SOCIAL MEDIA VALIDATION AND DOOMSCROLLING: A COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY PERSPECTIVE ON YOUNG ADULTS' WELL-BEING

Abstract

Social media has become one of the primary arenas in which young people seek approval and make sense of the world around them. This chapter examines two closely linked digital habits, validation-seeking through likes, comments, and followers, and doomscrolling, the compulsive consumption of negative online content, and traces their consequences for mental well-being. Drawing on social comparison theory, the looking-glass self, and variable-reward reinforcement, it explains why these behaviours are so difficult to resist despite their psychological costs, including lowered self-esteem, anxiety, disrupted sleep, and social withdrawal. Rather than treating these habits as individual failings, the chapter situates them within Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems framework, showing how family communication, peer norms, institutional culture, and platform design each shape digital habits and their outcomes. Risk and protective factors are outlined, alongside community-level responses, including digital literacy, family dialogue, and peer support, that address the problem at its social roots rather than placing the burden solely on individual users.