measure of the amount of multicollinearity in a set of multiple regression constructs and also considered a way of detecting CMB (Hair et al., 2019 ). Hair et al. ( 2019 ) suggested that the acceptable threshold for the VIF is 3.0; as the computed VIFs for the present study ranged from 1.189 to 1.626, CMB is not a key concern (see Table 2 ). Bagozzi et al. ( 1991 ) suggested a correlation-matrix procedure to detect CMB. Common method bias is evident if correlation among the principle constructs is >0.9 (Tehseen et al., 2020 ); however, no values >0.9 were found in this study (see section Assessment of Measurement Model). This study used a two-step approach to evaluate the measurement model and the structural model.

Common method bias (full collinearity VIF).

Assessment of Measurement Model

Before conducting the SEM analysis, the measurement model was assessed to examine individual item reliability, internal consistency, and convergent and discriminant validity. Table 3 exhibits the values of outer loading used to measure an individual item's reliability (Hair et al., 2012 ). Hair et al. ( 2017 ) proposed that the value for each outer loading should be ≥0.7; following this principle, two items of phubbing (PHUB3—I get irritated if others ask me to get off my phone and talk to them; PHUB4—I use my phone even though I know it irritated others) were removed from the analysis Hair et al. ( 2019 ). According to Nunnally ( 1978 ), Cronbach's alpha values should exceed 0.7. The threshold values of constructs in this study ranged from 0.77 to 0.903. Regarding internal consistency, Bagozzi and Yi ( 1988 ) suggested that composite reliability (CR) should be ≥0.7. The coefficient value for CR in this study was between 0.857 and 0.928. Regarding convergent validity, Fornell and Larcker ( 1981 ) suggested that the average variance extracted (AVE) should be ≥0.5. Average variance extracted values in this study were between 0.60 and 0.811. Finally, regarding discriminant validity, according to Fornell and Larcker ( 1981 ), the square root of the AVE for each construct should exceed the inter-correlations of the construct with other model constructs. That was the case in this study, as shown in Table 4 .

Study measures, factor loading, and the constructs' reliability and convergent validity.

Discriminant validity and correlation.

Bold values are the square root of the AVE .

Hence, by analyzing the results of the measurement model, it can be concluded that the data are adequate for structural equation estimation.

Assessment of the Structural Model

This study used the PLS algorithm and a bootstrapping technique with 5,000 bootstraps as proposed by Hair et al. ( 2019 ) to generate the path coefficient values and their level of significance. The coefficient of determination ( R 2 ) is an important measure to assess the structural model and its explanatory power (Henseler et al., 2009 ; Hair et al., 2019 ). Table 5 and Figure 2 reveal that the R 2 value in the present study was 0.451 for psychological well-being, which means that 45.1% of changes in psychological well-being occurred due to social media use, social capital forms (i.e., bonding and bridging), social isolation, smartphone addiction, and phubbing. Cohen ( 1998 ) proposed that R 2 values of 0.60, 0.33, and 0.19 are considered substantial, moderate, and weak. Following Cohen's ( 1998 ) threshold values, this research demonstrates a moderate predicting power for psychological well-being among Mexican respondents ( Table 6 ).

Summary of path coefficients and hypothesis testing.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is fpsyg-12-678766-g0002.jpg

Structural model.

Strength of the model (Predictive relevance, coefficient of determination, and model fit indices).

Goodness of fit → SRMR = 0.063; d_ULS = 1.589; d_G = 0.512; chi-square = 2,910.744 .

Apart from the R 2 measure, the present study also used cross-validated redundancy measures, or effect sizes ( q 2 ), to assess the proposed model and validate the results (Ringle et al., 2012 ). Hair et al. ( 2019 ) suggested that a model exhibiting an effect size q 2 > 0 has predictive relevance ( Table 6 ). This study's results evidenced that it has a 0.15 <0.29 <0.35 (medium) predictive relevance, as 0.02, 0.15, and 0.35 are considered small, medium, and large, respectively (Cohen, 1998 ). Regarding the goodness-of-fit indices, Hair et al. ( 2019 ) suggested the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) to evaluate the goodness of fit. Standardized root mean square is an absolute measure of fit: a value of zero indicates perfect fit and a value <0.08 is considered good fit (Hair et al., 2019 ). This study exhibits an adequate model fitness level with an SRMR value of 0.063 ( Table 6 ).

Table 5 reveals that all hypotheses of the study were accepted base on the criterion ( p -value < 0.05). H1a (β = 0.332, t = 10.283, p = 0.001) was confirmed, with the second most robust positive and significant relationship (between social media use and bonding social capital). In addition, this study evidenced a positive and significant relationship between bonding social capital and psychological well-being (β = 0.127, t = 4.077, p = 0.001); therefore, H1b was accepted. Regarding social media use and bridging social capital, the present study found the most robust positive and significant impact (β = 0.439, t = 15.543, p = 0.001); therefore, H2a was accepted. The study also evidenced a positive and significant association between bridging social capital and psychological well-being (β = 0.561, t = 20.953, p = 0.001); thus, H2b was accepted. The present study evidenced a significant effect of social media use on social isolation (β = 0.145, t = 4.985, p = 0.001); thus, H3a was accepted. In addition, this study accepted H3b (β = −0.051, t = 2.01, p = 0.044). Furthermore, this study evidenced a positive and significant effect of social media use on smartphone addiction (β = 0.223, t = 6.241, p = 0.001); therefore, H4a was accepted. Furthermore, the present study found that smartphone addiction has a negative significant influence on psychological well-being (β = −0.068, t = 2.387, p = 0.017); therefore, H4b was accepted. Regarding the relationship between smartphone addiction and phubbing, this study found a positive and significant effect of smartphone addiction on phubbing (β = 0.244, t = 7.555, p = 0.001); therefore, H5 was accepted. Furthermore, the present research evidenced a positive and significant influence of phubbing on psychological well-being (β = 0.137, t = 4.938, p = 0.001); therefore, H6 was accepted. Finally, the study provides interesting findings on the indirect effect of social media use on psychological well-being ( t -value > 1.96 and p -value < 0.05); therefore, H7a–d were accepted.

