Passive Facebook Use, Social Comparison, and Depressive Symptoms in Emerging Adults: A 12-Week Ecological Momentary Assessment Study With Daily Facebook Log Capture

This study investigates within-person associations between passive Facebook use, upward social comparison, and depressive symptoms in emerging adults using 12-week EMA with objective Facebook log data within the context of clinical psychology and digital health, an area of growing scientific importance given its implications for social media design intervention for reduced passive scrolling, CBT digital supplement for social comparison, and EMA methodology for passive-use digital phenotyping. Using 12-week EMA study with 3 daily EMA prompts (morning/afternoon/evening) for passive Facebook use (minutes), upward social comparison (1-5 scale), and CESD-10 depressive symptoms; objective Facebook log minutes from downloaded data; multilevel modeling (MLM) with within- and between-person effects, we examine passive Facebook use exposing users to curated highlight-reel content triggering upward social comparison (comparing self unfavorably to others) which activates negative self-evaluation and rumination increasing depressive symptom severity; active Facebook use (messaging, posting) showing no such association due to reciprocal positive social exchange in 248 undergraduates (age 18-24, 62% female), 12 weeks, 3 EMA prompts/day = maximum 2,016 prompts/person; 74.8% EMA completion rate; 6-week and 12-week assessments with full CESD-20 drawn from Pacific Social Behavior Lab with Qualtrics EMA via SMS at 3 randomized daily times; Facebook data download via Settings > Your Facebook Information > Download Your Information (JSON format). Results indicate that within-person passive FB minutes predicts same-day negative affect (beta=0.18, p<0.001) and CESD-10 (beta=0.12, p<0.001) after controlling for active use; 48.4% mediated by upward social comparison; between-person: top quartile FB users have CESD-20 2.4 points higher than bottom quartile at 12 weeks (p < 0.001), with within-person beta=0.18; 48.4% social comparison mediation; CESD +2.4 points top vs. bottom quartile as the primary quantitative benchmark. Concordance between primary and confirmatory measurement approaches exceeded 93%, validating the analytical framework. These findings contribute empirically to clinical psychology and digital health and carry actionable implications for the design of programs and policies targeting social media design intervention for reduced passive scrolling, CBT digital supplement for social comparison, and EMA methodology for passive-use digital phenotyping.