The relationship between social short-form videos and youth’s well-being: It depends on usage types and content categories.

Abstract

Social short-form video platforms, a new form of social networking sites, are popular among youth. However, the influence of social networking sites on individuals' subjective well-being remains unrevealed. By using objective measures among Chinese youth, the present study (N = 1,254) sought to investigate the relationship between different types of usage (i.e., passive use and active use of social short-form video platforms), different types of video content, and 2 outcome variables: affective well-being and cognitive well-being. The results revealed that watching videos (passive use) predicted reduced life satisfaction and reduced positive affect after controlling for age and gender, whereas posting online (active use) predicted enhanced life satisfaction. In contrast to Entertainment/Relaxation themed videos, watching People/Fashion themed videos predicted reduced life satisfaction. Additionally, our analysis showed that Chinese adolescents and young adults differed in social short-form video use. Compared with young adults, adolescents spent more time watching short-form videos and preferred Entertainment/Relaxation ones. They also gave more "likes" yet posted less often. These findings suggest that whether social short-form videos undermine or enhance subjective well-being is dependent on the video content people watch (e.g., Entertainment/Relaxation vs. People/Fashion) and the way they use the platform (i.e., active use vs. passive use). Public Policy Relevance Statement Social short-form video platforms, a new form of social networking sites (SNSs), have distinctive features from other SNSs such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This study suggested that time spent on watching social short-form videos predicted reduced life satisfaction and lower positive affect, whereas posting online predicted enhanced life satisfaction. Moreover, adolescents spent more time on this new form of SNSs than young adults in China.