Document Type
Report
Abstract
This study explores the effects of exposure to prosocial social media videos on anxiety. In this modern age of social media, many people have reported that their mental health is negatively influenced by social media. Many social media videos that millions of people are exposed to could contain hateful or dangerous content that can negatively impact a person’s mental state. Past research has not mentioned the effects of prosocial social media videos on anxiety, but related papers have been published. Prosocial behavior is behavior that is described as helpful, and positive, and promotes a welcoming social community. In related research, prosocial behavior in video games has shown an increase in prosocial behavior among the people consuming the content, but these research papers fail to mention the effect prosocial content can have on anxiety. In this study, The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scale has been used to measure anxiety pre- and post-social media consumption. There were three conditions in the present experiment: a prosocial content condition, a positive content condition, and a neutral content condition. Each condition describes the type of videos being consumed. Participant data were acquired through QuestionPro and analyzed by a one-way ANOVA and a factor analysis through SPSS. The results showed other positive or prosocial content did not significantly decrease anxiety. Anxiety was significantly decreased after watching any type of short-term social media content.
Disciplines
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Publication Date
5-2024
Language
English
Faculty Mentor of Honors Project
Jared Kenworthy
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Rocha Hernandez, Brianda P., "ANXIOUS SCROLLING: PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT IMPLICATIONS" (2024). 2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects. 34.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/honors_spring2024/34