Wu Yun, An Zihao, Lin Yi, Zhang Jingyue, Jing Bo, Peng Kaiping
Department of Psychology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
College of Letters and Science, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
Digit Health. 2023 Jun 12;9:20552076231181227. doi: 10.1177/20552076231181227. eCollection 2023 Jan-Dec.
A common assertion in the social media literature is that passive media use undermines affective wellbeing, and active media use enhances it. The present study investigated the effects of social media use on negative affective wellbeing during pandemic crises and examined the mechanism underlying these effects through perceived uncertainty.
Three studies were conducted during the Delta variant phase in the post-peak period of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Participants were recruited from the medium-high-risk infection areas in late August 2022. Study 1 used a cross-sectional survey to explore the relationships between social media use, uncertainty, and negative affect during the pandemic crisis. Study 2 employed a repeated-measures experiment to demonstrate how social media use and (un)certainty impact negative affect. Study 3 utilized a one-week experience sampling design to examine the role of uncertainty in the relationship between social media use and negative affect in real life.
Despite some inconsistencies regarding social media use's direct effect on negative affect, across the three studies, perceived uncertainty was critical in linking pandemic-related social media use to individuals' negative affect, particularly for passive use.
The relationships between social media use and affective wellbeing are complex and dynamic. While the perception of uncertainty provided an underlying mechanism that links social media use to individuals' affective wellbeing, this mechanism may be further moderated by individual-level factors. More research is needed as we seek to understand how social media use impacts affective wellbeing in uncertain contexts.
社交媒体文献中的一个普遍观点是，被动使用媒体会损害情感幸福感，而主动使用媒体则会增强情感幸福感。本研究调查了在疫情危机期间社交媒体使用对负面情感幸福感的影响，并通过感知到的不确定性来检验这些影响背后的机制。
在中国新冠疫情高峰期后的德尔塔变异株阶段进行了三项研究。参与者于2022年8月下旬从中高风险感染地区招募。研究1采用横断面调查来探索疫情危机期间社交媒体使用、不确定性和负面影响之间的关系。研究2采用重复测量实验来证明社交媒体使用和（不）确定性如何影响负面影响。研究3采用为期一周的经验抽样设计，以检验不确定性在现实生活中社交媒体使用与负面影响之间关系中的作用。
尽管关于社交媒体使用对负面影响的直接影响存在一些不一致之处，但在这三项研究中，感知到的不确定性在将与疫情相关的社交媒体使用与个体的负面影响联系起来方面至关重要，尤其是对于被动使用而言。
社交媒体使用与情感幸福感之间的关系是复杂且动态的。虽然对不确定性的感知提供了一种将社交媒体使用与个体情感幸福感联系起来的潜在机制，但这种机制可能会受到个体层面因素的进一步调节。在我们试图理解社交媒体使用如何在不确定的背景下影响情感幸福感时，还需要更多的研究。
