untitled

This conversation is about the impact of social media and wealth on well-being. Social media use is normalized and has negative effects on mental health. There is cross-cultural variation in how wealth and social media are perceived. In collectivist cultures, social media is used to seek approval and fit in, while in individualistic cultures, it is more self-emphasizing. Social media fuels the need for social comparison. Studies show that social media use and addiction are displayed across cultures. However, the specific use of social media apps and content is not always specified. Wealth is generally defined as monetary accumulation, but interpersonal relationships also play a role in life satisfaction. Future research could focus on the types of apps used and the content people interact with on social media. Hi, I'm Alyssa. And this is Joby. And today we're going to be talking about well-being. And given the fact that we live in a capitalist society where social media has been growing and has become such an integral part of how it functions, and there's even an intersection between the two, as social media is used by big brands and companies, and you can even buy things on social media apps too, it's important to acknowledge and understand the positive and negative effects of both of these structures, social media and wealth, on our society. But starting on an individual level first, specifically how it affects our well-being. Yeah, definitely. So we have two really important variables here. One, social media, you said, has become very prevalent now. Wealth has sort of always been there. And I know from my research, there was a lot of past, a lot of focus on just how wealth can, you know, build happiness, what are its limitations, how is it perceived differently across cultures. I know there's a lot of cross-cultural variation, just in terms of what is wealth. And that's kind of what my research wanted to focus on. Just to kind of fill in that conceptual gap. I know for some of my studies, I'll go into a little bit later, it was, not only was the definition of wealth varied across cultures, but, you know, there were other external factors such as how was that wealth achieved, you know, the effort towards working towards wealth, how was that viewed across different cultures, how was the subjective experience analyzed in terms of how much wealth you have versus, say, your neighbor or somebody in a similar profession. I'll go into all of that, you know, later. But there was just a lot of variation in terms of, and in terms of weight for my variable. Yeah, for my research, it was sort of showing how social media has become such a large phenomenon in our society. You know, excessive social media use is very normalized and has led to negative effects on mental health, specifically through self-esteem, social esteem, stress, and depression. And since social media and technology continue to advance, even though it is difficult to pinpoint the leading causes or factors that contribute to its negative consequences, it's pretty important to try and at least figure it out. So it sounds like there's a lot of negative influences that social media has. But, of course, as we've discussed throughout the semester, there's a lot of cross-cultural variation on a wide variety of concepts. So I'll get right into it. My first question is for you, or my first question for you, I should say, is how are themes of individualism and collectivism demonstrated in your findings, just generally? So overall, in both kinds of cultures, social media has had a rather negative effect on well-being, whether it was in Korea or Lebanon or the U.S. or even Saudi Arabia. The only distinct difference was in the study on South Korea and America on social media used for self-status-seeking regarding body image. So for Koreans, the more actively they posted messages or images online, the better their body image was. And this is because, culturally, Koreans are more collectivist and seek approval from others and are more concerned with how they're perceived by other people. Americans, on the other hand, are more individualistic, so they're more concerned with their own personal values and opinions and their own internal attributes. So they don't care as much about other people's opinions, specifically regarding their body image. But Americans do use social media for self-status more than Koreans. It's just that body image isn't the main focus of their use of it. But other than that, there aren't really many studies. I've seen that compare individualist and collectivist societies specifically, in regards to how social media affects people. It was more different studies taking place in different countries that happen to be either Eastern or Western. That's really interesting. So on one hand, social media is being used to influence one's own perception, maybe for the immediate society around them, how are they viewed. Whereas it sounds like for Americans, it's a lot more self-emphasizing. I forget the exact word, but it's like self-promoting, maybe? Would that be right? One is self-promoting, the other is the perception? I think for Americans, I mean, idealizing, portraying yourself in an idealized way is the norm, and that was mentioned in the studies, but I feel like that happens all over. It's just that for more collectivist cultures, they really care about not sticking to the status quo, but fitting in with other people and making sure that other people have a good perception of them. But yeah, Americans don't really see it that way. Okay, so social media is being used pretty differently. Yeah. So for you, one of the limitations that you mentioned in your paper was a focus on weird societies in the studies that you found. Do you think that there would be distinct differences between individualistic and collectivist societies? Yeah, if I had a larger research base, I think more differences would become apparent. I think I had a decent amount of research that