Addicting Content, Blue Light, and Curtailed Sleep

Author(s):  
Joanna C. Yau ◽  
Branda T. Sun ◽  
Jason D. Moreno

Sleep is essential for physical and mental wellbeing, but many adults and adolescents do not get the recommended amount of sleep. Recently, studies have identified technology use as having negative impacts on sleep. This is concerning given that mobile technologies have permeated the lives of today's young adults and adolescents. First, the effects of social media use, both throughout the day and before bedtime, on sleep quantity and quality are synthesized. Second, the mechanisms through which social media use disrupts sleep, namely that 1) social media use displaces time spent sleeping, 2) that the content on social media is stimulating, and 3) that the blue light emitted by digital devices suppresses the production of melatonin, decreasing sleepiness are discussed. Third, the research designs and methods that were employed are explored. Fourth, future research directions are proposed. Finally, tips to improve sleep in the digital age are provided.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor A. Burke ◽  
Emily R. Kutok ◽  
Shira Dunsiger ◽  
Nicole R. Nugent ◽  
John V. Patena ◽  
...  

Preliminary reports suggest that during COVID-19, adolescents’ mental health has worsened while technology and social media use has increased. Much data derives from early in the pandemic, when schools were uniformly remote and personal/family stressors related to the pandemic were limited. This cross-sectional study, conducted during Fall 2020, examines the correlation between mental wellbeing and COVID-19-related changes in technology use, along with influence of COVID-19-related stressors, school status (in-person versus remote), and social media use for coping purposes, among 978 U.S. adolescents. Results suggest self-reported daily social media and technology use increased significantly from prior to COVID-19 through Fall 2020. Increased social media use was significantly associated with higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms regardless of other theoretical moderators or confounders of mental health (e.g., demographics, school status, importance of technology, COVID-19-related stress). Despite literature suggesting that remote learning may result in adverse mental health outcomes, we did not find local school reopening to be associated with current depressive/anxiety symptoms, nor with COVID-19-related increases in technology use. Self-reported use of social media for coping purposes moderated the association between increased social media use and mental health symptoms; in other words, some social media use may have positive effects. Although much prior research has focused on social media use as a marker of stress, we also found that increased video gaming and TV/movie watching were also associated with internalizing symptoms, in accordance with others' work. Future research should explore in more granular detail what, if any, social media and technology use is protective during a pandemic, and for whom, to help tailor prevention efforts.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402110164
Author(s):  
Lian Tang ◽  
Siti Zobidah Omar ◽  
Jusang Bolong ◽  
Julia Wirza Mohd Zawawi

The widespread use of social media has promoted extensive academic research on this channel. The present study conducts a systematic analysis of extant research on social media use among young people in China. This systematic literature review aims to identify and bridge gaps in topics, theories, variables, and conceptual frameworks in studies of social media usage among young people in China. The study aims to develop a cause–effect framework that shows the causal relationships among research structures. The PRISMA method is used to review 20 articles drawn from the Scopus and Google Scholar databases. From the analysis, 10 major research topics, eight theories or models, and a complete framework of causal relations emerge. It is recommended that future research on social media should include a greater diversity of types of social media, investigate a wider range of research topics, and adopt different theories or models. Researchers should also implement a more complete and detailed systematic method for reviewing literature on social media research in China.


Author(s):  
Tracii Ryan ◽  
Kelly A. Allen ◽  
DeLeon L. Gray ◽  
Dennis M. McInerney

The use of social media is rapidly increasing, and one of the major discussions of the 21st century revolves around how the use of these applications will impact on the social relationships of users. To contribute to this discussion, we present a brief narrative review highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of social media use on three key aspects of social connectedness: social capital, sense of community, and loneliness. The results indicate that using social media can increase social capital, lead to the formation of friendships and communities, and reduce loneliness. However, some social media site users may experience weakening friendships, online ostracism, and heightened loneliness. Therefore, we argue that the use of social media has contradictory effects on social connectedness. Moreover, the direction of these outcomes is contingent upon who is using the site and how they are using it. Based on these arguments, possible directions for future research are discussed. It is recommended that discourse be continued relating to the association between online social behaviour and connectedness, as this will enable researchers to establish whether the positive outcomes of social media use outweigh the negative.


Author(s):  
Johannes Knoll ◽  
Jörg Matthes ◽  
Raffael Heiss

Although studies suggest that the use of social media can promote political participation (PP), there is a lack of theorizing about the psychological processes underlying this relationship. This article attempts to fill this gap by suggesting a social media political participation model. Taking a goal systemic perspective, the model specifies a set of interrelated processes that need to be realized so that social media use affects PP. Furthermore, key contingent conditions are outlined and insights into fostering PP are offered. The article explains ways of testing the model with surveys and experiments. Implications for future research are discussed.


