Social media use, social displacement, and well-being

Abstract

Social displacement is the proposition that time spent on social media replaces time spent in face-to-face interaction, particularly with close friends and family, thus reducing well-being. There is clear evidence of growing mobile and social media use, and some evidence of a decline in face-to-face communication. This essay concludes, however, there is very little direct or causal evidence of social media time displacing face-to-face time. This article concludes that increasing social media use most likely displaces other media activities. To explain findings that seem to support social displacement, this essay examines the difference between population-level trends and within-individual behavior, and the difference between within-person and between-person displacement.

Keywords: Face-to-face communication; Internet; Social displacement; Social media use; TV; Well-being.