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74 Best Social Media Research Paper Topics

Whether in college or high school, you will come across research writing as a student. In most cases, the topic of research is assigned by your teacher/professor. Other times, students have to come up with their topic. Research writing in school is inescapable. It’s a task you are bound to undertake to fulfill your academic requirements. If you are in college, there are several topics for research depending on your discipline. For high school students, the topic is usually given. In this article, we focus on social media and topics about social media.

A social media paper is a research paper about social media that studies social media generally or an aspect of it. To write research papers on social media, you’ll need to conduct thorough research for materials and scholarly materials that’ll assist you. For social media, most of the scholarly works will be media-focused.

Sometimes, Professors or teachers ask students to write an essay or research a topic without narrowing it down. In that case, students will have to develop specific research topics. If you’re writing a paper on social media, we’ve provided you with helpful topics to consider for research.

How to Start a Social Media Research Paper

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Before giving a research writing, Professors and teachers believe students already know how to write one. Not every student knows how to write a research paper in most cases.

Research writing follows a systematic pattern, which applies to research on social media. Below is the pattern of a research paper to use;

Paper title
Introduction
Statement of problem
Research methodology
Research objective
Critical analysis
Results and discussion

Every research follows this basic pattern, and it also applies to your research paper on social media.

Social media has become a powerful tool for engagement of various kinds. Before now, social media was merely apps used for interpersonal affairs. Today, with the modification of digital technology, social media encompasses a lot more. Below are some social media topics to write about.

The impact of social media in promoting interpersonal relationships
A study on how social media is a vital tool for social change
Social media censorship: A new form of restriction on freedom of speech
The constantly growing oversharing nature of social media
Social media is a vital tool for political campaign
The proliferation of social media platforms into a buying space
The juxtaposition of personal engagement and business on social media platforms

There is a wide range of topics to coin from social media for college students because social media is a platform with diverse issues that can form into topics. Here are some research topics about social media to consider.

Breach of Privacy: A study on the ability of the government to monitor personal affairs on social media
A study of the toxicity brewing within social media
The increased cyberbullying perpetrated on social media platforms
The evolution of Twitter into a space for diverse conversations
A study of the emergence and growth of social media over the years
Effects of social media: How social media is breeding laziness amongst children
Social media as a distraction tool for students

If you are searching for interesting topics, there are many interesting research topics on social media. Examples of research paper topics that sound fun to choose from include;

A study on how the emergence of social media and social media advertising has infiltrated its primary purpose
An evaluation of how social media has created employment opportunities for people
Social media influence and its negative impact on society
Advertising on social media: Will influencer businesses take over advertising agencies?
A study on ways to improve advertisement for social media engagement
A look into how social media creates a distorted view of real life
Social media and real-life: Does social media obscure reality?

Research questions are helpful when carrying out research in a particular field. To know more about your thesis on social media, you will need to create research questions on social media to help inform your writing. Some social media research questions to ask are;

Are social media platforms designed to be addictive?
What is a social media Algorithm, and how to navigate it?
To what extent are personal data stored on social app databases protected?
Can social media owners avoid government monitoring?
Should parents allow their children to navigate social media before they are 15?
Have social media jobs come to stay, or are they temporary?
Is social media influencer culture overtaking celebrity culture?
To what extent can social media help to curb racism and homophobia?
Does social media exacerbate or curb discriminatory practices?
Is social media an effective tool for learning?

Everyone has access to social media apps until they’ve reached a certain age. There are several social media essay topics for high school students to write about. Some social media titles for essays include;

How social media affects the academic performance of students
Why the use of social media is prohibited during school hours
Why students are obsessed with Tiktok
Running a profitable social media business while in high school and the challenges
The dangers of overusing editing apps
A critical essay on how editing apps and filters promote an unrealistic idea of beauty
The death of TV: how social media has stolen student’s interest

The challenge students have with their topic ideas for research papers is that they’re broad. A good social media thesis topic should be narrowed down. Narrowing a topic down helps you during research to focus on an issue.

Some narrow social media topics for the research paper include;

A study of how social media is overtaking Television in entertainment
A study of how social media has overtaken traditional journalism
An evaluation of the rise of influencer culture on Instagram
YouTube and how it has created sustainable income for black content creators
A comparative study of social media managers and content creators
A study of the decline of Instagram since the emergence of Tiktok
How Twitter breeds transphobic conversations

There are several areas of social media to focus your research on. If you are looking for some social media marketing topics, below are some social media research paper topics to consider;

Influencer culture and a modified model of mouth-to-mouth marketing
The growth of video marketing on Instagram
Social media managers as an essential part of online marketing
A study on how social media stories are optimized for marketing
An analysis of social media marketing and its impact on customer behavior
An evaluation of target marketing on social media

There are so many topics to choose from in this aspect. Some social issues research paper topics to explore are;

The growth of cyberattacks and cyberstalking in social media
Social media and how it promotes an unrealistic idea of life
Social media and the many impacts it has on users and businesses
Social media detox: Importance of taking scheduled social media breaks
How social media enable conversation on social challenges

Writing a research paper on social issues touches on various areas. Some are challenging, while others are easier to navigate.

