• Aston University’s Evelyn Murray led a study to explore the UK public’s perceptions of what constitutes social media and its harms and benefits
• ‘Social media’ is not a universally accepted term and Aston University research shows discrepancies in which platforms the public views as social media
• As policymakers and academics discuss potential harms and regulations for social media, the term needs a consistent definition and understanding.

Research from Aston University has shown that there is no clearly accepted definition for the term ‘social media’ by the public, or what websites and platforms are classified as such.

Psychological research into social media tends to focus on its potential impact on mental health and wellbeing. PhD researcher Evelyn Murray, Dr Charlotte Pennington (primary supervisor), Dr Daniel Shaw and Professor Michael Larkin from Aston University’s Department of Psychology wanted to understand what platforms the public considers to be social media, their views on common negative and positive characteristics of social media, and how much they agreed with common definitions. They recruited almost 1,000 participants who were active on social media to determine their views.

‘Social media’ is broadly defined as an online platform to share digital media in a social capacity. Commonly accepted features of social media include social interaction, user-generated content, content sharing and exchange, and network and community building. Social media sites can include social networking sites, forums, blogs, social gaming, video sharing, and virtual worlds, and as technology advances, the definitions fail to capture the full picture.

As academics and policymakers discuss potential harms and regulations, particularly for young people, an agreed term becomes more important than ever. Confusion about what platforms constitute social media could lead to a misunderstanding about what should be supervised or regulated. For example, if a blanket ban on social media for under-16s included WhatsApp, classed by many as social media, this could affect communication between parents and children, many of whom use the platform.

Study participants preferred definitions that were easier to understand and more inclusive of platforms, rather than definitions that excluded platforms based on specific functions.

However, there was variation regarding what platforms the public considered as ‘social media’. The five most commonly identified social media platforms by participants across all ages were Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and Snapchat, but other websites in the study were not so commonly identified as social media, even though they met many definitions.

Roblox is an online gaming and game creation platform, in which users create online avatars to access more than 40m user-created games. Users can message and chat with other users, making its social aspect one of the most important. However, it is not commonly viewed as a social media platform. Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia, likewise has several commonly cited characteristics of social media, including user-generated content and public engagement, but again is not generally viewed as social media.

Murray also looked at the way social media is perceived by the public. Public discourse in the media can be quite polarised, whereas many participants expressed more balanced views, for example, recognising that social media can be both beneficial and harmful depending on how it is used.

Study participants agreed on several positive characteristics of social media, including being accessible and easy to use, entertaining, updating people on local issues and news, and allowing people to form and maintain relationships. However, they also agreed that social media is addictive, time-consuming, spreads misinformation, disrupts sleep, increases social comparison and leads to cyberbullying.

Murray said:

“I began by trying to determine ‘what is social media?’ and when I tried, I found massive discrepancy between definitions that left platforms being included or excluded based on subjective characteristics. I found it really frustrating that we use ‘social media’ as an all-encompassing term despite different functions and motivation for use.

“I hope this research encourages a more careful and precise use of the term ‘social media’ in both policy and academic work.”

Dr Pennington said:

“The effects of social media on young people’s mental health are central to current public debate and policy proposals, including bans for under-16s. However, our research shows that the term ‘social media’ itself is poorly understood. This matters because policies risk targeting an ill-defined concept, leading to overly broad or ineffective regulation that may not reflect real-world experiences of specific social media platforms and how they are used.”

To read the complete paper, ‘Exploring Public Perceptions of Social Media: A Preregistered Mixed-Methods Study’ in Psychology of Popular Media, visit https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000680.