Beyond the Feature Level: A Cluster Analysis of Feature-Level Social Media Behaviour Patterns, Maladaptive Use, and Psychological Well-Being

Abstract

Maladaptive use of smartphones and social media is a growing issue that has received considerable attention from researchers both to map out its psychological and behavioural processes, and to develop interventions to help users regulate their use at either the device or app level. However, heterogeneous findings about the relationships between maladaptive use, mental health conditions, well-being, and patterns of smartphone use suggest the need for more nuanced examinations of feature-level usage patterns. In this study, we administered psychological self-report scales to 108 Instagram users, and tracked their use of the app for two weeks at the feature level. We found that participants overwhelmingly made use of content-consumption features and our cluster analysis revealed the existence of previously unidentified latent user groups with unique psychological and feature-use characteristics, calling into question the assumption that decreased use duration is necessarily associated with reduced maladaptive outcomes. Taken together, these findings suggest the need for a user profile-aware approach to studying maladaptive smartphone and social media use, as well as the need to investigate interventions that target outcomes beyond use-limiting.