Differences In Face To Face Communication Compared To Social Media Communication
Facebook Friend or Facebook Foe?
An Investigation into the Impact of Facebook Use, Gender and Content Upon Psychological Distress. With the rising, and widespread use of technology in society today, the people of the world have gone from being unreachable to being, quite literally, at our fingertips. Some people see the widespread rise of social media in society as a way of increasing the interconnectedness among friends, family and workers, but is there a downside at all to this? With rapid changes in the communication of todays’ society, it is important to acknowledge both the benefits such communication can bring as well as the negative impact on an individual’s mental health.
This thesis aimed to investigate if gender differences as well as the nature of content browsed had an impact in the psychological distress felt in response to Facebook use. Psychological distress can be defined as “a state of emotional suffering characterised by symptoms of depression (such as loss of interest, general sadness and helplessness) and anxiety (restlessness and feeling tense) (Mirowsky & Ross, 2002). This is an important topic to investigate as consistent psychological distress can lead to numerous negative outcomes for those experiencing it, particularly feelings of anxiety, depression and stress.
Facebook in Society Today
According to the statistics released on its official website, the number of active monthly Facebook users sits at more than 2 billion with users averaging an hour spent on the site per day (Facebook, 2018). As Facebook use continues to be an integral part of people’s everyday life, increasing our understanding of the impact of Facebook on its users will better inform both researchers and the general public about the problematic side effects of its’ use. It is important however to note the cultural differences with certain countries, for example, the Chinese Government’s restriction upon certain social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook. This makes the collection of data on this part of the World difficult. Facebook allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and above all, keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues, but to address the impact of Facebook use on people, we must first assess why it is they use it.A rapid increase of Social Networking Services (SNS) has occurred in the last decade, particularly among young-adults (Sheldon et al., 2011).
Designed to make communication much more efficient and convenient than the traditional methods of face-to-face contact, Social networking services successfully ease relationship maintenance. The ability to establish and maintain relationships, instantly send and receive messages, and get the latest news and information (Ellison et al., 2007) are all provided with a few clicks of a button, and more recently with the addition of smartphones to our lives, taps on a mobile phone. As of 2018, approximately 94% of adults aged between 18 and 24 have an active Facebook account (Smith & Anderson, 2018) and 74% of all adult users admit to visiting the site several times a day.
Elaborating on this, 21% of the time spent by students on computers is spent accessing Facebook, more than any other internet service and in some cases, their own studies (Junco, 2013). As the most popular SNS available, Facebook has just more than 1.5 billion active daily users up from 584 million in 2011 (Facebook, 2018). With such a rapid growth of frequent users, it is both important and interesting to investigate the impact such services may have upon society. A large body of research exists looking at the relationships between Facebook and certain factors such as personality traits (Ryan & Xenos, 2011) emotion, communication, motivation and psychological well-being (. Thus, it is important to investigate firstly why people use Facebook at such a high rate.
Motivation for Facebook Use
Recent neuropsychological research could hold the answer to why Facebook use is so embedded in our lives. The self-disclosure one would engage in on social media activates the intrinsic reward system of the brain in much the same way as powerful primary rewards such as food and sex (Tamir & Mitchell, 2012). Furthermore, in a more advanced, modern day approach, a Pew Research Center project found that the most popular reasons for using social media included staying in touch with current friends and family, although other reasons emerged as well: making new friends, reading comments by celebrities and politicians, and finding potential romantic partners (Smith, 2011).
Uses and gratifications
The Uses and Gratifications approach (Katz, Haas & Gurevitch, 1973) theorises that users of media actively choose stimuli with goals of fulfilling specific needs. This perspective allows us to explain user’s goals when engaging with media, particularly Facebook, allowing us to describe media selection processes. Uses and gratifications studies consequently explore the types of gratifications people seek by using specific media. Ruggiero (2000) emphasized the importance of the perspective for studying social media due to evidence that new technologies confront users with a greater variety of media choices, the expected satisfaction of specific needs becomes a crucial component of their motivation to use a specific medium (Joinson, 2008; Ruggiero, 2000). Consequently, a number of scholars have used this paradigm in order to understand why people use social media and to discover which type of motives are associated with their use (Bumgarner, 2007; Chen & Kim, 2013; Joinson, 2008; Kim & Haridakis, 2009; Kneidinger, 2010; Lampe, Wash, Velasquez, & Ozkaya, 2010; Papacharissi & Mendelsohn, 2011).