Furthermore, to test the mediating analysis, Preacher and Hayes's ( 2008 ) approach was used. The key characteristic of an indirect relationship is that it involves a third construct, which plays a mediating role in the relationship between the independent and dependent constructs. Logically, the effect of A (independent construct) on C (the dependent construct) is mediated by B (a third variable). Preacher and Hayes ( 2008 ) suggested the following: B is a construct acting as a mediator if A significantly influences B, A significantly accounts for variability in C, B significantly influences C when controlling for A, and the influence of A on C decreases significantly when B is added simultaneously with A as a predictor of C. According to Matthews et al. ( 2018 ), if the indirect effect is significant while the direct insignificant, full mediation has occurred, while if both direct and indirect effects are substantial, partial mediation has occurred. This study evidenced that there is partial mediation in the proposed construct ( Table 5 ). Following Preacher and Hayes ( 2008 ) this study evidenced that there is partial mediation in the proposed construct, because the relationship between independent variable (social media use) and dependent variable (psychological well-being) is significant ( p -value < 0.05) and indirect effect among them after introducing mediator (bonding social capital, bridging social capital, social isolation, and smartphone addiction) is also significant ( p -value < 0.05), therefore it is evidenced that when there is a significant effect both direct and indirect it's called partial mediation.

The present study reveals that the social and psychological impacts of social media use among University students is becoming more complex as there is continuing advancement in technology, offering a range of affordable interaction opportunities. Based on the 940 valid responses collected, all the hypotheses were accepted ( p < 0.05).

H1a finding suggests that social media use is a significant influencing factor of bonding social capital. This implies that, during a pandemic, social media use enables students to continue their close relationships with family members, friends, and those with whom they have close ties. This finding is in line with prior work of Chan ( 2015 ) and Ellison et al. ( 2007 ), who evidenced that social bonding capital is predicted by Facebook use and having a mobile phone. H1b findings suggest that, when individuals believe that social communication can help overcome obstacles to interaction and encourage more virtual self-disclosure, social media use can improve trust and promote the establishment of social associations, thereby enhancing well-being. These findings are in line with those of Gong et al. ( 2021 ), who also witnessed the significant effect of bonding social capital on immigrants' psychological well-being, subsequently calling for the further evidence to confirm the proposed relationship.

The findings of the present study related to H2a suggest that students are more likely to use social media platforms to receive more emotional support, increase their ability to mobilize others, and to build social networks, which leads to social belongingness. Furthermore, the findings suggest that social media platforms enable students to accumulate and maintain bridging social capital; further, online classes can benefit students who feel shy when participating in offline classes. This study supports the previous findings of Chan ( 2015 ) and Karikari et al. ( 2017 ). Notably, the present study is not limited to a single social networking platform, taking instead a holistic view of social media. The H2b findings are consistent with those of Bano et al. ( 2019 ), who also confirmed the link between bonding social capital and psychological well-being among University students using WhatsApp as social media platform, as well as those of Chen and Li ( 2017 ).

The H3a findings suggest that, during the COVID-19 pandemic when most people around the world have had limited offline or face-to-face interaction and have used social media to connect with families, friends, and social communities, they have often been unable to connect with them. This is due to many individuals avoiding using social media because of fake news, financial constraints, and a lack of trust in social media; thus, the lack both of offline and online interaction, coupled with negative experiences on social media use, enhances the level of social isolation (Hajek and König, 2021 ). These findings are consistent with those of Adnan and Anwar ( 2020 ). The H3b suggests that higher levels of social isolation have a negative impact on psychological well-being. These result indicating that, consistent with Choi and Noh ( 2019 ), social isolation is negatively and significantly related to psychological well-being.

The H4a results suggests that substantial use of social media use leads to an increase in smartphone addiction. These findings are in line with those of Jeong et al. ( 2016 ), who stated that the excessive use of smartphones for social media, entertainment (watching videos, listening to music), and playing e-games was more likely to lead to smartphone addiction. These findings also confirm the previous work of Jeong et al. ( 2016 ), Salehan and Negahban ( 2013 ), and Swar and Hameed ( 2017 ). The H4b results revealed that a single unit increase in smartphone addiction results in a 6.8% decrease in psychological well-being. These findings are in line with those of Tangmunkongvorakul et al. ( 2019 ), who showed that students with higher levels of smartphone addiction had lower psychological well-being scores. These findings also support those of Shoukat ( 2019 ), who showed that smartphone addiction inversely influences individuals' mental health.

This suggests that the greater the smartphone addiction, the greater the phubbing. The H5 findings are in line with those of Chatterjee ( 2020 ), Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas ( 2016 ), Guazzini et al. ( 2019 ), and Tonacci et al. ( 2019 ), who also evidenced a significant impact of smartphone addiction and phubbing. Similarly, Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas ( 2018 ) corroborated that smartphone addiction is the main predictor of phubbing behavior. However, these findings are inconsistent with those of Vallespín et al. ( 2017 ), who found a negative influence of phubbing.

