Prolonged social media use is not fundamentally problematic in a Hungarian representative study

Abstract Excessive time spent using social media is often considered a core characteristic of technology-related addictions; however, there is growing evidence that prolonged use may be only weakly associated with symptoms of problematic use. Studies on the divergent associations of psychological factors with prolonged and problematic social media use are still scarce, particularly in adult, representative samples. Based on self-report data, this study aims to address this gap by investigating possible divergent associations of prolonged and problematic social media use among active and passive use, and indicators of psychological distress in a nationally representative sample of adults. A hybrid data collection procedure was employed, including offline and online panelists. The sample comprised 807 Hungarian adults (53.41% women, M age = 46.61 years, SD = 16.58). A structural equation model (SEM) was constructed. Both active and passive use predicted more time spent on social media, while problematic social media use symptom severity was predicted by active use, social comparison, and psychological distress. The explanatory power of these factors was notable in problematic social media use (58%) and modest for time spent on social media (16%). These findings provide further evidence that prolonged and problematic social media use may be different in their qualitative characteristics.