TY - GEN
T1 - Do Social Media Simultaneously Contribute to Well-Being and Use Disorder? Empirical Evidence and Design Challenges
AU - Supti, Tourjana Islam
AU - Yankouskaya, Ala
AU - Alshakhsi, Sameha
AU - Babiker, Areej
AU - Al-Thani, Dena
AU - Ali, Raian
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.
PY - 2025/5/16
Y1 - 2025/5/16
N2 - Social media has played a significant role in enhancing social well-being (SWB) across its five dimensions: integration, acceptance, contribution, actualization, and sense of coherence. However, research has shown that certain usage patterns and relationships with social media can lead to what is termed Social Media Disorder (SMD), a non-clinical term describing a compulsive, excessive, and obsessive relationship with social media that causes harm to individuals, their social circles, and society as a whole. This study examined how participants from the UK and the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region perceived the contribution of social media to the five dimensions of SWB and its role in fostering SMD. A cross-sectional survey of 563 participants (255 from the UK, 308 from the GCC) revealed differences between the two populations in their perceptions of social media as both an enabler of SWB and a facilitator of tendencies toward SMD. Additionally, the findings showed a clear intersection between these dual roles, hence posing major design challenges. This research calls for a shift in social media design to enhance SWB without triggering or facilitating SMD. It emphasizes the complexity of achieving this balance and advocates for novel human-computer interaction features and modalities to address the issue.
AB - Social media has played a significant role in enhancing social well-being (SWB) across its five dimensions: integration, acceptance, contribution, actualization, and sense of coherence. However, research has shown that certain usage patterns and relationships with social media can lead to what is termed Social Media Disorder (SMD), a non-clinical term describing a compulsive, excessive, and obsessive relationship with social media that causes harm to individuals, their social circles, and society as a whole. This study examined how participants from the UK and the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region perceived the contribution of social media to the five dimensions of SWB and its role in fostering SMD. A cross-sectional survey of 563 participants (255 from the UK, 308 from the GCC) revealed differences between the two populations in their perceptions of social media as both an enabler of SWB and a facilitator of tendencies toward SMD. Additionally, the findings showed a clear intersection between these dual roles, hence posing major design challenges. This research calls for a shift in social media design to enhance SWB without triggering or facilitating SMD. It emphasizes the complexity of achieving this balance and advocates for novel human-computer interaction features and modalities to address the issue.
KW - Human-centered design
KW - Social media
KW - Social media disorder
KW - Social well-being
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105006409719
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-92474-3_21
DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-92474-3_21
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:105006409719
SN - 9783031924736
VL - 547
T3 - Lecture Notes In Business Information Processing
SP - 347
EP - 361
BT - Research Challenges In Information Science, Rcis 2025, Pt I
A2 - Grabis, J
A2 - Vos, TEJ
A2 - Escalona, MJ
A2 - Pastor, O
PB - Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
T2 - 19th International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science, RCIS 2025
Y2 - 20 May 2025 through 23 May 2025
ER -