The H6 results suggests that phubbing is one of the significant predictors of psychological well-being. Furthermore, these findings suggest that, when phubbers use a cellphone during interaction with someone, especially during the current pandemic, and they are connected with many family members, friends, and relatives; therefore, this kind of action gives them more satisfaction, which simultaneously results in increased relaxation and decreased depression (Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2018 ). These findings support those of Davey et al. ( 2018 ), who evidenced that phubbing has a significant influence on adolescents and social health students in India.

The findings showed a significant and positive effect of social media use on psychological well-being both through bridging and bonding social capital. However, a significant and negative effect of social media use on psychological well-being through smartphone addiction and through social isolation was also found. Hence, this study provides evidence that could shed light on the contradictory contributions in the literature suggesting both positive (e.g., Chen and Li, 2017 ; Twenge and Campbell, 2019 ; Roberts and David, 2020 ) and negative (e.g., Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ; Jiao et al., 2017 ; Choi and Noh, 2019 ; Chatterjee, 2020 ) effects of social media use on psychological well-being. This study concludes that the overall impact is positive, despite some degree of negative indirect impact.

Theoretical Contributions

This study's findings contribute to the current literature, both by providing empirical evidence for the relationships suggested by extant literature and by demonstrating the relevance of adopting a more complex approach that considers, in particular, the indirect effect of social media on psychological well-being. As such, this study constitutes a basis for future research (Van Den Eijnden et al., 2016 ; Whaite et al., 2018 ) aiming to understand the impacts of social media use and to find ways to reduce its possible negative impacts.

In line with Kim and Kim ( 2017 ), who stressed the importance of heterogeneous social networks in improving social capital, this paper suggests that, to positively impact psychological well-being, social media usage should be associated both with strong and weak ties, as both are important in building social capital, and hence associated with its bonding and bridging facets. Interestingly, though, bridging capital was shown as having the greatest impact on psychological well-being. Thus, the importance of wider social horizons, the inclusion in different groups, and establishing new connections (Putnam, 1995 , 2000 ) with heterogeneous weak ties (Li and Chen, 2014 ) are highlighted in this paper.

Practical Contributions

These findings are significant for practitioners, particularly those interested in dealing with the possible negative impacts of social media use on psychological well-being. Although social media use is associated with factors that negatively impact psychological well-being, particularly smartphone addiction and social isolation, these negative impacts can be lessened if the connections with both strong and weak ties are facilitated and featured by social media. Indeed, social media platforms offer several features, from facilitating communication with family, friends, and acquaintances, to identifying and offering access to other people with shared interests. However, it is important to access heterogeneous weak ties (Li and Chen, 2014 ) so that social media offers access to wider sources of information and new resources, hence enhancing bridging social capital.

Limitations and Directions for Future Studies

This study is not without limitations. For example, this study used a convenience sampling approach to reach to a large number of respondents. Further, this study was conducted in Mexico only, limiting the generalizability of the results; future research should therefore use a cross-cultural approach to investigate the impacts of social media use on psychological well-being and the mediating role of proposed constructs (e.g., bonding and bridging social capital, social isolation, and smartphone addiction). The sample distribution may also be regarded as a limitation of the study because respondents were mainly well-educated and female. Moreover, although Internet channels represent a particularly suitable way to approach social media users, the fact that this study adopted an online survey does not guarantee a representative sample of the population. Hence, extrapolating the results requires caution, and study replication is recommended, particularly with social media users from other countries and cultures. The present study was conducted in the context of mainly University students, primarily well-educated females, via an online survey on in Mexico; therefore, the findings represent a snapshot at a particular time. Notably, however, the effect of social media use is increasing due to COVID-19 around the globe and is volatile over time.

Two of the proposed hypotheses of this study, namely the expected negative impacts of social media use on social isolation and of phubbing on psychological well-being, should be further explored. One possible approach is to consider the type of connections (i.e., weak and strong ties) to explain further the impact of social media usage on social isolation. Apparently, the prevalence of weak ties, although facilitating bridging social capital, may have an adverse impact in terms of social isolation. Regarding phubbing, the fact that the findings point to a possible positive impact on psychological well-being should be carefully addressed, specifically by psychology theorists and scholars, in order to identify factors that may help further understand this phenomenon. Other suggestions for future research include using mixed-method approaches, as qualitative studies could help further validate the results and provide complementary perspectives on the relationships between the considered variables.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Jiangsu University. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Funding. This study is supported by the National Statistics Research Project of China (2016LY96).

