微信青年用户的社会比较活动与社交媒体倦怠研究

A Research on Young WeChat Users’Social Comparisons and Social Media Fatigue

在社交媒体倦怠研究中,社会比较是一个偶尔被提及,仍有待充分探讨的倦怠成因。以微信为研究场景,以深度访谈为研究方法,深入考察青年用户在朋友圈中开展的社会比较活动,探究社会比较的实际运作及其与社交媒体倦怠的关系。研究发现,社会比较普遍存在于访谈参与者日常的朋友圈浏览、朋友圈发布中。社会比较作为认知心理机制在参与者“刷圈”时快速启动,而参与者“发圈”背后是受动机驱动的选择性社会比较过程。参与者的社会比较活动可能通过两种不同路径引发社交媒体倦怠,而多数参与者经历社交媒体倦怠却难以放弃使用。长时段内社会比较和社交媒体倦怠对用户心理健康的影响值得后续研究关注。

As an antecedent to social media fatigue,social comparison has been rarely mentioned,and it needs further exploration.In the context of WeChat,using in-depth interview as the method,this study explored how young users compared themselves to others in Moments and examined the relationship between social comparisons in Moments and social media fatigue.The results showed that social comparisons existed in participants’daily use of Moments.Specifically,social comparisons are activated immediately as the cognitive psychology mechanism when participants read contents in Moments.When participants post contents in Moments,they are motivated to compare themselves to others selectively.Social comparisons in WeChat Moments may lead to social media fatigue in two different ways.As most participants rarely quit the social media when they experience social media fatigue,subsequent research should pay attention to the impacts of social comparison and social media fatigue on users’mental health in a relatively long period of time.