Author(s):  
Guido Lang ◽  
Raquel Benbunan-Fich

Recent disasters highlight the importance of social media supporting critical information gathering and dissemination efforts by members of the public. Given that disasters pose unique challenges and social media are evolving rapidly, how can one compare the effectiveness of social media in different disaster situations? Drawing from prior work on e-participation, this paper proposes a novel framework for social media use based on four key modules: selection, facilitation, deliberation, and aggregation. A comparative analysis of social media use following a man-made disaster (the 2007 Virginia Tech tragedy) and during a natural disaster (the 2009 Britain blizzard) exemplifies the value of the proposed framework. Future research can build on and leverage the present work by analyzing and incorporating additional cases on the use of social media in disaster situations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 677-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirley Ho ◽  
May O. Lwin ◽  
Liang Chen ◽  
Minyi Chen

Purpose Social media use carries both opportunities and risks for children and adolescents. In order to reduce the negative impacts of social media on youth, the authors focus our efforts on parental mediation of social media. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to enhance the conceptualization and operationalization of parental mediation of social media. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors conducted focus groups with both children and parents in Singapore to categorize parental mediation strategies for social media and develop an initial scale of these strategies. Then, a survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 1,424 child participants and 1,206 parent participants in Singapore to develop and test the scale. Findings The focus group results identified four conceptually distinct parental mediation strategies for social media, labeled as active mediation, restrictive mediation, authoritarian surveillance, and non-intrusive inspection, and were used to develop an initial scale of these strategies. Based on the data from survey questionnaires, the authors investigated both inter-item and item-total correlations and performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which developed and validated the scale of parental mediation of social media. Originality/value First, this research explained what parents do to manage children’s social media use and identified four conceptually distinct parental mediation strategies of social media, making a significant contribution to the parental mediation theory. Additionally, the research developed the first theory-derived, successively validated and reliable scale in parental mediation of social media.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Tan Cheng ◽  
Pan Zhang ◽  
Yuping Wen ◽  
Liyin Wang

We examined the impact of social media use on employee innovative performance, and the psychological mechanism underlying this relationship. Our hypothesis was that social media use would have a positive influence on employee innovative performance and that work engagement would act as a mediator in this relationship. We employed structural equation modeling to investigate this mediating role with 298 employees of a large enterprise in China. Results of a time-lagged survey showed that both social media use and work engagement were significantly correlated with innovative performance, and work engagement partially mediated the social media use–innovative performance relationship. These findings shed light on how social media use affects employee innovative performance. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 904 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignas Zimaitis ◽  
Mindaugas Degutis ◽  
Sigitas Urbonavicius

The paper aims to explore the ways social media use is linked with paranoia, and how they influence buyers’ attitudes and intentions in online shopping, thus shaping overall consumer behaviour. The theoretical analysis suggests that paranoia, being influenced by social media use, plays a noticeable role in the process of online shopping. The main assumption is that paranoia is an antecedent of the attitude towards online purchasing and mediates effects of other factors towards it. This is confirmed with SEM modelling on the basis of empirical data: the analysis provides evidence that paranoia is an important antecedent of the attitude towards purchasing online and mediates relationships between computer competence, cyber-fear, social media use and the attitude towards online shopping. Additionally, a contradictory relation between paranoia and online purchasing intention is observed. Overall, these findings disclose a new important factor in online shopping and outline several new directions for future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 485-502
Author(s):  
Candice L. Odgers ◽  
Stephen M. Schueller ◽  
Mimi Ito

Adolescents spend much of their daily lives online, and fears abound that digital technology use, and social media in particular, is harming their social and emotional development. Findings to date do not support causal or robust associations between social media use and adolescents’ development. Instead, prior studies have produced a mix of small positive, negative, and often null associations. The narrative around social media and adolescent development has been negative, but empirical support for the story of increasing deficits, disease, and disconnection is limited. This article reviews what is known about the association between social media use and adolescent social and emotional well-being, identifies key limitations in current research, and recommends ways to improve science while also minimizing risk and creating opportunities for positive development in an increasingly digital and uncertain age.


Author(s):  
Stefania Manca ◽  
Maria Ranieri

<p class="3">Research on scholars’ use of social media suggests that these sites are increasingly being used to enhance scholarly communication by strengthening relationships, facilitating collaboration among peers, publishing and sharing research products, and discussing research topics in open and public formats. However, very few studies have investigated perceptions and attitudes towards social media use for scholarly communication of large cohorts of scholars at national level. This study investigates the reasons for using social media sites for scholarly communication among a large sample of Italian university scholars (N=6139) with the aim of analysing what factors mainly affect these attitudes. The motivations for using social media were analysed in connection with frequency of use and factors like gender, age, years of teaching, academic title, and disciplinary field. The results point out that for the most used tools the influence of the variables examined was higher in shaping scholars’ motivations. In fact, frequency of use, age, years of teaching, and disciplinary field were found to be relevant factors especially for LinkedIn and ResearchGate-Academia.edu, while gender and academic title seemed to have a limited impact on scholars’ motivations for all social media sites considered in the study. Considerations for future research are provided along with limitations of the study.</p>


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