  • Abbas R., Mesch G. (2018). Do rich teens get richer? Facebook use and the link between offline and online social capital among Palestinian youth in Israel . Inf. Commun. Soc. 21 , 63–79. 10.1080/1369118X.2016.1261168 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Adnan M., Anwar K. (2020). Online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic: students' perspectives . J. Pedagog. Sociol. Psychol. 2 , 45–51. 10.33902/JPSP.2020261309 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Ali Qalati S., Li W., Ahmed N., Ali Mirani M., Khan A. (2021). Examining the factors affecting SME performance: the mediating role of social media adoption . Sustainability 13 :75. 10.3390/su13010075 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Bagozzi R. P., Yi Y. (1988). On the evaluation of structural equation models . J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 16 , 74–94. 10.1007/BF02723327 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Bagozzi R. P., Yi Y., Phillips L. W. (1991). Assessing construct validity in organizational research . Admin. Sci. Q. 36 , 421–458. 10.2307/2393203 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Bano S., Cisheng W., Khan A. N., Khan N. A. (2019). WhatsApp use and student's psychological well-being: role of social capital and social integration . Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 103 , 200–208. 10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.06.002 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Barbosa B., Chkoniya V., Simoes D., Filipe S., Santos C. A. (2020). Always connected: generation Y smartphone use and social capital . Rev. Ibérica Sist. Tecnol. Inf. E 35 , 152–166. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Bekalu M. A., McCloud R. F., Viswanath K. (2019). Association of social media use with social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health: disentangling routine use from emotional connection to use . Health Educ. Behav. 46(2 Suppl), 69S−80S. 10.1177/1090198119863768 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Brown G., Michinov N. (2019). Measuring latent ties on Facebook: a novel approach to studying their prevalence and relationship with bridging social capital . Technol. Soc. 59 :101176. 10.1016/j.techsoc.2019.101176 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Campbell D. T., Fiske D. W. (1959). Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix . Psychol. Bull. 56 , 81–105. 10.1037/h0046016 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Carlson J. R., Zivnuska S., Harris R. B., Harris K. J., Carlson D. S. (2016). Social media use in the workplace: a study of dual effects . J. Org. End User Comput. 28 , 15–31. 10.4018/JOEUC.2016010102 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Chan M. (2015). Mobile phones and the good life: examining the relationships among mobile use, social capital and subjective well-being . New Media Soc. 17 , 96–113. 10.1177/1461444813516836 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Chappell N. L., Badger M. (1989). Social isolation and well-being . J. Gerontol. 44 , S169–S176. 10.1093/geronj/44.5.s169 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Chatterjee S. (2020). Antecedents of phubbing: from technological and psychological perspectives . J. Syst. Inf. Technol. 22 , 161–118. 10.1108/JSIT-05-2019-0089 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Chen H.-T., Li X. (2017). The contribution of mobile social media to social capital and psychological well-being: examining the role of communicative use, friending and self-disclosure . Comput. Hum. Behav. 75 , 958–965. 10.1016/j.chb.2017.06.011 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Choi D.-H., Noh G.-Y. (2019). The influence of social media use on attitude toward suicide through psychological well-being, social isolation, and social support . Inf. Commun. Soc. 23 , 1–17. 10.1080/1369118X.2019.1574860 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Chotpitayasunondh V., Douglas K. M. (2016). How phubbing becomes the norm: the antecedents and consequences of snubbing via smartphone . Comput. Hum. Behav. 63 , 9–18. 10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.018 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Chotpitayasunondh V., Douglas K. M. (2018). The effects of phubbing on social interaction . J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 48 , 304–316. 10.1111/jasp.12506 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Cohen J. (1998). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioural Sciences . Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Davey S., Davey A., Raghav S. K., Singh J. V., Singh N., Blachnio A., et al.. (2018). Predictors and consequences of phubbing among adolescents and youth in India: an impact evaluation study . J. Fam. Community Med. 25 , 35–42. 10.4103/jfcm.JFCM_71_17 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • David M. E., Roberts J. A., Christenson B. (2018). Too much of a good thing: investigating the association between actual smartphone use and individual well-being . Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact. 34 , 265–275. 10.1080/10447318.2017.1349250 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Dhir A., Yossatorn Y., Kaur P., Chen S. (2018). Online social media fatigue and psychological wellbeing—a study of compulsive use, fear of missing out, fatigue, anxiety and depression . Int. J. Inf. Manag. 40 , 141–152. 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.01.012 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Dutot V., Bergeron F. (2016). From strategic orientation to social media orientation: improving SMEs' performance on social media . J. Small Bus. Enterp. Dev. 23 , 1165–1190. 10.1108/JSBED-11-2015-0160 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Ellison N. B., Steinfield C., Lampe C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook friends: Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites . J. Comput. Mediat. Commun. 12 , 1143–1168. 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Fan M., Huang Y., Qalati S. A., Shah S. M. M., Ostic D., Pu Z. (2021). Effects of information overload, communication overload, and inequality on digital distrust: a cyber-violence behavior mechanism . Front. Psychol. 12 :643981. 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.643981 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Fornell C., Larcker D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error . J. Market. Res. 18 , 39–50. 10.1177/002224378101800104 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Gökçearslan S., Uluyol Ç., Sahin S. (2018). Smartphone addiction, cyberloafing, stress and social support among University students: a path analysis . Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 91 , 47–54. 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.05.036 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Gong S., Xu P., Wang S. (2021). Social capital and psychological well-being of Chinese immigrants in Japan . Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 18 :547. 10.3390/ijerph18020547 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Guazzini A., Duradoni M., Capelli A., Meringolo P. (2019). An explorative model to assess individuals' phubbing risk . Fut. Internet 11 :21. 10.3390/fi11010021 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Hair J. F., Risher J. J., Sarstedt M., Ringle C. M. (2019). When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM . Eur. Bus. Rev. 31 , 2–24. 10.1108/EBR-11-2018-0203 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Hair J. F., Sarstedt M., Pieper T. M., Ringle C. M. (2012). The use of partial least squares structural equation modeling in strategic management research: a review of past practices and recommendations for future applications . Long Range Plann. 45 , 320–340. 10.1016/j.lrp.2012.09.008 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Hair J. F., Sarstedt M., Ringle C. M., Gudergan S. P. (2017). Advanced Issues in Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Hajek A., König H.-H. (2021). Social isolation and loneliness of older adults in times of the CoViD-19 pandemic: can use of online social media sites and video chats assist in mitigating social isolation and loneliness? Gerontology 67 , 121–123. 10.1159/000512793 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Henseler J., Ringle C. M., Sinkovics R. R. (2009). The use of partial least squares path modeling in international marketing, in New Challenges to International Marketing , Vol. 20, eds R.R. Sinkovics and P.N. Ghauri (Bigley: Emerald; ), 277–319. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Holliman A. J., Waldeck D., Jay B., Murphy S., Atkinson E., Collie R. J., et al.. (2021). Adaptability and social support: examining links with psychological wellbeing among UK students and non-students . Fron. Psychol. 12 :636520. 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.636520 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Jeong S.-H., Kim H., Yum J.-Y., Hwang Y. (2016). What type of content are smartphone users addicted to? SNS vs. games . Comput. Hum. Behav. 54 , 10–17. 10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.035 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Jiao Y., Jo M.-S., Sarigöllü E. (2017). Social value and content value in social media: two paths to psychological well-being . J. Org. Comput. Electr. Commer. 27 , 3–24. 10.1080/10919392.2016.1264762 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Jordan P. J., Troth A. C. (2019). Common method bias in applied settings: the dilemma of researching in organizations . Austr. J. Manag. 45 , 3–14. 10.1177/0312896219871976 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Karikari S., Osei-Frimpong K., Owusu-Frimpong N. (2017). Evaluating individual level antecedents and consequences of social media use in Ghana . Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 123 , 68–79. 10.1016/j.techfore.2017.06.023 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Kemp S. (January 30, 2020). Digital 2020: 3.8 billion people use social media. We Are Social . Available online at: https://wearesocial.com/blog/2020/01/digital-2020-3-8-billion-people-use-social-media .
  • Kim B., Kim Y. (2017). College students' social media use and communication network heterogeneity: implications for social capital and subjective well-being . Comput. Hum. Behav. 73 , 620–628. 10.1016/j.chb.2017.03.033 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Kim K., Milne G. R., Bahl S. (2018). Smart phone addiction and mindfulness: an intergenerational comparison . Int. J. Pharmaceut. Healthcare Market. 12 , 25–43. 10.1108/IJPHM-08-2016-0044 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Kircaburun K., Alhabash S., Tosuntaş S. B., Griffiths M. D. (2020). Uses and gratifications of problematic social media use among University students: a simultaneous examination of the big five of personality traits, social media platforms, and social media use motives . Int. J. Mental Health Addict. 18 , 525–547. 10.1007/s11469-018-9940-6 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Leong L.-Y., Hew T.-S., Ooi K.-B., Lee V.-H., Hew J.-J. (2019). A hybrid SEM-neural network analysis of social media addiction . Expert Syst. Appl. 133 , 296–316. 10.1016/j.eswa.2019.05.024 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Li L., Griffiths M. D., Mei S., Niu Z. (2020a). Fear of missing out and smartphone addiction mediates the relationship between positive and negative affect and sleep quality among Chinese University students . Front. Psychiatr. 11 :877. 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00877 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Li W., Qalati S. A., Khan M. A. S., Kwabena G. Y., Erusalkina D., Anwar F. (2020b). Value co-creation and growth of social enterprises in developing countries: moderating role of environmental dynamics . Entrep. Res. J. 2020 :20190359. 10.1515/erj-2019-0359 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Li X., Chen W. (2014). Facebook or Renren? A comparative study of social networking site use and social capital among Chinese international students in the United States . Comput. Hum. Behav . 35 , 116–123. 10.1016/j.chb.2014.02.012 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Matthews L., Hair J. F., Matthews R. (2018). PLS-SEM: the holy grail for advanced analysis . Mark. Manag. J. 28 , 1–13. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Meshi D., Cotten S. R., Bender A. R. (2020). Problematic social media use and perceived social isolation in older adults: a cross-sectional study . Gerontology 66 , 160–168. 10.1159/000502577 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Mou J., Shin D.-H., Cohen J. (2017). Understanding trust and perceived usefulness in the consumer acceptance of an e-service: a longitudinal investigation . Behav. Inf. Technol. 36 , 125–139. 10.1080/0144929X.2016.1203024 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Nunnally J. (1978). Psychometric Methods . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Oghazi P., Karlsson S., Hellström D., Hjort K. (2018). Online purchase return policy leniency and purchase decision: mediating role of consumer trust . J. Retail. Consumer Serv. 41 , 190–200. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Pang H. (2018). Exploring the beneficial effects of social networking site use on Chinese students' perceptions of social capital and psychological well-being in Germany . Int. J. Intercult. Relat. 67 , 1–11. 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2018.08.002 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Podsakoff P. M., MacKenzie S. B., Lee J.-Y., Podsakoff N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies . J. Appl. Psychol. 88 , 879–903. 10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Podsakoff P. M., Organ D. W. (1986). Self-reports in organizational research: problems and prospects . J. Manag. 12 , 531–544. 10.1177/014920638601200408 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Preacher K. J., Hayes A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models . Behav Res. Methods 40 , 879–891. 