UDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE WITH SOCIAL COMPARISON, LIFE SATISFACTION AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AMONG YOUNG ADULTS

Abstract

The use of social media has become an inevitable part and parcel of our daily living. The current research was aimed to study the association between social media use, social comparison, and life satisfaction with emotional intelligence as moderating variable. The data was collected from 347 individuals (n=89 Males, n=258 Females) with the age ranging from 16-35 years using the Survey Method with Purposive Sampling Technique. This research was completed in 6 months i.e., from July 2020 to Dec 2020. Data was collected through Self-Report Measures (The Electronic Interaction Scale for Time α= 0.75;Social Comparison Scaleα= 0.85, Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Testα=0.89 ; Satisfaction with Life Scaleα=0.78). In this study we first screened the participants for social media use through “The electronic interaction scale for time (EIST)”. It was assumed that higher scores on EIST would be related to higher social media use. Then we addressed the question involving the relationship between social media use and the resultant self evaluations. We observed an inverse relationship between social media usage and life satisfaction and the same inverse relationship between upward social comparison and emotional intelligence. Similarly, a significant positive relationship between downward social comparison and Emotional Intelligence was also observed. Moreover, emotional intelligence did not moderate the relationship between social comparison and life satisfaction. Present findings further suggested that males and females differ in social media usage.