Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Active versus passive social media use

Active versus passive social media use:
How do different patterns of social media engagement influence emotions and psychological wellbeing?

Overview

Imagine this... It is 2 am and Emma has just realised that she has spent the whole day doom-scrolling, not even talking to a single person. She consumes, consumes and consumes ((ic|Use APA style - serial commas}} social media until there is nothing left to be consumed. She's too scared to post her own content, comment, like and share anything. Emma is a passive social media user. However, Emma's best friend Sarah is an influencer that lives and breathes social media. She posts all day and engages with every single piece of content she sees. Liking, commenting and reposting. Sarah is an active social media user. Are you more of an Emma or a Sarah?📱

Explanation of the problem, issue, or topic:

Social media usage is increasing, often referred to as just another part of 'modern life'. (Verduyn et al. 2021) . On average, people spend more than two hours a day on social media sending billions of messages. (Verduyn et al. 2021). Although social media usage has it's benefits, including it's ability to 'form and maintain relationships' (Godard & Holtzman, 2024), the negative effects are apparent. Khalaf et al. (2023) explains that even browsing social media content is linked to increase in risk of 'self-harm, loneliness, and empathy loss'. Moreover, the type of social media use is important, specifically: active versus passive social media use (SMU) and the effects on wellbeing. (Godard & Holtzman, 2024). However, Ang (2026) highlights the 'mixed findings' within SMU research and how there are inconsistencies within active versus passive SMU and happiness. This chapter synthesises psychological science about active versus passive social media use.

Focus questions... What is active versus passive social media use? How are emotions and psychological wellbeing affected by social media use? What types of social media use enhance wellbeing?

Recommended length: 180 to 330 words.

This template provides key headings, examples, and tips for each section. Gradually remove this generic information as the chapter develops. It is OK to retain some of the template material for the topic development, but it should all be removed for the final book chapter.

Key resources:

• Tutorial 02 explains about how to edit
• Topic development guidelines
• Book chapter guidelines

Headings

Use this heading structure:

• Overview
• 3 to 6 major headings tailored to the topic; can have sub-headings, but:
  • avoid having only one sub-heading
  • provide an introductory paragraph before breaking into sub-sections
• Conclusion
• See also
• References
• External links

Emotions and psychological wellbeing

heading example

Active versus passive social media use

What is active social media use?

heading example

What is passive social media use?

heading example

How do different patterns of engagement influence wellbeing?

heading example

Figures

• Use figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
• Figures can show photos, diagrams, graphs, video, audio, etc.
• Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section
• Caption figures (use Figure #. and explain the relevance of the image to the text)
• Images must be embedded from Wikimedia Commons
• Images can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons if they are openly licensed

  

  Figure 1. Social media users. (Almaty, 2018).

• Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2)

Learning features

Interactive learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter.

• Link to meta analysis on active vs passive social media use. (Godard & Holtzman, 2024).
• Link to case study on passive social media use among university students. (Wang et al. 2025).

Scenarios

• Scenarios, case studies, or examples describe concepts in action
• Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citations
• Can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages)
• Present using feature boxes

Feature boxes

• Highlight key content using feature boxes, but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect
• Consider using feature boxes for:
  • Scenarios, case studies, or examples
  • Focus questions
  • Tips
  • Quiz questions
  • Take-home messages

Embedded links

• When key words are introduced, use interwiki links to:
  • Wikipedia articles (e.g., "An early psychological view dreams) of dreams was provided by Sigmund Freud") or
  • Related book chapters (e.g., "If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about writer's block")

Tables

• Use to tables to organise and summarise information
• Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
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• More example tables which can be adapted

Table 1

A Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g.,

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other

	Known to self	Not known to self
Known to others	Open area	Blind spot
Not known to others	Hidden area	Unknown

Quizzes

• Using one or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end
• Quiz conceptual understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as take-home messages
• Ask easy rather than hard questions
• Different types of quiz questions are possible; see Quiz

Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click "Submit":

1

The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature:

