1. Social Media Use and Self-Control Mindi Price1 and Lauren E. Brewer, Ph.D.2 1Texas Tech University, 2Stephen F. Austin State University
Facebook is the most popular internet site with over 1.39 billion active users ("Facebook Newsroom," 2014). Students report spending more time on social media websites and apps than they spend studying (Huang & Capps, 2013) and that this negatively affects their grades (Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010). What causes students to engage in social media usage at a sacrifice to their academic pursuits?
Introduction
Method
Procedure
13 item short form of the Trait Self-Control Scale (Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004), which measured participants’ trait self-regulatory capacities. Questions were answered on a 1 (not at all like me) to 5 (very much like me) scale, and included items such as “I am able to work effectively toward long-term goals” and “Sometimes I can’t stop myself from doing something, even if I know it’s wrong” (reverse coded).
Participants also were asked how much time in minutes they spent on each of several social media sites on a typical day. Specifically, we asked participants how much time they spent on the following sites:
Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Skype, Snapchat, Tumblr, Twitter, Vine, and YouTube
75% or more of our sample identified these sites as being social media sites (and not some other type of internet site)
50% or more of our sample had indicated that they had used these sites at least once
Method
Discussion
We posit that people with low levels of self-control lack the ability to disengage from social media. Perhaps these people are
not aware of how much time they are spending on these sites (The range of participants time estimates ranged from overestimating their SMS time by 3 hours to underestimating their time by 5 hours and 5 minutes. The average person underestimated their time by 12 minutes)
lack the ability to step away from the computer or put down the mobile device
Future research should address the directional nature of the relationship between trait self-control and social media usage.
Discussion
Hypotheses
We posited that trait self-regulation would be negatively correlated with time spent on social media. Specifically, we predicted that students with low trait self-control would report spending more time on social media per day. 
Hypotheses
Results
Results
Trait self-control was significantly negatively correlated with participants’ own estimates of their time on social media during a typical day (r= -.28, p= .01)
 In other words, students who reported spending more time on social media sites had lower trait levels of self-control
Trait self-control also negatively correlated with time spent on Tumblr (r= -.21, p= .05) and Snapchat (r=-.24, p=.03) but it did not correlate with time spent on any of the other social media sites
Trait self-control did not correlate with the sum of the amounts of time spent on each website (r= -.15, p=.17), but it did correlate participants’ estimates of their total social media usage (which did not always equal the sum of the time spent on each of the social media sites about which we asked)
References
Facebook newsroom. (2014, December 31). Retrieved from
Huang, S., & Capps, M. (2013). Impact of online social network on American college students' reading practices. College Quarterly, Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology, 16(1), Retrieved from
Janssen, L., Fennis, B. M., Pruyn, A. Th. H., & Vohs, K. D. (2008). The path of least resistance: Regulatory resource depletion and the effectiveness of social influence techniques. Journal of Business Research, 61(10),
Kirschner, P., & Karpinski, A. (2010). Facebook and academic performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 26, Retrieved from and academic performance.pdf
Mayer, J. D., & Gaschke, Y. N.(1988). The experience and meta-experience of mood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55,
Tangney, J.P., Baumeister, R.F., & Boone, A.L. (2004). High Self-Control Predicts Good Adjustment, Less Pathology, Better Grades, and Interpersonal Success. Journal of Personality, 72,
References
Total Time Spent on Social Media
Method
Participants
86 participants from the College of Idaho (age range 18-27, 57% Female). Participants were compensated with class credit
Materials
13 item short form of the Trait Self-Control Scale (Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004)
Mindi Price
alquistlab.weebly.com
Lauren E. Brewer, Ph.D.
laurenebrewer.com
Trait Self-Control
Data collected at the College of Idaho