The influence of SNS usage, social comparison, and self-esteem on social media addiction

Social media has evolved to play an important role in our daily lives. Excessive forms of social media use are commonly referred to as social media addiction. Past research placed particular emphasis on the role of social networking site (SNS) usage, social comparison, and self-esteem. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how these concepts interact with each other and influence social media addiction. Thus, this study aimed at generating new insights by examining the relationships between SNS usage, social comparison, and self-esteem, as well as their impact on social media addiction. This was achieved by the means of a cross-sectional correlation design. Most of the participants identified as female and were students. Moreover, structural equation modelling was used to evaluate the hypotheses. The results showed that social media addiction was negatively associated with self-esteem and positively associated with active SNS usage. Moreover, self-esteem was negatively associated with upward social comparison. This suggests that active SNS usage acts as a promotive factor whereas self-esteem acts as a protective factor for social media addiction. This research built on the work of previous scholars and helped expand the current understanding of social media addiction and determine possible promotive and protective factors.