	True
	False

2

Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:

	True
	False

Conclusion

• The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
• Draft clear take-home message(s), even at the topic development stage
• Together, the Overview and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing it
• Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

• Social media usage is increasing and affects overall wellbeing and quality of life. (Khalaf et al. 2023).
• Both active and passive social media use was linked to greater perceptions of online social support. (Godard & Holtzman, 2024)
• Active use was linked to increase in belongingess and co-rumination. (Underwood, 2024).
• Passive use was linked to likelihood for comparison among peers, anxiety and negative self-image. (Underwood, 2024).
• A lack of strongly related links between active vs passive SMU and wellbeing, oversimplification and inconsistencies mean that advancements to SM research should be made

Suggestions for this section: What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research? What are the answers to the focus questions? What are the practical, take-home messages?

See also

Provide internal (wiki) links to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related motivation and emotion book chapters) and Wikipedia articles. Use sentence casing and alphabetical order. For example:

• Collaborative authoring using wiki (Wikiversity)
• Light triad (Book chapter, 2021)
• Self determination theory (Wikipedia)

• WikiJournal Preprints/Digital media use and mental health (Wikiversity).
• How psychological and interpersonal processes are influenced by human-computer interactions (Wikiversity).
• [[wikipedia:Social_media_and_psychology|Social media and psychology]. (Wikipedia)

Suggestions for this section: Only select links to major internal resources about the topic Include the source in parentheses

References

Ang, C. S. (2026). Passive scrolling, active comparing: how social media use behaviours shape happiness through social comparison. Behaviour & Information Technology, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2026.2654493

He, Z., Liu, J., Zhang, Y., Liu, R., Wang, P., Deng, A., Yang, D., & Chen, Y. (2026). Active and passive social media use associated with different daily affects: A daily diary study, Personality and Individual Differences, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2026.113714.

Meier, A., & Krause, H.-V. (2023). Does Passive Social Media Use Harm Well-Being?: An Adversarial Review. Journal of Media Psychology, 35(3), 169–180. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000358

Roberts, J. A., & David, M. E. (2023). On the outside looking in: Social media intensity, social connection, and user well-being: The moderating role of passive social media use. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 55(3), 240–252. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000323

Seidman, G, Hudak, L. M., & Langlais, M. (2025). Motivations for Active and Passive Social Media Use and Their Relation to Wellbeing, Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1155/hbe2/8812526

Underwood, L. (2024). Difference Between the Impact of Active Social Media Use and Passive Social Media Use on Adolescent Mental Health: An Expanded Literature Review. University of Arkansas. https://scholarworks.uark.edu/nursuht/211/

Verduyn P., Gugushvili N., & Kross E. (2021) The impact of social network sites on mental health: distinguishing active from passive use. World Psychiatry. (1):133-134. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wps.20820

Wang, L., Li, S., Liu, Y and Cheng, L. (2025). Passive social media use and depression among college students during public health emergencies: a chain mediation approach. Front. Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1627637

Suggestions for this section: Wrap the set of references in the hanging indent template: Use "Edit source" {{Hanging indent|1= the full list of references}} Important aspects of APA referencing style Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces Year of publication in parentheses Title of work in lower case (except first letter and proper names), ending in a full-stop Journal title in italics, volume number in italics, issue number in parentheses, first and last page numbers separated by an en-dash(–), followed by a full-stop doi as a URL which is a working hyperlink (i.e., clickable) The most common mistakes include: Incorrect capitalisation Incorrect italicisation dois which aren't clickable as working hyperlinks Citing sources that haven't been consulted

External links

Provide external links to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use sentence casing and alphabetical order. For example:

• Six top tips for writing a great essay (University of Melbourne)
• The importance of structure (skillsyouneed.com)

Brigham Young University video highlights social media positive effects for young people. (BYU, 2019).

Distinguishing active from passive use of social media. (Verduyn et al., 2021).

Suggestions for this section: Only select links to major external resources about the topic Include the source in parentheses after the link