Types of social media behaviors, including active or passive social media use, may have an influence on mental health outcomes (Aalbers et al., 2019; Verduyn et al., 2015). The impact of social media use may be particularly relevant to risk factors for suicide, such as thwarted belongingness, and forming social connections. The present study sought evaluate the impact of social media use on thwarted belongingness (TB) and desire to affiliate (DA) following a social exclusion task. One hundred forty-three participants (Mage = 19.32, SD = 1.20, 81.1% Female, 71.3% White/Caucasian, 99.3% Single/Never married, 79.7% Heterosexual) completed a series of baseline measures assessing mental health indices, affect, TB and DA followed by engaging in a social exclusion task. After completing the social exclusion task, participants were assigned to one of three conditions: an active social media use condition, a passive social media use condition, and a control condition. The researchers predicted that following the social exclusion task, all participants would experience a decrease in TB and an increase in DA. After the social media manipulation, we hypothesized that participants in the active social media condition would experience decreased TB and increased DA when compared to participants in the other conditions. In the passive condition, we predicted that participants would report increased TB and increased DA when compared to participants in the other conditions. Four hierarchal linear models were utilized to examine hypotheses controlling for demographic variables, baseline depressive symptoms, positive and negative affect, and reasons for social media use. Results did not indicate a significant effect of the social exclusion task on either TB or DA. Similarly, results did not demonstrate an effect of passive or active social media use on levels of TB or DA. Findings provide support that social media behavior does not have as great an impact as in-person interactions and may be heavily influenced by within-person factors.
