Journal
JOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION
Volume 26, Issue 1, Pages 1-21Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/jcmc/zmaa014
Keywords
Social Networking Sites (SNS); Internet; Television; Media Use; Subjective Well-being; Life Satisfaction; Depressive Symptomatology; Longitudinal Analysis; Adolescents
Funding
- German Research Foundation (DFG)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The study found that the frequency of Internet and social networking sites use is not substantially related to subjective well-being in adolescents. TV use is negatively related to life satisfaction, but the effect is too small to be practically relevant.
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.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available