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Social Media

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Evolutionary mismatch; Social belonging; Social media; Social monitoring; Well-being

Definition

The evolutionary perspective argues evolutionary mismatch, well-being, social belonging, social monitoring that social media exploits people’s evolved psychological mechanisms for social belonging and monitoring, thus explaining why people continue to use social media widely despite its potential harmful effects.

Introduction

Social media broadly refers to platforms that allow for the production and sharing of content online, which include collaborative projects (e.g., Wikipedia), weblogs (e.g., YouTube), and social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Instagram). On the one hand, social media can facilitate the expansion and maintenance of social networks, thereby bringing about improved psychological well-being and life satisfaction (Kim and Lee 2011; Valenzuela et al. 2009) as well as reduced stress via perceived social support (Nabi et al. 2013). On the other hand, a host of...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Murdoch University, Singapore, Singapore

    Amy Jia Ying Lim

  2. National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Jose C. Yong

Authors
  1. Amy Jia Ying Lim
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  2. Jose C. Yong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jose C. Yong .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

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Lim, A.J.Y., Yong, J.C. (2019). Social Media. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3847-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3847-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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