These previous studies have identified a number of basic motive dimensions for using social networking. These include entertainment (Kim & Haridakis, 2009; Papacharissi & Mendelsohn, 2011), information-seeking and news access (Chen & Kim, 2013 ;Kneidinger, 2010), self-presentation (Chen & Kim,2013; Papacharissi & Mendelsohn, 2011), escapism (Chen & Kim, 2013; Kim & Haridakis, 2009; Papacharissi & Mendelsohn, 2011),socializing (Chen & Kim, 2013; Joinson, 2008), and meeting new people (Chen & Kim, 2013; Papacharissi & Mendelsohn, 2011) feature most prominently among the identified motives. Whilst large bodies of research exist investigating the factors behind Facebook use, there is minimal theory regarding its’ overuse besides the possibility that excessive Facebook use becomes habitual in nature (Turel & Qahri-Saremi, 2016). In addition to exploring different motivations to use Facebook, a study by Joinson (2008) further demonstrates that motives were able to predict the frequency of Facebook use.
The results suggested that people return to use Facebook in order to satisfy the same needs repeatedly. Taking this finding a step further, it appears plausible that this continuing gratification-seeking might slowly turn into compulsive usage patterns as people continuously experience gratifications which further reinforce and intensify their Facebook use. Referring to this reasoning, a number of studies have investigated what type of motives and gratifications predict Internet addiction and more recently, Social Network Services (SNS) addiction.
With reference to the motives previously listed by the Uses and Gratifications theory, evidence has suggested that we are able to show that seeking a virtual community, information, entertainment, and relationship maintenance are positively related to Internet addiction. Kim and Haridakis (2009) found that different usage motives relate to different symptoms of Internet addiction. In their study, seeking excitement, for example, positively predicted the level of intrusion and attachment to the Internet. A study by Chen and Kim (2013) specifically examined the influence of the gratifications of SNSs on pathological SNS usage and found that the motive for self-presentation and for relationship building significantly predicted problematic SNS use. These findings suggest that usage motives can be crucial factors in explaining the overuse of sites such as Facebook.
Fundamental needs
All behaviours are driven by the desire to attain some form of goal. The reason such goals are desired is to satisfy some form of basic psychological need (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Self Determination Theory (SDT) suggests that three main psychological needs are crucial for psychological growth, integrity and well-being of all individuals. These three needs are proposed to be the need for competence, the need for relatedness as well as the need for autonomy. Deci and Ryan (2000) further go on to enforce how the need for relatedness is deeply ingrained in all social animals, dating back to hunter-gatherer society ties. This is due to how both group belonging, and cohesion were vital for survival. Compared to the needs of autonomy and competence, which are individually focused needs, relatedness is a very strong motivator in social and group settings (Vallerand, 2000). Building upon the human desire for social connectedness, Baumister and Leary (1995) proposed that to satisfy the drive for belongingness, 2 main criteria must be met. Firstly, frequent and enjoyable social interactions must occur, and secondly, they must take place in a stable context involving concern for one another.
Facebook offers a perfect environment for such interactions as it allows people to easily network with friends they already know, and choose to continue interacting with (Ellison et al., 2007) Advancing on the research completed by Baumister and Leary (1995), they suggested that when in a group setting, peoples’ expectations of one another are significantly increased. This bias expectation was also found to be internalized in the individual themselves, particularly when a member of a group senses a change in their status. After an extensive review of various empirical findings, Baumeister and Leary (1995) concluded that there was sufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that the need to belong is a basic human need and holds a place as one of the basic human drives. Increasing literature on the psychological processes of SNS suggests that social media is being used specifically for need satisfaction purposes (Kuss & Griffiths, 2011).
