Well-being and problematic Facebook use Seydi Ahmet Satici a,⇑ , Recep Uysal b a Anadolu University, Educational Faculty, Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Eskisehir, Turkey b Yildiz Technical University, Educational Faculty, Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Istanbul, Turkey article info Article history: Keywords: Flourishing Life satisfaction Problematic Facebook use Subjective happiness Subjective vitality abstract Social networking sites are getting more widespread online communication forms all over the world. Especially adolescents and emerging adults use these sites to make connection, and share something. Although, Facebook is one of the most popular sites, research is still in nascent phase on the excessive use of Facebook. Hence, it is fundamental to determine potential predictors of overuse of Facebook. The present study investigated the relationship between well-being and problematic Facebook use. Participants were 311 university students [179 (58%) female, 132 (42%) male, M age = 20.86 years, SD = 1.61] who completed the questionnaire packet including the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (Andreassen, Torsheim, Brunborg, & Pallesen, 2012), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), the Subjective Vitality Scale (Ryan & Frederick, 1997), the Flourishing Scale (Diener et al., 2010), and the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999). A stepwise regression analyses was used with four independent variables (life satisfaction, subjective vitality, flourishing, and subjective happiness) to explain variance in problematic Facebook use. The results showed that life satisfaction, subjective vitality, flourishing, and subjective happiness were significant negative predictors of problematic Facebook use. The significance and limitations of the results are discussed. Ó 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction Individuals are spending much more time on Social Network Sites (SNSs) in recent years and SNSs are getting more popular especially among college students. As internet-based services, SNSs allow users to construct a public or semi-public profile, to identify a list of other users with whom a connection is shared and to view individual connections as those made by others (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Facebook is one of the most popular SNSs, with over one billion users worldwide and 864 million daily active users on average (Andreassen & Pallesen, 2013; Facebook, 2014). Like other SNSs Facebook enable users to create o profile, to share personal information, to add contact information, to share photos, to chat ant to interact with others via soma features such as wall, like, poke, status and events (Nadkarni & Hoffman, 2012). According to its creators Facebook help users to stay con- nected with friends and family, to discover what is going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them (Facebook, 2014). Facebook made a big change in interpersonal communication and integrated with web sites and applications. Facebook users may view the other users’ profiles, join groups, like a page, play games, send messages to any other person and use wall function (Hew, 2011). Students have several motives for connecting Facebook such as passing time, sexual attraction, social connection, shared identities, social investigation, social network surfing, sta- tus updating, relationship maintenance, entertainment and infor- mation seeking (Foregger, 2008; Joinson, 2008; Sheldon, 2008). Students also may add links and song clips of their favorite bands, post messages on friends’ pages, and post and tag pictures and videos through Facebook (Zywica & Danowski, 2008). There has been a growing concern in studying the use and effects of Facebook. Some research advocates the use of Facebook and suggest that Facebook may have a positive effect on college students and may increase both teacher-student and student–stu- dent interaction (Munoz & Towner, 2009). Tosun (2012) claimed that Facebook serves to the gratification of many different personal and social needs. Facebook can help students to form and maintain social capital and to experience more life satisfaction and social trust which are closely related constructs with well-being (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007; Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009). Similarly, Johnston, Tanner, Lalla, and Kawalski (2013) reported a strong association between the intensity of Facebook use and perceived bridging, bonding and maintained social capital. Valkenburg, Peter, and Schouten (2006) indicated that having posi- tive feedbacks on Facebook profile may enhance adolescents’ self- esteem and well-being. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.005 0747-5632/Ó 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 222 335 05 80x3453. E-mail address: sasatici@anadolu.edu.tr (S.A. Satici). Computers in Human Behavior 49 (2015) 185–190 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh