Social comparison orientation and social media fatigue among university students: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Social media platforms frequently expose users to comparison-relevant content, increasing opportunities for continuous self–other evaluation. While social media fatigue has received growing scholarly attention, limited research has examined the direct role of social comparison orientation as an independent factor associated with fatigue. Guided by Social Comparison Theory and a cognitive–affective processing perspective, the present study investigated the association between social comparison orientation and social media fatigue among university students. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 601 university students (M_age = 20.20, SD = 2.14; 55.6% female). Participants completed the Iowa–Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM) and the 15-item Social Media Fatigue Scale. Structural equation modeling revealed a strong positive association between social comparison orientation and the higher-order social media fatigue construct (β = 0.768, p < 0.001), explaining 60.7% of the variance. These findings support the conceptualization of social media fatigue as a multidimensional higher-order construct and indicate that higher levels of social comparison orientation are associated with greater overall social media fatigue among university students. The study contributes to the literature by highlighting social comparison orientation as an important correlate of social media fatigue and advancing the current understanding of fatigue experiences in social media contexts.