10.3758/brm.40.3.879 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Primack B. A., Shensa A., Sidani J. E., Whaite E. O., yi Lin L., Rosen D., et al.. (2017). Social media use and perceived social isolation among young adults in the US . Am. J. Prev. Med. 53 , 1–8. 10.1016/j.amepre.2017.01.010 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Putnam R. D. (1995). Tuning in, tuning out: the strange disappearance of social capital in America . Polit. Sci. Polit. 28 , 664–684. 10.2307/420517 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Putnam R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community . New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Qalati S. A., Ostic D., Fan M., Dakhan S. A., Vela E. G., Zufar Z., et al.. (2021). The general public knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding COVID-19 during the lockdown in Asian developing countries . Int. Q. Commun. Health Educ. 2021 :272684X211004945. 10.1177/0272684X211004945 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Reer F., Tang W. Y., Quandt T. (2019). Psychosocial well-being and social media engagement: the mediating roles of social comparison orientation and fear of missing out . New Media Soc. 21 , 1486–1505. 10.1177/1461444818823719 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Ringle C., Wende S., Becker J. (2015). SmartPLS 3 [software] . Bönningstedt: SmartPLS. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Ringle C. M., Sarstedt M., Straub D. (2012). A critical look at the use of PLS-SEM in MIS Quarterly. MIS Q . 36, iii–xiv. 10.2307/41410402 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Roberts J. A., David M. E. (2020). The social media party: fear of missing out (FoMO), social media intensity, connection, and well-being . Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact. 36 , 386–392. 10.1080/10447318.2019.1646517 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Salehan M., Negahban A. (2013). Social networking on smartphones: when mobile phones become addictive . Comput. Hum. Behav. 29 , 2632–2639. 10.1016/j.chb.2013.07.003 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Sarstedt M., Cheah J.-H. (2019). Partial least squares structural equation modeling using SmartPLS: a software review . J. Mark. Anal. 7 , 196–202. 10.1057/s41270-019-00058-3 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Schinka K. C., VanDulmen M. H., Bossarte R., Swahn M. (2012). Association between loneliness and suicidality during middle childhood and adolescence: longitudinal effects and the role of demographic characteristics . J. Psychol. Interdiscipl. Appl. 146 , 105–118. 10.1080/00223980.2011.584084 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Shi S., Mu R., Lin L., Chen Y., Kou G., Chen X.-J. (2018). The impact of perceived online service quality on swift guanxi . Internet Res. 28 , 432–455. 10.1108/IntR-12-2016-0389 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Shoukat S. (2019). Cell phone addiction and psychological and physiological health in adolescents . EXCLI J. 18 , 47–50. 10.17179/excli2018-2006 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Shrestha N. (2021). Factor analysis as a tool for survey analysis . Am. J. Appl. Math. Stat. 9 , 4–11. 10.12691/ajams-9-1-2 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Stouthuysen K., Teunis I., Reusen E., Slabbinck H. (2018). Initial trust and intentions to buy: The effect of vendor-specific guarantees, customer reviews and the role of online shopping experience . Electr. Commer. Res. Appl. 27 , 23–38. 10.1016/j.elerap.2017.11.002 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Swar B., Hameed T. (2017). Fear of missing out, social media engagement, smartphone addiction and distraction: moderating role of self-help mobile apps-based interventions in the youth , Paper presented at the 10th International Conference on Health Informatics (Porto). [ Google Scholar ]
  • Tangmunkongvorakul A., Musumari P. M., Thongpibul K., Srithanaviboonchai K., Techasrivichien T., Suguimoto S. P., et al.. (2019). Association of excessive smartphone use with psychological well-being among University students in Chiang Mai, Thailand . PLoS ONE 14 :e0210294. 10.1371/journal.pone.0210294 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Tateno M., Teo A. R., Ukai W., Kanazawa J., Katsuki R., Kubo H., et al.. (2019). Internet addiction, smartphone addiction, and hikikomori trait in Japanese young adult: social isolation and social network . Front. Psychiatry 10 :455. 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00455 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Tefertiller A. C., Maxwell L. C., Morris D. L. (2020). Social media goes to the movies: fear of missing out, social capital, and social motivations of cinema attendance . Mass Commun. Soc. 23 , 378–399. 10.1080/15205436.2019.1653468 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Tehseen S., Qureshi Z. H., Johara F., Ramayah T. (2020). Assessing dimensions of entrepreneurial competencies: a type II (reflective-formative) measurement approach using PLS-SEM . J. Sustain. Sci. Manage. 15 , 108–145. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Tehseen S., Ramayah T., Sajilan S. (2017). Testing and controlling for common method variance: a review of available methods . J. Manag. Sci. 4 , 146–165. 10.20547/jms.2014.1704202 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Tonacci A., Billeci L., Sansone F., Masci A., Pala A. P., Domenici C., et al.. (2019). An innovative, unobtrusive approach to investigate smartphone interaction in nonaddicted subjects based on wearable sensors: a pilot study . Medicina (Kaunas) 55 :37. 10.3390/medicina55020037 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Twenge J. M., Campbell W. K. (2019). Media use is linked to lower psychological well-being: evidence from three datasets . Psychiatr. Q. 90 , 311–331. 10.1007/s11126-019-09630-7 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Vallespín M., Molinillo S., Muñoz-Leiva F. (2017). Segmentation and explanation of smartphone use for travel planning based on socio-demographic and behavioral variables . Ind. Manag. Data Syst. 117 , 605–619. 10.1108/IMDS-03-2016-0089 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Van Den Eijnden R. J., Lemmens J. S., Valkenburg P. M. (2016). The social media disorder scale . Comput. Hum. Behav. 61 , 478–487. 10.1016/j.chb.2016.03.038 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Whaite E. O., Shensa A., Sidani J. E., Colditz J. B., Primack B. A. (2018). Social media use, personality characteristics, and social isolation among young adults in the United States . Pers. Indiv. Differ. 124 , 45–50. 10.1016/j.paid.2017.10.030 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
  • Williams D. (2006). On and off the'net: scales for social capital in an online era . J. Comput. Mediat. Commun. 11 , 593–628. 10.1016/j.1083-6101.2006.00029.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

