Social media burnout and social anxiety as antecedents of discontinuous usage in the stressor-strain-outcome framework

Abstract

This study aims to examine the structural relationships between problematic social media use (PSMU), social anxiety on social networking sites (SNSs), social media burnout (SMB), and discontinuous use from a stress-strain-outcome (SSO) framework. The research sample is 715 college students in T & uuml;rkiye (58.5% female, Mage: 21.71). Based on the SSO framework, PSMU and users' social anxiety on SNSs were identified as stressors. In response to these stressors, users' experience of SMB was determined as strain. As a result of this strain, users' discontinuous use of SNSs was identified as the outcome. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that SMB mediated the negative effect of PSMU on discontinuous use. The mediating effect of SMB was moderated by users' social anxiety on SNSs. Users' social anxiety on SNSs had a buffering moderating effect on the relationship between PSMU and discontinuous use. The moderating effect of users' social anxiety on SNSs was significant in the positive relationship between SMB and discontinuous use. SMB was positively correlated with both PSMU and discontinuous use. Similarly, self-evaluation anxiety and shared content anxiety were positively correlated with both PSMU and discontinuous use. These findings provide empirical evidence for the relatively new SMB paradox literature and extend the paradox of social anxiety phenomenon, which reveals contradictions in the face-to-face socialization process, to social media. The results demonstrate complex relationships between the antecedents of discontinuous use from the SSO framework.