For this reason, Facebook has grown in popularity as a result of making sharing information and experiences is easy to do with the rewards of perceived connection and closeness potentially being instantaneous (Christofides, Muise, & Desmarais, 2009). Sheldon, Abad, and Hinch (2011) examined the processes that occurred whilst participants used Facebook as well as their impact on the satisfaction of social needs. Specifically, their study focused on the positive and negative effects of Facebook on the need for relatedness. They referred to the possible effects as connection or disconnection. When Facebook use was associated with positively worded indicators of relatedness, the authors labelled this as a connection.
When Facebook use was associated with negatively worded indicators, this was labelled as disconnection. They discovered that Facebook use was oddly correlated with both connection and disconnection. Through follow up analysis, researchers were able to conclude that feelings of disconnection motivated and were responsible for greater Facebook use, which led in feelings of connection (Sheldon et al., 2011). Feelings of connection meant that people‘s relatedness needs were being satisfied, thus when individuals felt that their relatedness needs were not being satisfied they were motivated to use Facebook to satisfy this need in an attempt to fulfil the need for connectedness.
Psychological Distress
Whilst the use of Facebook allows us to fulfil needs suggested by the uses and gratifications theory, as well as fundamental social needs, it may also lead to us feeling that we are missing these forms of enrichment in our lives. Mixed results regarding the impact of Facebook have surfaced within the last decade, with conflicting evidence regarding the effects it may have on an individuals’ mental health. Whilst strong ties with friends on Facebook has been associated with elevated mood (Lin & Utz, 2015), studies have surfaced revealing the potential downsides of Facebook usage. For instance, the number of Facebook friends was negatively linked to self-esteem and academic adjustment in college (Kalpidou et al., 2011), positively related to romantic jealousy and relationship dissatisfaction (Elphinston & Noller, 2011), and greater Facebook use predicted declines in cognitive and affective well-being (Kross et al., 2013).
In contrast, research has also put forth positive effects of Facebook use. Hayes & Scharkow (2013) discovered no association between the use of social media and depression, whilst other research noted that the use of Facebook was positively associated with students’ life satisfaction, social trust and engagement (Valenzuela et al, 2009). The most ironic research however, is research presented suggesting that Facebook, as well as regular internet use increase feelings of loneliness among users (Lin & Utz, 2015). But how could this be with so many other people around the world constantly in reach?Social Network Service (SNS) fatigue refers to a subjected and self-evaluated feeling of tiredness and exhaustion from SNS usage (Lee, S & Kim, 2016). The term of “Social Network Fatigue” is derived from the concept of Information Overload, however applies to more recent times where information is far more abundant and constantly presented on social media (Shokouhyar, Siadat & Razavi, 2018).
Information overload is defined as a state in which the informational input exceeds the human information processing capacity, resulting in ineffective information processing as well as psychological distress and confusion. This means that information overload occurs when people receive more information than they can process, leading to negative symptoms such as poor decision making, loss of motivation, stress, depression, and physical and emotional fatigue. This leads us onto the negative impact that Facebook use can have on its’ users, heavily impacting their daily function if consistently exposed to such feelings. One theory behind this strange paradox is presented throughout literature surrounding the topic, suggesting that online communication is far less satisfying than face to face interaction among other people.
Prior research has shown that the use of social media may detract from face-to-face relationships, reduce involvement in meaningful activities (Leung & Lee, 2005) and erode self-esteem through unfavourable social comparison (Feinstein et al, 2013) and even lead to internet addiction (Christakis, 2010). Self-comparison can be a strong influence on human behaviour. When people use Facebook, they tend to display the most positive aspects of their lives, thus making it possible for an individual to believe that their own life compares negatively to what they see presented by others (Shakya, Christakis & Fowler, 2017). Whilst arguments have been put forth that Facebook is merely an outlet and not a cause of lowered mental-health, sceptics have wondered if perhaps people with lower well-being are more likely to use social media, rather than social media causing lower well-being (Seabrook, Kern & Rickard, 2016).
