The relationship between usage of social networking sites and meaning in life: Anonymous versus identifiable contexts

Social networking sites (SNSs) allow people to choose how they want to engage with others. Some behaviours are more associated with aspects of well-being (i.e., meaning in life) than others. Online environments also afford people the opportunity to interact with other people at varying levels of anonymity and identifiability, which could further impact well-being. However, whether people use SNSs differently when they are anonymous versus identifiable – and how this relates to their meaning in life – has not been investigated. To test this, we sampled 192 participants (Mage = 19.72) to investigate differences in how people use and post on SNSs while anonymous and identifiable. Furthermore, we assessed how these behaviours were associated with meaning in life. We found that: (1) People were most likely to use SNSs passively across anonymous and identifiable environments. (2) People were most likely to post about life updates/social activities in identifiable environments, and intellectual or negative topics in anonymous environments. (3) Passive usage was negatively associated with meaning in life in identifiable environments. (4) Active-targeted usage (behaviours that are directed towards a specific person or a small group) and posting about life updates/social activities were positively associated with meaning in life, but only in identifiable environments. We demonstrate that meaning in life is related to how people use SNSs, but also the specific online environments they seek out.