Appearance is power: How different types of social media use affect appearance anxiety

Previous research on social media use has predominantly treated all users as homogeneous, potentially overemphasizing the severity of issues like appearance anxiety. This study conducted a survey of 461 college students, and adopted objective indicators such as the number of friends and use time to classify social media user groups into a high-frequency normal group, a low-frequency normal group, and an unusual group. The mediating role of objectification was used to explain the relationship between social media use and appearance anxiety. Results showed: (1) High-frequency social media use significantly influenced appearance anxiety, with stronger effects in the unusual group; (2) The unusual group showed significantly higher levels of appearance anxiety and objectification compared to the high- and low-frequency normal groups, with objectification partially mediating the impact of social media use on appearance anxiety in the unusual group. This study clarifies the negative effects of normal and unusual social media use patterns on appearance anxiety, offering new insights for future research.