The combined well-being effects of social media activities: how self-affirmation can buffer against upward social comparisons on Instagram

Abstract Social media activities do not occur in isolation, and it is possible that the well-being effects of an initial activity modify the effects of a subsequent one. This article examines this possibility by focusing on a specific, theoretically grounded sequence of social media activities: engaging with one’s own profile self-presentation (i.e., a self-affirmational activity) followed by browsing a superior peer’s profile (i.e., an activity eliciting upward social comparison). Two pre-registered experiments were conducted. Study 1 confirmed that both reviewing and crafting one’s own Instagram self-presentation provided self-affirmational benefits, reducing participants’ defensiveness and inducing positive affect. Study 2 showed that becoming self-affirmed by engaging with one’s own Instagram self-presentation diminished feelings of envy resulting from browsing a superior peer’s self-presentation. By conceptualizing and empirically testing the interdependence of social media activities, this research offers a framework for examining how sequences of social media activities jointly shape users’ psychological experiences.