The way you use social media may just be affecting your happiness, according to a new study by UBC Okanagan.
Derrick Wirtz, an associate professor of teaching in psychology at the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, took a close look at how people use three major social platforms—Facebook, Twitter and Instagram—and how that use can impact a person’s overall well-being.
“Social network sites are an integral part of everyday life for many people around the world,” said Wirtz. “Every day, billions of people interact with social media. Yet the widespread use of social network sites stands in sharp contrast to a comparatively small body of research on how this use impacts a person’s happiness.”
Even before social isolation became the norm amid COVID-19, Wirtz said social media has transformed how we interact with others. Face-to-face, in-person contact is now matched or exceeded by online social interactions as the primary way people connect. While most people gain happiness from interacting with others face-to-face, Wirtz notes that some come away from using social media with a feeling of negativity—for a variety of different reasons.
One issue is social comparison. Participants in Wirtz’s study said the more they compared themselves to others while using social media, the less happy they felt.
“Viewing images and updates that selectively portray others positively may lead social media users to underestimate how much others actually experience negative emotions and lead people to conclude that their own life—with its mix of positive and negative feelings—is, by comparison, not as good,” he said.
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Wirtz notes that viewing other people’s posts and images while not interacting with them lends itself to comparison without the mood-boosting benefits that ordinarily follow social contact, undermining well-being and reducing self-esteem. “Passive use, scrolling through others’ posts and updates, involves little person-to-person reciprocal interaction while providing ample opportunity for upward comparison.”
As part of his research, study participants were asked about four specific functions of Facebook—checking a news feed, messaging, catching up on world news and posting status or picture updates. The most frequently used function was passively checking one’s news feed. Participants primarily used Facebook without directly connecting with other users, and the negative effects on subjective well-being were consistent with this form of use.
During COVID-19, Wirtz notes people naturally turn to social media to reduce feelings of social isolation. Yet, his research (conducted before the pandemic) found that although people used social media more when they were lonely, time spent on social media only increased feelings of loneliness for participants in the study. “Today, the necessity of seeing and hearing friends and family only through social media due to COVID-19 might serve as a reminder of missed opportunities to spend time together.”
The more people used any of these three social media sites, the more negative they reported feeling afterward. “The three social network sites examined—Facebook, Twitter and Instagram—yielded remarkably convergent findings,” he said. “The more respondents had recently used these sites, either in aggregate or individually, the more negative effect they reported when they responded to our randomly-timed surveys over a 10-day period.”
Wirtz’s study also included offline interactions with others, either face-to-face or a phone call. Comparing both offline communication with online, he was able to demonstrate that offline social interaction had precisely the opposite effect of using social media, strongly enhancing emotional well-being.
But all is not lost, Wirtz says, as this research also reveals how people can use social media positively, something more important than ever during COVID-19. He suggests people avoid passively scrolling and resist comparing themselves to other social media users. He also says people should use social media sites to enable direct interactions and social connectedness—for example, talking online synchronously or arranging time spent with others in-person, when possible and with proper precautions.
“If we all remember to do that, the negative impact of social media use could be reduced—and social networks sites could even have the potential to improve our well-being and happiness,” he adds. “In other words, we need to remember how we use social media has the potential to shape the effects on our day-to-day happiness.”
Wirtz’s study was recently published in the Journal of Happiness Studies.
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Jon Stewart blasted the media for covering the “banal” details of former President Trump’s first of four criminal trials, which began with opening statements Monday following a week of jury selection.
In his Monday night broadcast of “The Daily Show,” Stewart poked fun at the TV news media for tracking Trump’s traffic route from Trump Tower to the courtroom, compiling footage from various outlets, as they tracked each turn his car made.
“Seriously, are we going to follow this guy to court every f‑‑‑ing day? Are you trying to make this O.J. [Simpson]? It’s not a chase. He’s commuting,” Stewart said. “So the media’s first attempt — the very first attempt on the first day — at self-control failed.”
Media outlets have closely covered Trump in recent days, as he makes history as the first U.S. president to stand trial on criminal charges. Trump is also the presumptive GOP nominee for president this year.
Trump currently faces 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records in connection to reimbursements to his then-fixer, Michael Cohen, who paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 ahead of the 2016 election to stay quiet about an alleged affair she had with the former president a decade prior. It is the first of four criminal trials Trump will face, and perhaps the only one that will go to a jury before the November election.
Stewart, in his broadcast, took aim at TV news outlets, suggesting they were covering small news alerts as significant breaking news developments.
Stewart pretended a producer was talking in his earpiece and paused midsentence, saying, “Hold on. We’re getting breaking news,” and cut to a clip from an earlier interview conducted by CNN’s Jake Tapper, who similarly cut off his guest momentarily to identify a photo displayed on screen to his audience.
