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The interplay between Facebook use, social comparison, envy, and depression
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Abstract
In their Facebook profiles, users communicate abundant social comparison information conveying mainly positive self-portrayals. Thereby, social networking sites like Facebook pro-vide a fertile ground for envy. This has been proposed as a mechanism for the potential negative effects of Facebook use on well-being and depression. This article reviews research on this process. Studies show that (especially passive) Facebook use indeed predicts different measures of social comparison as well as envy. In several studies social comparison or envy mediate a positive association between Facebook use and undesirable affective outcomes such as depression. However, causal relationships have not yet been sufficiently established. Methodological and conceptual variety across studies limits their comparability, but reveals viable ideas for future research.
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“Similarly, Appel, Gerlach, and Crusius (2016) found that passive Facebook use predicts social comparison and envy, which in turn lead to depression.”
From A systematic review: the influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents (2020) · cites this paper as Appel, Gerlach, and Crusius (2016)
In the citing paper
“A bidirectional relationship may also exist due to a cascading feedback loop whereby depression engenders compensatory social media use, which in turn aggravates depressive symptoms due to unhealthy social comparisons and other detrimental forms of social interaction (37, 38).”
From Does Social Media Use Increase Depressive Symptoms? A Reverse Causation Perspective (2021) · cites this paper as [37]
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“There are known to be alterations in the activity levels of patients with mental health problems (Rogers 1985, 1992: Teicher 1995), and online activity levels have been linked to negative affect (Appel, Gerlach, and Crusius 2016).”
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“Additionally, negative experiences on the platform, such as regrettable user actions (Guha, Baumer, and Gay 2018), distressing social comparisons (Appel, Gerlach, and Crusius 2016), or exposure to dis-agreeable opinions (Y. Wang, Ahmed, and Bee 2023), contribute to non-use.”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Appel, H., Gerlach, A. L., & Crusius, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Cologne (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Appel, Helmut
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-06
- Volume
- 9
- Pages
- 44-49
- ISSN
- 2352-250X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1928177371
- Cited by
- 605
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 74 · 2025: 69 · 2024: 59 · 2023: 95 · 2022: 51 · 2021: 69 · 2020: 77 · 2019: 51 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 7
- FWCI
- 7.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Kölner Universitäts PublikationsServer (Universität zu Köln) (publishedVersion)
- Kölner Universitäts PublikationsServer (Universität zu Köln) (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Keywords
- Facebook use, social comparison, envy, depression, social networking sites, passive social media use, self-presentation, well-being, mediation
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