Go big or go home: Examining the longitudinal relations between exposure to successful portrayals on social media and adolescents’ feelings of discrepancy

Abstract

Social media abound with successful portrayals in nearly every life domain (e.g. appearance, social life). Many researchers have expressed concerns about such portrayals, claiming that they might be detrimental to adolescents’ self-development. More specifically, continuous exposure to successful portrayals on social media may encourage adolescents to perceive these portrayals as standards to meet, which might evoke feelings of discrepancy (i.e. the feeling of falling short of important standards). The results of a three-wave longitudinal study (N = 1032, M_age = 14.55, SD = 1.65) revealed that exposure to different types of successful portrayals on social media (i.e. attractive appearance and a perfect life) does not relate to feelings of discrepancy over time, and vice versa at a within-person level. Yet, between-person associations were present for both types of successful portrayals with feelings of discrepancy. Hence, our findings stress the importance of taking into account both between- and within-person relations when examining social media effects.