Social Media Use and Psychological Well-Being: Exploring Passive vs. Active Engagement Among Adults Aged 25–44

This study investigated how different patterns of social media engagement; passive, active-social, and active non-social, relate to psychological well-being among mid-adults aged 25 to 44, and whether these relationships vary depending on individuals’ levels of Social Comparison Orientation (SCO). A cross-sectional survey approach was used, in which participants responded to established self-report instruments assessing their social media engagement styles, psychological well-being, and SCO. Correlations and multiple regressions were run to test six hypotheses concerning the direct and moderated relationships between engagement styles and well-being.Results revealed that none of the social media engagement types significantly predicted psychological well-being, contrary to several prior studies. Passive use did not predict lower well-being, and neither active-social nor active non-social use showed meaningful effects. However, a significant inverse relationship emerged between SCO and psychological well-being, and this relationship was not moderated by engagement type.These findings suggest that individual psychological traits like SCO may have a broader and more consistent influence on digital well-being than specific behavioural patterns of use. The results also point to the complexity of digital engagement and the necessity of going beyond narrow assumptions about screen time or engagement type.Keywords: social media engagement, psychological well-being, social comparison orientation