Postdoctoral Position (f/m/d) | Computational Fluid Dynamics

Job Code: Zhu-Postdoc-06 24

The Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Göttingen is one of the world's leading research institutions in the field of solar physics and planetary research with around 300 employees. The interdisciplinary research focus is the investigation of the development, diversity and dynamics of planets, moons, small bodies, the sun and solar-like stars. The MPS develops and operates scientific instruments for current and future space missions (e.g. ESA, NASA), and carries out cosmochemical laboratory investigations of meteorites as well as numerical modeling on state-of-the-art supercomputers.

The institute invites applications for a Postdoctoral Position (f/m/d) in computational fluid dynamics .

Melting and dissolution are fundamental processes with significant implications in both engineering and geophysical systems. Their applications range from understanding the behavior of glaciers in polar regions to exploring the icy surfaces of moons in our solar system. In this project, we will study the self-propulsion of solid objects driven by melting or dissolution. This phenomenon occurs when a solid object generates motion due to asymmetrical melting or dissolution. Understanding this process can provide insights into natural behaviors and inspire innovative engineering solutions.

  • Developing a coupled-fluid structure interaction solver with phase transition.
  • Running simulations on several supercomputers for varied dimensionless parameters.
  • Analysis, results interpretation, and comparisons with experimental results in literature or with collaborators.
  • Writing journal papers and presentation at conferences

You should have

  • PhD in fluid dynamics, physics, or applied mathematics with a strong computational background.
  • Experience in development of MPI code and in running on big clusters.
  • Experience with immersed boundary method or phase field method.
  • Very good command of English (min B2-Level)

Employment Conditions

  • Remuneration is according to the German public salary scale TVöD-Bund E13
  • Social security benefits are in accordance with the public service regulations

The position is available from 1 July 2024 or as soon as possible thereafter.

This position is available for an initial period of one year, with the possibility of extension for another two or more years.

The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft endeavours to achieve gender equality and diversity. Furthermore, the Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply. The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals.

Your Application

Applications should include a cover letter, a brief statement of research interests and achievements (max. 2 pages), curriculum vitae including the publication list, and the names and contact details of two potential referees. The reference persons will only be contacted for the shortlisted candidates.

Review of applications will start on 24 June 2024 and continue until the position is filled.

Please apply with informative documents exclusively online via our application portal . We look forward to receiving your online application.

For questions regarding the application please contact: Dr. Xiaojue Zhu,  [email protected]  +49 551 384 979 264

For further information about the institute, please visit our homepage  https://www.mps.mpg.de .

For further information about the group, please visit our homepage:  https://sites.google.com/view/xiaojue-zhu

Notification Settings

IMAGES

  1. (PDF) Interrogating social media netiquette and online safety among

    social media netiquette research paper

  2. Research Paper on Social Media

    social media netiquette research paper

  3. 10 Essential Social Media Etiquette Rules for Business

    social media netiquette research paper

  4. PPT

    social media netiquette research paper

  5. ⇉Rules Of Netiquette Research Paper All Essay Example

    social media netiquette research paper

  6. What is social media etiquette?

    social media netiquette research paper

VIDEO

  1. Netiquette || Digital Citizenship || Learning with Maliha

  2. Social Media Netiquette |INFOMERCIAL|

  3. Ten Core Rules of Netiquette

  4. Netiquette in Social Media

  5. Tips about netiquette on social media

  6. 10 tips on social media Netiquette For educational purposes

COMMENTS

  1. Netiquette: Ethic, Education, and Behavior on Internet—A Systematic Literature Review

    1. Introduction. Billions of people have taken an active part in technological development over the past decade. Social networks have been the maximum exponent of a digital revolution that has meant a before and after in terms of how people communicate and collaborate [].A new reality that has been mutating from the original Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr [] to become, for example, a relevant ...

  2. Full article: Netiquette as Digital Social Norms

    This paper focuses on what we call digital social norms, the general rules of conduct and a tacit understanding of what is adequate behavior in online interaction. In the literature, these rules have often been loosely referred to as "netiquette" (Scheuermann & Taylor, 1997; Shea, 1994; Soler-Costa et al., 2021 ).

  3. (PDF) Netiquette as Digital Social Norms

    PDF | On Mar 19, 2023, Maxi Heitmayer and others published Netiquette as Digital Social Norms | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

  4. Netiquette: Ethic, Education, and Behavior on Internet—A Systematic

    In this article, an analysis of the existing literature is carried out. It focused on the netiquette (country, date, objectives, methodological design, main variables, sample details, and measurement methods) included in the Web of Science and Scopus databases. This systematic review of the literature has been developed entirely according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews ...

  5. PDF Netiquette: Ethic, Education, and Behavior on Internet A Systematic

    Keywords: netiquette; systematic review; social media; digital competence; ICT 1. Introduction Billions of people have taken an active part in technological development over the past decade. Social networks have been the maximum exponent of a digital revolution that has meant a before and after in terms of how people communicate and collaborate ...

  6. PDF Netiquette as Digital Social Norms

    This paper focuses on what we call digital social norms, the general rules of conduct and a tacit understand-ing of what is adequate behavior in online interaction. In the literature, these rules have often been loosely referred to as "netiquette" (Scheuermann & Taylor, 1997; Shea, 1994; Soler-Costa et al., 2021). Research on netiquette has ...

  7. Netiquette: Ethic, Education, and Behavior on Internet—A Sys

    Downloadable! In this article, an analysis of the existing literature is carried out. It focused on the netiquette (country, date, objectives, methodological design, main variables, sample details, and measurement methods) included in the Web of Science and Scopus databases. This systematic review of the literature has been developed entirely according to the Preferred Reporting Items for ...

