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The Impact of Internet and Social Media Use on Well-Being: A Longitudinal Analysis of Adolescents Across Nine Years
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Abstract The present research examines the longitudinal average impact of frequency of use of Internet and social networking sites (SNS) on subjective well-being of adolescents in Germany. Based on five-wave panel data that cover a period of nine years, we disentangle between-person and within-person effects of media use on depressive symptomatology and life satisfaction as indicators of subjective well-being. Additionally, we control for confounders such as TV use, self-esteem, and satisfaction with friends. We found that frequency of Internet use in general and use of SNS in particular is not substantially related subjective well-being. The explanatory power of general Internet use or SNS use to predict between-person differences or within-person change in subjective well-being is close to zero. TV use, a potentially confounding variable, is negatively related to satisfaction with life, but it does not affect depressive symptomatology. However, this effect is too small to be of practical relevance.
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“More prolonged studies spanning 8 or 9 years have further corroborated the view that frequency of social media use does not longitudinally predict depressive symptoms in adolescents even when studied across developmental periods from adolescence to young adulthood (31, 32).”
From Does Social Media Use Increase Depressive Symptoms? A Reverse Causation Perspective (2021) · cites this paper as [32]
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“Several recent longitudinal studies show null or even disconfirming evidence for social media as a precedent of depression.”
From Does Social Media Use Increase Depressive Symptoms? A Reverse Causation Perspective (2021) · cites this paper as [32]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Schemer, C., Masur, P. K., Geiß, S., Müller, P., & Schäfer, S.
- Affiliations
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE)
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO)
- University of Mannheim (DE)
- University of Vienna (AT)
- Corresponding author
- Schemer, Christian
- Venue
- Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2020-12-12
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-21
- ISSN
- 1083-6101 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3112674396
- Cited by
- 166
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 25.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- MADOC (University of Mannheim) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media and Digital Communication
- Keywords
- internet use, social networking sites, subjective well-being, adolescents, depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, television viewing, self-esteem, between-person effects, within-person change
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