Methods matter The effect of social media use on adolescent well-being

Adolescents today devote a significant part of their daily lives to social media, reportedly using multiple platforms interchangeably. Despite the prevalent use of social media among adolescents, the effect of adolescents’ social media use on their well-being (i.e., feelings of happiness, life satisfaction, and positive affect) remains a highly debated subject, both within society and academic circles. Over the past decades, a wealth of empirical studies has attempted to explore the connections between adolescents’ social media use and well-being. However, clear conclusions about the interplay between social media use and well-being remain elusive.
A plausible explanation for these elusive conclusions concerns the vastly different methodological decisions researchers can take when studying the interplay between social media use and well-being. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to investigate the importance of three methodological decisions when investigating the relationship between social media use and well-being. Through four empirical chapters, I investigated in this dissertation methodological decisions regarding the measurement method of social media use (Chapters 2 & 3), the time interval in-between longitudinal data waves (Chapter 4), and the measurement of social media content (Chapter 5). Taken together, these four chapters offer important guidance for future research into the complex relationship between adolescents’ social media use and well-being.