Social media usage, materialism and psychological well-being among immigrant consumers

Abstract

The acculturation process of adjusting to life in North America comes with challenges and often leads to culture shock. To promote subjective well-being, immigrants with an ingroup (vs outgroup) orientation may cling tightly to their original culture (integrate with the mainstream). Both paths can be facilitated by social media usage, and through reference group influence, both may foster materialism. Leveraging psychological theories connected to self-concept, we examine how minorities’ subjective well-being and materialism are indirectly (through social media usage) and directly related to ethnic identity, acculturation to mainstream society, identification with global consumer culture (IDGCC), and cosmopolitanism, using a sample drawn from two immigrant communities. While ethnic identity and acculturation did not foster social media usage, cosmopolitanism, and identification with GCC did. Materialism, which was encouraged by IDGCC, was negatively linked to subjective well-being. Social media usage did not exacerbate materialism, and it was independent of subjective well-being.