Review: Social Media, Aggressive Social Networking, and Psychological Well-being in Adolescents and Young Adults

Abstract

Despite the general expectation for positive effects of broader and more extensive social interactions on psychological conditions, existing studies of online social networking and psychological well-being have reported inconsistent, even contradictory, findings. This study joins recent scholarly efforts to resolve this stalemate by exploring intervening mechanisms existing between online social networking and psychological outcomes. First, this study reviews possible mediatory mechanisms between online social media use and psychological well-being. Further, it explores another potentially intervening factor concerning the group dynamics characteristics of virtual spaces: online aggressive networking. It is inferred that the dynamics specific to aggressive social networking stems from two characteristic, but previously neglected aspects: i) the inherently selective nature of social networking and ii) the following norms intensified by online disinhibition effects from less-regulated, non-face-to-face virtual environments.