The interplay between Facebook use, social comparison, envy, and depression

By H. Appel, Alexander L. Gerlach, J. Crusius. 2016

509 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In their Facebook profiles, users communicate abundant social comparison information conveying mainly positive self-portrayals. Thereby, social networking sites like Facebook pro-vide a fertile ground for envy. This has been proposed as a mechanism for the potential negative effects of Facebook use on well-being and depression. This article reviews research on this process. Studies show that (especially passive) Facebook use indeed predicts different measures of social comparison as well as envy. In several studies social comparison or envy mediate a positive association between Facebook use and undesirable affective outcomes such as depression. However, causal relationships have not yet been sufficiently established. Methodological and conceptual variety across studies limits their comparability, but reveals viable ideas for future research.

Subfields: Literature and Literary Theory, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c5b1e46bead88b4bd8488b48021aa52fa4369fdc

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Citations in the corpus

Passive social network site use and subjective well-being among Chinese university students: A moderated mediation model of envy and gender (2017, background): “Passive SNS use involves both similarity to comparison standards and high personal relevance, and these two factors can fuel envy (Appel et al., 2016; Smith & Kim, 2007).”
Social Network Sites, Individual Social Capital and Happiness (2016, background): “Such social comparisons can aggravate feelings of envy and jealousy, which in turn decrease subjective well-being (Muise et al. 2009; Utz and Beukeboom 2011; Appel et al. 2016).”
A systematic review: the influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents (2019, background): “Similarly, Appel, Gerlach, and Crusius (2016) found that passive Facebook use predicts social comparison and envy, which in turn lead to depression.”
Social Comparison as the Thief of Joy: Emotional Consequences of Viewing Strangers’ Instagram Posts (2018, background): “Furthermore, cross-sectional, prospective, and experience sampling research has shown that Facebook use is related to the negative emotion envy (for a review see Appel et al., 2016).”
The relationship between Instagram use and indicators of mental health: A systematic review (2021, background): “…and moderating role of social comparison in the relationship between SNS use and indicators of mental health such as depressive symptomatology, body image and disordered eating (Appel et al., 2016; Fardouly & Vartanian, 2016; Holland & Tiggemann, 2016; McLean et al., 2019; Verduyn et al., 2017).”