Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

For millions of people, social media plays an integral role in the development and maintenance of social relationships. Social media allows for offline friendships to continue online and provides an avenue to meet new individuals (Ybarra et al., 2015). Considering the pervasive use of social media and its continuous growth, it is imperative to consider the consequences of social media use on individuals well-being. Using social media to gain online social support is a notable positive feature of social media, and this online support appears to offer similar benefits to face-to-face social support, such as having a positive impact on ones overall health and well-being (Gilmour et al., 2019). However, some research suggests that gaining this online support may increase the likelihood of developing a dependence on the online platform leading to addictive behaviors toward social media (Brailovskaia et al., 2019). There is a gap in the literature exploring which individuals who receive online social support are more susceptible to forming these addictive patterns of use toward social media platforms. The primary goal of the present study was to explore the association between online social positivity (i.e., the conceptual equivalent of online social support) and addictive use of social media, as well as the potential moderating roles of social anxiety and offline social support. The hypotheses were supported such that online social positivity was positively correlated with addictive use of social media, and social anxiety and offline social support significantly moderated the relationship between online social positivity and addictive use of social media. Results are discussed in relation to the rich get richer” hypothesis, and implications regarding the importance of real life” (offline) social support and clinical practice are considered.

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