The dominance of traditional mass media has been significantly challenged by the rise of digital and social media, whose impacts on the habits of informational consumption, human sentiments, attitudes and behaviors have not been well documented. This study aims to examine how digital and social media use, compared to traditional media use, relates to people’s social trust, supernational confidence (in the UN system), ethical values and happiness globally.
Regression analyses based on the 7th wave of the World Value Survey (WVS) data collected from 2017 to 2022 in 66 societies, with further testing in 6 groups (light, moderate or heavy media users; not free, partly free or free societies).
The study reveals that, in general, digital media use, such as using traditional media, correlates positively with supernational confidence and happiness but negatively with ethical values. Social media, on the other hand, covary positively with ethical values but negatively with social trust and supernational confidence. A following examination of those relationships in six groups (light, moderate, or heavy media users or not free, partly free or free societies) confirmed more or less of them, revealing new interesting findings.
This study relies on the cross-sectional 7th wave of the WVS data, which limits its insight. Some findings are not confirmed in all groups.
The different patterns of the relationships of using those communication channels with the major values suggest a healthy habit of combining them instead of relying on merely one or two, which have clear drawbacks, such as the negative relationship between social media use and social trust, supernational confidence or that between digital and traditional media use and ethical values.
The study helps understand the use of digital or social media and factors associated with the shifting of important social values.
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between digital and social media use and some significant values, specifically, social trust, supernational confidence, ethical values and happiness, with a high-quality set of global data and testing in six groups.
