Under Pressure? Longitudinal Relationships between Different Types of Social Media Use, Digital Pressure, and Life Satisfaction

Abstract

Social media became the predominant medium for communicating, sharing updates, and monitoring other users. However, due to increasing use of social media, individuals might feel availability pressure to be online and production pressure to post content, which might result in negative consequences. The present study aims to disentangle the relationships between active social media use (private interactions), active public social media use (broadcasting), and passive social media use (monitoring) in relation to digital pressure and life satisfaction. The results of a two-wave panel survey with N = 415 late adolescents and young adults ( M age = 19.08, SD = 1.57, 58.31% female) reveal a longitudinal reciprocal relationship between active public use and production pressure. However, availability pressure positively predicts active social media use over time, suggesting increase in private interactions due to perceived peer’s expectations to be reachable over social media. In contrast, production pressure is related to lower active social media use, thus placing focus on active public broadcasting instead. Notwithstanding the reciprocal interplay between social media use and digital pressure, the present study does not demonstrate harmful consequences of digital pressure on life satisfaction.