In recent years, three studies have effectively ruled out this explanation, at least for social media in general. Two longitudinal studies found that more social media use led to unhappiness (Shakya & Christakis, 2017), but unhappiness did not lead to more social media use (Kross et al., 2013). A third study was a true experiment, designed to determine causation. it randomly assigned adults to give up Facebook for a week, or not. Those who gave up Facebook ended the week happier, less lonely, and less depressed (Tromholt, 2016). Moreover, other studies have found that social media use has a positive impact on well-being through increased social support and reinforcement of real world relationships (Oh, Ozkaya & LaRose, 2014).A recent study aimed to address the conflicting findings of previous research using a longitudinal study. Conducted over 3 years with 1 data collection per year, 5200 adults participated.
The aim of this study was to address theorized differences in face to face communication compared to social media communication (Shakya & Christakis, 2017) and gave valuable insight as it assessed change over a period of three years. As longitudinal studies are scarce due to the consistently changing nature of social media, this makes this study valuable. As of 2018, a majority of studies use only a single data collection making it difficult to address the true impact of Facebook use upon participants. Another reason this study is beneficial to our research was the use of objective measures rather than self-report questionnaires to assess the amount of activity a participant spends on Facebook.
This eliminates any self-favouring bias which may cause a participant to either alter or underestimate how much time is spent on Facebook, allowing us to directly compare how people reacted to face to face communication and online interaction. One limitation of the study was present however, which was that not everyone in the sample allowed access to their Facebook data. Despite this limitation, results indicated that whilst face to face contact among social networks was positively associated with participants mental health, Facebook use was not. The use of Facebook was negatively associated with mental health in such a way that more “Likes” (clicking an image of a thumb indicating appreciation for the content somebody else has posted) and clicking of content predicted a subsequent reduction in self-reported physical health and mental health.
These results suggest the possibility that the nature of social interaction online is vastly different to that of face to face communication. But why is psychological distress important to investigate? Research has suggested that psychological distress is related to deficits in cognition, further impacting on attention and concentration, memory and executive function (Hare Duke, 2017). It is possible that side effects are detrimental to ones’ health and can lead to mental illness as well as a lower life-satisfaction among oneself. With young people able to access Facebook from just 13 years of age, does the emergence of social media have more of a negative impact upon individuals than a positive one? With large bodies of contradictory evidence and the only recent emergence of such technology, no real conclusion to the impact of Facebook or Social Media in general on ones’ health has been made.
Gender and Facebook Use
Males and females have been seen throughout history to differ in ways they perceive information. MRI studies have displayed that men and women react differently to positive and negative stimulus whilst in a meta-analysis of sex differences regarding moral emotions (Else-Quest et al. 2012) discovered that women tended to experience more negative emotions than men do, such as guilt and shame. With the rising use of social media throughout the last decade, one key issue that has been put forth is whether established trends in gender research are reproduced or extend to in an online environment.
Haferkamp and colleagues (2012) point out that it is reasonable to assume that some gender differences that have been identified in face-to-face communication are likely to be replicated on social media sites, such as Facebook. Limited research however has been conducted into gender differences in behaviour among Facebook. Despite this, some notable research was conducted in 2012 by Thompson & Lougheed assessing the differences in feelings towards Facebook between males and females. They discovered anxiety and stress associated with Facebook use was far more prominent in females then males, specifically that females scored higher on stress caused by Facebook use and higher scores of anxiety when not able to access Facebook. Additionally, they also discovered that Females tend to be much more heavy users of Facebook than Males, spending at least an hour on the site daily. This body of evidence suggests that computer mediated communication does in fact mirror the commination patents and deficits associated with face-to-face communication.
Motivations for sharing information in social media also vary by the demographic and background characteristics of users. In general, females are more likely to use social media than males (Duggan & Brenner, 2013). Findings from this study indicate that female users are more highly motivated by social engagement, community interest, and personal gain than male users, possibly making them more prone to communication overload and psychological distress, however, this has not been confirmed.At this point in time, previous research has been conducted into the effects of social media on users, discovering differences between perception of social stimuli in gender. Also investigated has been the impact of social media usage on mental health among users and how this may lead to further issues.
