Social media and digital flourishing in South Africa

Abstract

The global shift towards digitalisation has seen the prominence of social media increase throughout the twenty-first century, while the rising prevalence of reported mental illness in the face of this has promoted research into the association between social media use and people’s psychological well-being (Chekole & Abate, 2021; Richter et al., 2019; Sherif, 2024; Wongkoblap et al., 2017). Research on this topic has predominantly focused on the negative effects social media has on users’ psychological well-being, however it is imperative that the positive effects of social media use, in addition to the aspects or features of this use that lead to these effects, be investigated in order to provide a comprehensive account of this phenomenon. Therefore, the current study explored the associative and predictive relationships between digital flourishing, a novel conception of online psychological well-being, and different aspects of social media use (types of social media use, perceived social media literacy, and motives for social media use) in a sample of 207 South African young adults. To investigate these relationships, a quantitative, non-experimental, correlational, and cross-sectional research design was employed with data collected using an online survey. The survey consisted of questionnaires that assessed participants’ demographic characteristics, general social media use, passive and active use of social media, rational and emotional use of social media, perceived social media literacy, and motives for using social media. The sample was obtained using convenience and snowball sampling and the participants were mostly female (75.8%), mostly full-time students (73.4%), and mostly aged 18 to 25 (65.2%). On average, participants belonged to 5.34 social media sites, and a majority (69.1%) spent between two and six hours on social media per day. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and multiple regressions. The sample reported moderate levels of digital flourishing and perceived social media literacy with their social media use being more passive and rational/routine in nature. They predominantly used social media for information seeking and connectedness, academic, and entertainment purposes. For the associative relationships, this study found that within this sample the different types of social media use (i.e. active, passive, rational and emotional use) were either weakly or moderately positively associated with all the dimensions of digital flourishing outside of self-control. Perceived social media literacy and its competencies were either weakly or moderately positively associated with all five dimensions of digital flourishing. All nine of the motives for social media use were weakly or moderately associated with digital flourishing, while only the escapism and the following and monitoring others motives were negatively associated with digital flourishing. For the predictive relationships, this study found that the different dimensions of digital flourishing were predicted by all the aspects of social media except one form of active social media use (posting) and two motives for social media use (academic purposes and dating and friendship. Furthermore, the escapism, following and monitoring others, and entertainment motives were the only aspects of social media use in this study that negatively predicted different dimensions of digital flourishing. This study was the first to investigate digital flourishing in a South African context, expanding current knowledge on the novel conception and theoretical framework of digital flourishing. Furthermore, in identifying the aspects of social media use that were positively associated with and predicted digital flourishing, the study ultimately contributes to the limited literature on the positive effects of social media on psychological well-being.