  8. [PDF] Netiquette: Ethic, Education, and Behavior on Internet—A

    An analysis of the existing literature on netiquette focused on the netiquette included in the Web of Science and Scopus databases shows that this is a poorly defined line of research. In this article, an analysis of the existing literature is carried out. It focused on the netiquette (country, date, objectives, methodological design, main variables, sample details, and measurement methods ...

  9. Interrogating social media netiquette and online safety among

    An evolving emergent research design was engaged using the search strategy, Find It with keywords like Face book, Twitter, netiquette, patient privacy and social media, student behavior and internet.

  10. Netiquette Between Students and Their Lecturers on Facebook: Injunctive

    This enabled a comparison between two different kinds of social norms: the injunctive norms (netiquette) and the descriptive norms (majority). Database was an online survey with 2,849 participants (2,550 students and 299 lecturers). SL-contacts were quite rare in our sample and usually initiated by students.

  11. Netiquette Between Students and Their Lecturers on Facebook: Injunctive

    SUBMIT PAPER. Social Media + Society. Impact Factor: 5.2 / 5-Year Impact Factor: 6.0 ... Social media for teaching and learning. London, England: Pearson Learning Systems. ... Kamppuri M., Kommers P. (2006). An approach to global netiquette research. In Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference on Web Based Communities (pp. 367-370 ...

  12. Netiquette Between Students and Their Lecturers on Facebook: Injunctive

    Nowadays social media are omnipresent and can serve private as well as work-related and educational purposes. ... With regard to our study presented in this paper especially descriptive norms and injunctive norms are of interest. ... Kamppuri M., Kommers P. (2006). An approach to global netiquette research. In Proceedings of the IADIS ...

  13. Netiquette as Digital Social Norms

    (DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2023.2188534) Human interactions are guided by rules, guidelines, and social norms—a tacit understanding of what is adequate in a given context. With interactions being increasingly digitally mediated, understanding how behavior is regulated in these environments becomes imperative. In this paper, we provide an overview of the literature on netiquette and how usage of ...

  14. (DOC) Social Media Netiquette and Digital Citizenship on Grade 12

    Research Participants In this study, the research participants or respondents will be randomly selected students that are, we observed, are constantly using social media sites particularly sections with the specialization of C.S.S. Role of the Researcher The role of the researcher is to interview respondents and give questionnaires to get ...

  15. (PDF) Netiquette: Ethic, Education, and Behavior on Internet-A

    This is an approach to finding out and understanding the state of research into. labels in a universe marked by haters, cyberbullying, and fake news. 2. Method. This systematic review is based on ...

  16. (PDF) RECOGNIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF NETIQUETTE: STUDENTS ...

    We compared netiquette perception levels between genders in both groups. of participants. Th e mean difference in the student group is 0,37 (p=0,017), and in the professors' group 0,34 (p=0,023 ...

  17. Netiquette for social media engagement for oncology professionals

    The growth of social media in the last decade has revolutionized healthcare. Social media platforms have user-friendly interfaces, easy access and fast communication that allow individuals to share perspectives, content, insights and experiences [].In the field of oncology, the "rapid diffusion and adoption of social media have created a new frontier in cancer communication" [].

  18. The Repository at St. Cloud State

    The Repository at St. Cloud State | St. Cloud State University Research

  19. Social Media Fact Sheet

    Many Americans use social media to connect with one another, engage with news content, share information and entertain themselves. Explore the patterns and trends shaping the social media landscape. To better understand Americans' social media use, Pew Research Center surveyed 5,733 U.S. adults from May 19 to Sept. 5, 2023.

  20. 2024 Environmental Performance Index: A Surprise Top Ranking, Global

    203-436-4842. The Baltic nation of Estonia is No. 1 in the 2024 rankings, while Denmark, one of the top ranked countries in the 2022 EPI dropped to 10th place, highlighting the challenges of reducing emissions in hard-to-decarbonize industries. Meanwhile, "paper parks" are proving a global challenge to international biodiversity commitments.

  21. Social media etiquette: A guide and checklist to the benefits and

    The literature has explored how social media is being used by employers and recruiters as a tool to source suitable job candidates for specific roles and to assess the suitability of candidates ...

  22. Social Media Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic

    Social media are responsible for aggravating mental health problems. This systematic study summarizes the effects of social network usage on mental health. Fifty papers were shortlisted from google scholar databases, and after the application of various inclusion and exclusion criteria, 16 papers were chosen and all papers were evaluated for ...

  23. B2B Content Marketing Trends 2024 [Research]

    New research into B2B content marketing trends for 2024 reveals specifics of AI implementation, social media use, and budget forecasts, plus content success factors. ... and videos deliver some of their best results. Almost as many (51%) names thought leadership e-books or white papers, 47% short articles, and 43% research reports. Click the ...

  24. Effects of Social Media Use on Psychological Well-Being: A Mediated

    Social media usage has been associated with anxiety, loneliness, and depression (Dhir et al., ... Given this research gap, this paper's main objective is to shed light on the effect of social media use on psychological well-being. As explained in detail in the next section, this paper explores the mediating effect of bonding and bridging social ...

  25. Postdoctoral Position (f/m/d) in computational fluid dynamics

    The Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Göttingen is one of the world's leading research institutions in the field of solar physics and planetary research with around 300 employees. The interdisciplinary research focus is the investigation of the development, diversity and dynamics of planets, moons, small bodies, the sun and solar-like stars.

  26. 15 Must-Follow Social Media Etiquettes For Everyone

    3. Share valuable content. It is a must-follow social media etiquette. Use social media channels such as Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others to post/tweet brief updates regarding relevant issues. The entire idea of having a professional account is negated by uploading trivial or unrelated content.