There is little noteworthy evidence however into how levels of psychological distress differ among male and female users of Facebook. This research puts forth how important it is to investigate the possible links between Facebook usage and psychological distress among users as it may allow us to adequately identify those more at risk of developing further symptoms of mental illness. The Impact of ContentWith Facebook serving as a platform for other media such as news, videos and images, one must question if the quality of someone’s exposure to negative content impacts their psychological distress levels. Studies from as early as 1979 have questioned the impact of consistent exposure to negative news articles (Combs & Slovic, 1979). A more recent study suggests that the constant exposure to extreme violence is psychologically distressing and leads to higher scores of anxiety, depression and PTSD-related symptoms in newsroom presenters (Feinstein, Audet & Waknine, 2014).
The researchers also note that whilst exposure to negative news is unlikely to cause such disorders in those who are not prone, it can lead to an overly pessimistic view of the world through consistent exposure. This pessimistic view of the world may be due to the presence of the Negativity Bias (Rozin & Royzman, 2001; Vaish, Grossmann & Woodward, 2008), a phenomenon where people tend to be more drawn to, and more emotionally impacted by negative experiences and news. Evidence suggests that the human brain reacts far more strongly to stimuli it deems negative, compared to stimuli it deems neutral and positive through a . (Ito, Larsen, Smith & Cacioppo, 1998). Whilst this capacity to weigh negative input was most-likely derived for evolutionary purposes, it may not be so helpful in modern-day times and may serve as more of a hinderance than a benefit. With the amount of negative posts and images due to Facebooks natural algorithm, it is important to investigate if this effect extends to Facebook.
The Present Research
This thesis aimed to investigate gender, psychological distress and stimulus typically found on Facebook among participants of the study. As part of a collaborative study involving multiple impacts of social media and smart phone usage, the current study was devised to assess the conflicting evidence and unclear associations between social media and possible negative symptoms behind the quickly evolving world of social media. This research aims to advance the literature regarding negative symptoms of Facebook use by exploring the presence of psychological distress in a diverse sample. Second, this research adds to the little current research about gender differences in social perception, assessing whether such differences extend to the use of Facebook. In a novel approach, the current research will aim to investigate if the content viewed in an individuals’ Facebook will attenuate the relationship between Facebook content and psychological distress. To investigate the arguments put forth, seven main hypotheses were created with an aim of investigating if gender and content had an impact in the psychological distress felt in response to Facebook use.
Hypothesis 1.
Participants who score higher on measures of Facebook attitude will also score higher on psychological distress, such that as Facebook attitudes increase so will psychological distress.
Hypothesis 1a.
The predicted effect of Facebook attitudes on psychological distress will be stronger in females. As such, at higher levels of Facebook attitude, females will show higher levels of psychological distress than men.
Hypothesis 2.
Participants who spend more time on Facebook will score higher on psychological distress, such that as Facebook time increases, so will psychological distress.
Hypothesis 2a.
The predicted effect of Facebook time on psychological distress will be moderated by gender. As such, at higher levels of Facebook time, females will show higher levels of psychological distress than men.
Hypothesis 3.
Participants presented with a negative stimulus would score lower on psychological distress compared to participants presented a neutral stimulus. Similarly, participants presented with a neutral stimulus would score lower on the psychological distress than those presented with a positive stimulus.Hypothesis 3a. The stimulus presented will moderate the effect of Facebook intensity on psychological distress. Participants who view the negative stimulus will be more strongly impacted by the Facebook attitude and psychological distress relationship than those who viewed the neutral and negative stimuli.Hypothesis 3b. The stimulus presented will moderate the effect of Facebook time on psychological distress. Participants who view the negative stimulus will be more strongly impacted by the Facebook time and psychological distress relationship than those who viewed the neutral and negative stimuli.
