another study (Erliksson)

Introduction

• Study Focus: Examines associations between social anxiety and different types of social media use.

• Authors: Olivia J. Erliksson, Philip Lindner, Ewa Mortberg.

• Published In: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 2020.

• Key Point: No clear empirical support indicating that social anxiety correlates with longer durations of social media use.

Background

• Social Media Definition: Difficult to define due to rapidly changing technology. Key elements include:

  1. Users as creators and consumers of content.

  2. User profiles are essential for accessing content.

  3. Establishment of social networks (e.g., friends on Facebook).

• Distinction from Traditional Media: Unlike forums and chat apps that do not facilitate social networks.

• Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD): Point prevalence of 15.6% in Sweden. Characterized by fear of criticism and avoidance of social situations.

• Computer-Mediated Communication: Is preferred by socially anxious individuals. This is believed to be less distressing than face-to-face interactions.

Key Findings

• Mixed Evidence: There is currently no clear linkage between overall time spent on social media and social anxiety.

• Measurement Improvements: A need for detailed measures focusing on passive and active use of social media.

• **Active vs. Passive Use:

  • Passive Use: Consuming content without interaction.

  • Active Use: Creating content and interacting with others.

• Study’s Implication: Calls for the development and validation of self-report measures for social anxiety in the context of social media.

Methods

Participants

• Sample: 333 active social media users, primarily recruited from Stockholm University.

• Demographics: Majority were women (71.2%), average age around 29 years.

Measures

• Swedish Social Anxiety Scale for Social Media Users (SAS-SMU): 21 items across four dimensions regarding anxiety related to social media.

  • Dimensions:

    1. Shared Content Anxiety (SCA).

    2. Privacy Concern Anxiety (PCA).

    3. Interaction Anxiety (IA).

    4. Self-Evaluation Anxiety (SEA).

• Other Scales Used:

  • Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) - measures social anxiety.

  • Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory - Revised (OCI-R) for divergent validity.

  • Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) for negative convergent validation.

  • Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for assessing depression.

  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) for generalized anxiety measurements.

Results

Psychometric Evaluation

• Factor Structure: Three factors identified through exploratory factor analysis, explaining 56.4% cumulative shared variance.

  1. Negative Evaluation Anxiety

  2. Interaction Anxiety

  3. Privacy Concern Anxiety

• Internal Consistency: Overall SAS-SMU shows excellent reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.92).

• Convergent & Divergent Validity: Strong correlations with SPIN, and weaker correlations with other anxiety measures.

Associations with Social Media Use

• Duration of Use: Positive but weak correlations found between SAS-SMU scores and both types of social media use (passive and active).

• Implications: Results indicate that social anxiety is associated with varying patterns of social media usage, which should be further explored for better understanding.

Conclusion

• Outcome: Established the Swedish SAS-SMU as a reliable and valid measure for assessing social anxiety in the context of social media use.

• Future Research: Should explore clinical groups and demographics to further assess the validity of the scale.

Acknowledgments

• Thanks to contributors and organizations that supported the study.

References

• Includes notable studies and relevant literature utilized in the development of the SAS-SMU and linked research.

Study Limitations

• Sample was relatively small and homogeneous.

• No data on occupation collected; thus, results may vary across demographic groups.

Data Availability

• Data supporting the findings are available on request from the authors.