focused on cross-cultural variation, although some of that cross-cultural variation, as you said, was concerned on just weird societies. I think the biggest difference, to answer your question, is really the way in which the pursuit of wealth is viewed. So on one sense, I had one study that demonstrated how first-generation college students really value individual choice and effort in terms of choosing a career much more so than the pay of that career. In another example, I think there was a sample of Chinese participants who answered life satisfaction questions much more with a relation to subjective well-being and comparing themselves to members within their immediate community, as opposed to just being like, how is my life just without ignoring, or while ignoring everybody else, just taking in what their current status is. It was much more comparable, whereas first-generation college students, that sample was taken from a southern university in the United States, and there wasn't much social comparison there. It was the individual effort towards achieving a good career, as opposed to a salary or achieving wealth. So in both those studies, there wasn't actually much of a focus on monetary wealth. It was more of personal satisfaction, either through individual effort or in terms of subjective well-being when compared to the societal standards. I feel like it's interesting that you mentioned social comparison as well, because that was brought up in most of the studies that I found about social media. I think that overall, that's really what it's being used for, even if people don't mean to be. I think that just having access to so many different people and different people's lives, I think that it fuels the need for social comparison. Definitely. And I have some research focus, too. We are definitely a global society now. It's never been easier. This is more for your research, but it's never been easier to connect with somebody on social media. And in certain societies, there's definitely a competitive atmosphere in terms of wanting to achieve, wanting to do well, which is generally more from an individual perspective. If that individual is putting in effort, it's usually valued in independent societies. So just the ability to constantly compare yourself to a society has never been easier, given just this amount of global connections that we have. So I think in that sense, both of our research are very timely and with important findings. And this conversation actually winds up perfectly with the next question I have for you. Since social media is often used to connect people, and again, this is over a variety of distances, a variety of age groups, how did your studies reveal differences in social media use across cultures? Or I'll tie it in with the motivation to use social media, maybe frequently on a daily basis. So the tendency to use social media all the time and even having a social media addiction were displayed across cultures. I think since social media has become such a big phenomenon worldwide, the studies themselves didn't actually specify how long people spent on their phones or the apps per day or per week. But I think it would have been helpful or interesting to know that, just for the statistics. But I also think the fact that these studies even took place in the first place shows that social media use is pretty high. It's a focus. However, in terms of what it was used for, I mean, it was different apps like Instagram or Facebook or use for information or self-status seeking regarding body image, like in the American and South Korean study. But I feel like the specifications for what it was used for wasn't always given in the studies. That's really interesting. Okay. So future research will probably help answer that question a bit more. I think focusing on the types of apps that people use, I mean, some of them did focus on specific apps like Instagram or Facebook, but I think really specifying and then determining what kind of content people are interacting with, I think that that can really help. So speaking of differences, was there a consistent definition of wealth in the studies that you found? For example, was it more financially focused throughout? And if so, how do you think different definitions of wealth, for example, including success in terms of interpersonal relationships, would affect the finding? I think that's a really good question because there's a lot that goes into life satisfaction in general. So to answer your question first, yes, generally in my studies, wealth was viewed as monetary accumulation. So wealth corresponded directly to money. But to answer the second part of your question, interpersonal relationships was certainly a very important predictor of just happiness or way of satisfaction in general. I mentioned the study earlier with Chinese participants were quick to socially compare themselves to people in their proximity, and that's how they determined their wealth and their subsequent life satisfaction. So I would definitely say that the subjective value of wealth was certainly influenced by interpersonal relationships for that study. I have another study where, and yes, this focused on all weird cultures. I think specifically they surveyed roughly 1,000 people from the U.K., Russia, Sweden, the U.S., Spain, France, Germany, and Poland, and they were asking each of these participants to self-report how they perceived the country to be in terms of freedom for the country, their own perceived wealth, and criminal justice for the country. So these are not particularly variables that correspond to monetary wealth, but they're equally important in terms of achieving wealth. So in these studies, I found that themes of fairness, equal opportunity, and a unity surrounding these themes were the driving force for what, or right behind what individuals strived for to achieve individual happiness. So in other words, it was the ability to be able to put in the effort and accumulate wealth