Social Media Addiction and Life Satisfaction among University Students: A Mediating Role of Offline Social Connectedness

Abstract

The current study examined the mediating role of offline social connectedness in relation to social media addiction and life satisfaction among university student. The design of the study is cross-sectional correlation design, and data were collected from 363 participants in university of Gujrat through convenient sampling. Three different measures were used to evaluate the study variables i.e., social media addiction, offline social connectedness and life satisfaction. The results of the study revealed that all the three variables are significantly correlated with each other, moreover, path analysis indicated that social media addiction significantly predicted offline social connectedness, and offline social connectedness positively predict life satisfaction. The results indicate that while serious social media use may affect student’s connectedness, it is the quality of offline social connections that actually contributes the most to life satisfaction. The study is based on the news that engaging in quality face-to-face friendships and being intentional with social media engagement will contribute to students’ well-being overall.