“I’m sorry to interrupt. Just for one second. I apologize,” Tapper said in the clip. “We’re just showing the first image of Donald Trump from inside the courtroom. It’s a still photograph that we’re showing there. Just want to make sure our viewers know what they’re looking at.”
Stewart shot back, saying, “Yes, for our viewers who are just waking up from a 30-year coma, this is what Donald Trump has looked like every day for the past 30 years. Same outfit.”
Stewart ripped CNN again for analyzing the courtroom sketches so closely, saying, “It’s a sketch. Why would anyone analyze a sketch like it was — it’d be like looking at the Last Supper and going, ‘Why do you think Jesus looks so sad here? What do you think? It’s because of Judas?’”
“Look, at some point in this trial, something important and revelatory is going to happen,” Stewart said. “But none of us are going to notice, because of the hours spent on his speculative facial ticks. If the media tries to make us feel like the most mundane bullshit is earth-shattering, we won’t believe you when it’s really interesting.”
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‘This year will be the first time that we’ll see a global ad spend of over a trillion’ U.S. dollars, says Charles Etienne Morier
Published Apr 23, 2024 • Last updated 26 minutes ago • 5 minute read
Like their partners in the Canadian news industry, the country’s media agencies are undergoing unprecedented transformation. The National Post is holding conversations with leaders of Canada’s largest agencies on the fast-changing fundamentals. This week, Charles Etienne Morier, chief operating officer of Touché! & Omnicom Media Group Montreal, speaks to writer Rebecca Harris.
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It has dramatically changed with technological advancement and shifts in consumer behaviour. Now, more than 80% of digital ad spend is transacted through digital buying platforms, so it has become increasingly important for our workforce to have a good understanding of the algorithms and how to maximize them.
The process has changed also. It’s no longer about creating a 30-second spot and then selecting a media channel to distribute the message. We start with the audiences, the channels where we need to reach them, and then tailor a message that will be appealing. And so, we need to work even more closely with our creative partners.
And we think 2024 will change even more. It’s going to be an inflection point despite all the changes we have gone through over the last three years. This year will be the first time that we’ll see a global ad spend of over a trillion (U.S. dollars). It shows the responsibility that we have as advertisers and agencies to spend that money wisely and ensure we make every ad dollar count, and that we are engaging consumers in a way that speaks to them in an age where there’s a lot of uncertainty about how they share their data and private information.
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The team now needs to be proficient in so many areas. We used to have strategy, media buying and planning, and optimization and reporting. Now, we need to be able to help our clients navigate within this complex digital ecosystem with clean rooms (environments where brands, publishers and advertisers share data), the deprecation of cookies, and dynamic creative optimization. Our agency has changed dramatically in the sense that we offer much more depth in our services now. So, our leaders need to be proficient in being able to discuss those subjects with clients. We have a strong learning system in place and it’s part of our value, to make sure that our teams stay curious because it’s changing so much by the day.
Brands that are breaking through are able to prioritize authenticity, relevance and creativity in their messaging and their approach to media. Consumers are bombarded with messages every day and there’s ad blocking, so we have to find new ways of capturing consumer attention… We need to make ads relevant to consumers and bring more value into their lives. And leverage the data we have at our disposal to tailor the message to specific audience segments and engage the consumer in multiple touchpoints.
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We’ve been working for almost two years on educating our clients, making sure that they are prepared. So, we are doing assessments to make sure we have everything in place to prepare for the impact of the deprecation of cookies. It will change a lot for measurement because we will not be able to measure the same things the same way. We will not be able to target in the same way. But I see it as an opportunity somewhat, to be able to come back to (advertising) that is more creative and more around content and context… and more in relation to targeting the right people in the right moment instead of relying too much on the data.
Retail media (platforms that allow retailers to sell ads to brands) will be expanding. Now, the stat is one in five dollars will be spent in retail media globally and 20 per cent of the commerce ecosystem will be done online. So, it’s going to be more important to have a strong omnichannel approach and deliver a positive consumer experience.
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There’s also social commerce… There are so many influencers – there are 50 million creators globally. So how, as an agency, we’re able to harness that and power that at scale is crucial, and how we can partner with creators effectively. It’s changing a lot in media planning on that front. There is a real shift from curation to generation of content.
Television as well is changing a lot, from linear to connected TV. There is a streaming war at the moment, so we need to create new standards, overcome walled gardens (where the platform provider controls the content and data) and figure out measurement.
And obviously automation will play a bigger role. The way I see it is (artificial intelligence) will bring more value to what we do to bring smarter, faster and more effective work. For me, it’s not just about AI itself. It’s more about connected intelligence with the human at the centre of it. So, it’s how we can use the tool to amplify what we are doing.
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