was equally important as the wealth itself, if that kind of makes sense. Interesting. I mean, I feel like it's interesting that interpersonal relationships are sort of important worldwide, even though there was a focus on weird societies in the studies that you found. I think as long as that interpersonal relationship, which in the second study it was an indirect relationship, as long as everybody had the freedom and the fairness to pursue their own wealth, then people felt it was okay for them to do so. If everybody had the same opportunity that they were to achieve wealth, they wouldn't necessarily feel guilty about it, if that makes sense. It does. Perfect. Yeah. I can turn it back over to you for the next question. So you mentioned earlier that your studies focused more on Facebook or Instagram for the apps that were discussed. And so as future research focuses on social media, maybe say they include other apps like TikTok or Twitter, do you think that these findings that you had are going to be similar to Instagram or Facebook? Or is there so much variation in terms of the app experience that you get across different social media platforms that you'll actually experience different findings? Overall, I think, yes, the findings would probably be similar. I feel like the content determines the effect on well-being. But I think that it can worsen the already negative effects or consequences of social media. Like social media use is really constant. It's sort of a constant cycle, like scrolling on your phone for hours, even before your bedtime. And so there's already like it's lessening the amount of sleep that people get. And then it affects your attention span, since you're consuming so much media in such a short amount of time on TikTok, for example. And I feel like we're not really supposed to be taking in so much information at once. Like I feel like that can't be good for you. But it becomes almost like a mindless mechanism. And TikTok even has a feature. I mean, I haven't seen it anymore, but it would be like an ad pop up where they tell you you've been scrolling for a while, so you should probably take a break. And it was even like a joke on TikTok. People would just scroll right past it whenever it came up and just ignore the warning or the concern for our well-being. And I mean, even going back to the mindlessness that I mentioned, I feel like I even experienced that too. I'll like exit an app on my phone. It's always social media. I feel like I go on my phone mainly for social media. I'll exit the app and then just open it right back up again as a reflex. So I feel like that shows how much social media has been like integrated in our own personal lives and in our minds even. I totally agree to that. Just that mindless, or mindless like scrolling through reels and stuff, and you don't know how long you've been on there. I've seen that commercial, as I would refer to it, or that. Yeah, like an ad basically. Yeah, it'll say you've gone through, you know, 100 reels, and I feel like I've been there for five minutes. So I can definitely relate to that. As you said, it becomes so instinctual. You just open the app again. And I think it's definitely been normalized to a large extent as well. Okay, switching gears now. Do you personally believe that wealth contributes to happiness? It's a really good question. And when I first started this research, I would, you know, definitely yes, right? I know just growing up in the U.S., you know, there's always been that hard work pays off mentality. You know, put in the work, good things will follow. Usually those good things are, you know, a good salary, good benefits, well-paying job, that kind of thing. So from the beginning, I would definitely have said yes. Now that I've done some research and seen the amount of, like, a wide variety of factors that influence personal happiness in general, whether that be interpersonal relationships, fairness, freedom in the society to pursue wealth, individual choice, there were just so many external variables I hadn't considered already that I would say, in short, to answer your question, I don't want to ramble too much, yes, wealth contributes to happiness, but by no means is it the only factor. I can certainly see why there's a limit on how much wealth can actually increase happiness. You know, there's been a lot of previous research that says, yes, wealth contributes to happiness, but it has a limit. After a certain amount of money that you've made, people generally don't find themselves getting happier, and I think that's because relationships are such a huge part of life. Fairness and equality are such a huge part of life. And these are really important daily values that money can't buy. There's definitely a limit to just accumulating wealth, and there's a ton of personal success that comes from the effort to receive wealth or the effort to help other people achieve their own wealth or their own goals, that wealth on its own, of course, is not the only thing that's really important. All right, now, I don't want to keep rambling. Just due to time, that, I think, is actually a great stopping place for me just to summarize my research in that there's a lot of variation other than wealth that affects life satisfaction. So with that, Liz, I'll turn it over to you if you want to summarize as well. I feel like both of our research just shows how there are many different factors that contribute to how either wealth or social media can affect our well-being, whether it's the type of content that we're seeing or the apps that we're using or just different cultural factors or, I don't know, different experiences or personal relationships in regards to wealth. So, yeah. No, that all sounds great. I think we covered a lot of really good points there. Again, I think both of our research is very timely just in terms of the amount of global connectiveness that we have. So, anyway, with that, thank you for listening. That concludes our podcast. Yep.