Earlier research finds social comparison and envy to be common on social media and linked to lower well-being; newer studies contradict this conclusion, finding positive links to well-being as well as heterogeneous, person-specific, effects

Meier, Adrian, and Benjamin K. Johnson. 2021. “Social Comparison and Envy on Social Media: A Critical Review.” PsyArXiv. November 15. doi:10.31234/osf.io/93ftm

Abstract: Popular concern and much research assumes that (passive) social media use decreases well-being by providing a fertile ground for harmful (upward) social comparison and envy. The present review critically summarizes empirical evidence on this assumption. We first comprehensively synthesize existing studies, with a focus on the most recent publications (2019 to 2021). Results show that earlier research finds social comparison and envy to be common on social media and linked to lower well-being. Yet, increasingly, newer studies contradict this conclusion, finding positive links to well-being as well as heterogeneous, person-specific, conditional, and reverse or reciprocal effects. The review further identifies four critical conceptual and methodological limitations of existing studies, which offer new impulses for future research.