Online Reputation and Stress: Discovering the Dark Side of Social Media

Abstract

The research on social media has mostly focused on its utilitarian aspects for both businesses and individuals. With growing embedment of social media in our individual affairs, it is important to study its negative impact on its users. This study provides an important perspective by studying social media user’s concern for online reputation and its relationship with stress which is moderated by social media dependency. This study was conducted on university students in India on a sample size of 350. Using Structural Equation Modeling, the relationship between ‘concern for online reputation’ and ‘social media stress’ was tested which revealed there is a positive relationship between the two variables. The results also suggest positive moderating role played by social media dependency in the relationship between ‘concern for online reputation’ and ‘social media stress’. This study has important implication for sociologist, psychiatrists and psychologists who will be keen to study this domain. Since this study was conducted on university students, it also has implications for parents and guardians who want to keep a check on their wards to prevent them from stress caused by social media usage.