A Psychological Reactance Perspective of Social Media Prohibition and Outcomes

Abstract

No previous research compares social media outcomes between social media users who did use social media during adolescence and social media users who did not use social media during adolescence. We sought to determine the percentages of emerging adults who report using social media in adolescence and the percentage of emerging adults in a sample who report they did not use social media in adolescence. We sought to determine the extent to which an emerging adult sample reported they were prohibited from using social media, allowed to use social media, chose not to use social media, and defied a prohibition of social media. We sought to determine if social media outcomes of social media self-control failure (SMSCF), social media social comparison (SMSC), and fear of missing out (FoMo) differ between emerging adults who did and did not use social media during adolescence. We sought to determine if an association exists between SMSCF, SMSC, and FoMo. In addition to finding that 88% of the current sample of emerging adults used social media in adolescence, we found no difference in the social media outcomes based on social media use for disuse during adolescence. We also found SMSCF to be associated with SMSC and FoMo. Important implications are discussed for parents, who may be tempted to prohibit social media use out of fear instead of actively mediating social media use to prevent social media problems in emerging adulthood.