Understanding the influence of social media on people’s life satisfaction through two competing explanatory mechanisms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how social media usage affects people’s life satisfaction through two competing explanatory mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was conducted to collect data. And the partial least squares method was used to examine the relationships among the usage of social media, social benefit, social overload and life satisfaction. Findings – The results indicate that usage of social media can make people achieve social benefit, thus leading to enhanced life satisfaction. Unexpectedly, though usage of social media can bring the negative consequences (e.g. social overload), social overload cannot predict a decreased life satisfaction. Originality/value – Concentrating on the outcomes of social aspects by using social media, this study proposes the double-sided role of social media instead of single effect.