PSYC2210 treats social media not as a vague cultural concern but as a genuine object of psychological research — examining what the actual evidence shows about its effects, which is often more nuanced than popular media narratives suggest.
Social media, identity, and social comparison
PSYC2210 examines how social media platforms shape identity presentation and self-concept, applying social comparison theory to understand why curated, idealized content from others can affect viewers' self-esteem and life satisfaction, while also examining research on the more complex, sometimes positive effects of online community and identity exploration, especially for marginalized groups.
Mental health effects and the nuance behind the headlines
The course critically examines research on social media's relationship to anxiety, depression, and sleep disruption, teaching students that the actual research finds a more complicated picture than "social media is simply bad for mental health" — effects vary by usage pattern (active vs. passive use), individual vulnerability factors, and platform design features, rather than being uniform across all users and all types of use.
Key topics in PSYC2210
- Social comparison theory applied to curated social media content
- Identity presentation and exploration in online spaces
- Research on social media use and mental health: anxiety, depression, sleep
- Active vs. passive social media use and differing psychological effects
- Platform design features (infinite scroll, notifications) and behavioral psychology
- Critically evaluating popular media narratives against actual research evidence
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Worked example: active vs. passive social media use effects
- Passive use: Scrolling through others' posts without interacting — research links this pattern more consistently to negative mood and increased social comparison
- Active use: Directly messaging friends, posting original content, and engaging in genuine two-way interaction — research links this pattern to more neutral or even positive social connection outcomes
- Implication: Blanket statements like "social media causes depression" oversimplify a more nuanced finding: how someone uses these platforms matters as much as how much time they spend on them
- Lesson: Good psychological science requires this kind of nuanced, evidence-based analysis rather than a simple universal verdict
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Frequently asked questions
Social comparison theory, developed by Leon Festinger, holds that people have an innate drive to evaluate themselves by comparing their own abilities, achievements, and circumstances to others, particularly when objective standards aren't available — upward comparisons (comparing oneself to someone perceived as better off) can motivate self-improvement but can also produce feelings of inadequacy, while downward comparisons (comparing to someone worse off) can boost self-esteem. PSYC2210 applies this theory to social media because these platforms present an almost constant stream of curated, often idealized content from others — vacation photos, career achievements, physical appearance — creating frequent opportunities for upward social comparison that research links to increased feelings of inadequacy, envy, and reduced life satisfaction, particularly when the comparison target's content is perceived as an authentic, unfiltered representation of their actual life rather than a curated highlight reel.
Simply measuring total time spent on social media treats fundamentally different behaviors — actively messaging a close friend, versus passively scrolling through strangers' posts without any interaction — as if they were the same activity, when research increasingly shows these different usage patterns have meaningfully different psychological effects. PSYC2210 emphasizes this distinction because studies that only measure total screen time often produce inconsistent or weak findings about mental health effects, while studies that distinguish active use (genuine social interaction, content creation) from passive use (consumption without interaction, especially of others' curated highlight-reel content) tend to find more consistent patterns — passive use showing a stronger association with negative mood and social comparison effects, and active, genuinely interactive use showing more neutral or even positive associations with connection and wellbeing. This nuance matters for both understanding the actual research evidence accurately and for thinking about what "healthy social media use" might actually mean, rather than treating all screen time as interchangeably harmful.