Same SNSs, different psychological outcomes: How using types affect us under social comparison process moderated by personality traits?

As SNSs are playing increasingly important roles in people’s daily life, the effects of using SNS have been explored. This study tried to find out whether different SNS using types, namely passive SNS use, active public use and active private use have different effects on individuals’ life satisfaction, self-esteem and loneliness. Perceived social life was included in as the mediator between SNS using types and well-being and Big-Five personality traits were also included as the moderators of the correlation between SNS using types and perceived social life. 170 college students mainly from China mainland were recruited to finish an online questionnaire. The results failed to support the mediated moderation model proposed and perceived social life was not a significant mediator between different SNS using types and well-being. However, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness and emotional stability were found significantly moderated the correlations between certain SNS using types and well-beings, revealing the negative effect of active public use and the positive effect of passive SNS use under certain conditions. These results presented the complexity of the effects of using SNS on individuals. All rights reserved.