Social comparison and envy on social media: A critical review

There is both public and scholarly concern that (passive) social media use decreases well-being by providing a fertile ground for harmful (upward) social comparison and envy. The present review critically summarizes evidence on this assumption. We first comprehensively synthesize existing evidence, including both prior reviews and the most recent publications (2019-2021). Results show that earlier research finds social comparison and envy to be common on social media and linked to lower well-being. Yet, increasingly, newer studies contradict this conclusion, finding positive links to well-being as well as heterogeneous, person-specific, conditional, and reverse or reciprocal effects. The review identifies four critical conceptual and methodological limitations of existing evidence, which offer new impulses for future research.

Automated summary

This review critically summarizes the relationship between social media use and well-being. Earlier research found a negative association between social comparison and envy on social media and well-being, but newer studies have found diverse effects, including positive associations and individual differences. The existing evidence has conceptual and methodological limitations.