Doug Parry

@dougaparry.bsky.social

2150 Followers 590 Following

Assistant Prof of Media Psychology in the Department of Communication Science at VU Amsterdam (🇳🇱) researching media effects, digital well-being, attention, mental health. Open Science, Computational Methods 🖥️ https://dougaparry.com 🇿🇦 From South Africa

Query A: Primary studies

TITLE-ABS-KEY(
("screen time" OR "digital media use" OR "social media use"
OR "smartphone use" OR "internet use")
)
AND (DOCTYPE(ar))
AND NOT (
DOCTYPE(re)
OR TITLE("review" OR "meta-analysis" OR "systematic review" OR "umbrella review")
)

= 28906 results

Query B: Reviews

TITLE-ABS-KEY(
("screen time" OR "digital media use" OR "social media use"
OR "smartphone use" OR "internet use")
)
AND (
DOCTYPE(re)
OR TITLE("review" OR "meta-analysis" OR "systematic review" OR "umbrella review")
)

=2846 results

Review density (reviews/100 studies) = 9.85 reviews per 100 primary studies

JSON format of spotify listening history data.

Abstract:

Building on the idea that subjective evaluations of social media use (SMU) may shape well-being effects, this study investigated how two “social media mindsets”—agency (perceived control over SMU) and valence (perceived effects of SMU)—relate to self-reported and logged SMU, and four well-being indicators (depression, anxiety, stress, and life satisfaction) in a South African sample of young adults (N = 1,858; M age = 21.01). Agency mindsets were negatively correlated with SMU and positively with well-being, while valence mindsets were associated with higher SMU but not with well-being. Logged SMU showed weaker associations with mindsets and well-being than self-reported SMU, suggesting differences between perceived and actual behavior. The findings replicate, extend, and in some cases contradict prior research, emphasizing how users’ sense of control is more important for well-being than SMU duration or perceptions of its effects, and that more work is needed to understand whether the “mindsets” concept is fruitful.

Lay summary:

This study investigated how young adults’ feelings about social media—whether they feel in control of their use (agency) or view it positively (valence)—relate to their actual use and mental well-being. The study involved 1,858 participants from South Africa using both self-reported and actual logged social media usage data. The results show that people who feel more in control of their social media use tend to use it less and report better mental well-being. In contrast, those who see social media as more positive spend more time on it, but this mindset did not directly relate to well-being. The data collected from logs of actual usage show weaker relations with well-being compared to people’s estimates and to their mindsets. These findings suggest that a person’s sense of control over social media plays a more important role in their mental health than how much time they spend on it.

God is an astronaut live at Patronaat

Trophy for Stellenbosch University Early Career Research Award