Cell Phone Social Media Use and Psychological Well-Being in Young Adults: Implications for Internet-Related Disorders

Abstract

Internet-related disorders are on the rise and increasing cell phone social media use may be one of the reasons for these disorders. To better understand internet-related disorders, we aim to explore the psychological and social aspects of cell phone social media behaviors. We hypothesized that, according to humanistic theories of positive functioning, cell phone social media connectedness to self (engagement, interest, pleasure, sense of enjoyment, meaningfulness, purposefulness, optimism, acceptance, and feeling accomplished) would relate positively to psychological well-being of undergraduate students. We also hypothesized that, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, cell phone social media connectedness to others (affiliation, feeling rewarded, being liked by others, and contributions to the well-being of others) would relate positively to the psychological well-being of undergraduate students. During the fall of 2019, 523 (75.4% female) undergraduate students from a large public university participated in this study by completing validated quantitative surveys on their cell phone use and psychological well-being. Spearman’s rho and ordinal logistics were implemented to analyze the findings. Correlational data showed that cell phone social media connectedness to self and cell phone social media connectedness to others were positively associated with the psychological well-being of undergraduate students. Ordinal logistics showed higher odds of psychological well-being occurring with cell phone social media connectedness to self and cell phone social media connectedness to others. Cell phone social media connectedness to self significantly predicted psychological well-being with the medium effect, whereas cell phone social media connectedness to others was not a significant predictor of the psychological well-being of undergraduate students. An increase in cell phone social media connectedness to self and an increase in cell phone social media connectedness to others of undergraduate students helped them improve their psychological well-being. Cell phone social media connectedness to self significantly predicted but cell phone social media connectedness to others did not predict the psychological well-being of undergraduate students, which may have implications for the research pertaining to behavioral addiction and may help better understand internet-related disorders.