Below are some of the easy social issues topics to choose from.

The growing issue of women’s and trans people’s rights
Religious bigotry and how it affects social progress
Sustainable living and why it’s important to the society
The social impact of climate change and global warming

Social science is a broad discipline. If you are looking for social science essay topics, below are some social science topics for research papers to look into;

Consumerism and how it’s perpetrated on social media
How religious beliefs impact social relationships
Inflation and how it affects the economy of a nation
A study of the limited availability of work opportunities for minority groups
A look into the concept of “low wage” jobs

Research writing is not always technical or challenging. Sometimes, it can be fun to write. It all depends on your choice of topic. Below are some topics on social media that are fun to work on;

The importance of social media branding for small businesses
A look into the monetization of Instagram
User engagement and how it can be converted into business leads
The study of emojis and their role in social media engagement
From Instagram to Tiktok: the poaching nature of social media apps

Research writing on social media networking studies social networking and its design and promotion on social media platforms. Some research papers on social media networking are;

The impact of social media networking on business owners
Social media networking and how it impacts influencer culture
Social media and how it’s used to build and develop social relationships
How social media made social networking services easier

Social media research writing is one of the most interesting research to conduct. It cuts across several interesting areas. The writer can handle almost every aspect of the dissertation or thesis statement about social media . But, students who find it challenging should seek professional help. You can reach out to our expert team of writers to help you handle every element of your writing. We have the best on our team who are always ready to give you their best.

300+ Social Media Research Topics

Social media has become an integral part of our lives, and it has transformed the way we communicate, share information, and interact with each other. As social media platforms continue to evolve and gain popularity, they have also become a rich source of data for researchers. Social media research is a rapidly growing field that encompasses a wide range of topics , from understanding the psychological and social effects of social media to analyzing patterns of user behavior and identifying trends in online conversations. In this era of data-driven decision-making, social media research is more important than ever, as it provides insights into how we use and are influenced by social media. In this post, we will explore some of the most fascinating and relevant social media research topics that are shaping our understanding of this powerful medium.

Social Media Research Topics

Social Media Research Topics are as follows:

The effects of social media on mental health
The role of social media in political polarization
The impact of social media on relationships
The use of social media by businesses for marketing
The effects of social media on body image and self-esteem
The influence of social media on consumer behavior
The use of social media for education
The effects of social media on language use and grammar
The impact of social media on news consumption
The role of social media in activism and social change
The use of social media for job seeking and career development
The effects of social media on sleep patterns
The influence of social media on adolescent behavior
The impact of social media on the spread of misinformation
The use of social media for personal branding
The effects of social media on political participation
The influence of social media on fashion trends
The impact of social media on sports fandom
The use of social media for mental health support
The effects of social media on creativity
The role of social media in cultural exchange
The impact of social media on language learning
The use of social media for crisis communication
The effects of social media on privacy and security
The influence of social media on diet and exercise behavior
The impact of social media on travel behavior
The use of social media for citizen journalism
The effects of social media on political accountability
The role of social media in peer pressure
The impact of social media on romantic relationships
The use of social media for community building
The effects of social media on gender identity
The influence of social media on music consumption
The impact of social media on academic performance
The use of social media for social support
The effects of social media on social skills
The role of social media in disaster response
The impact of social media on nostalgia and memory
The use of social media for charity and philanthropy
The effects of social media on political polarization in developing countries
The influence of social media on literary consumption
The impact of social media on family relationships
The use of social media for citizen science
The effects of social media on cultural identity
The role of social media in promoting healthy behaviors
The impact of social media on language diversity
The use of social media for environmental activism
The effects of social media on attention span
The influence of social media on art consumption
The impact of social media on cultural values and norms.
The impact of social media on mental health
The impact of social media on mental health.
The impact of social media on body image and self-esteem.
The use of social media for political activism and social justice movements.
The role of social media in promoting cultural diversity and inclusivity.
The impact of social media on romantic relationships and dating.
The use of social media for customer service and support.
The impact of social media on mental health and well-being among young adults.
The impact of social media on political polarization and partisanship.
The use of social media for health communication and behavior change.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards vaccination.
The impact of social media on political participation and civic engagement.
The impact of social media on political polarization and echo chambers.
The use of social media for political campaigning and the manipulation of public opinion.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards vaccination and public health.
The impact of social media on news consumption and trust in journalism.
The use of social media for promoting sustainable fashion practices and ethical consumption.
The role of social media in influencing beauty standards and body image.
The impact of social media on the music industry and the role of social media influencers.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among healthcare professionals.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards gun violence and gun control policies.
The impact of social media on social activism and advocacy.
The use of social media for promoting cross-cultural communication and intercultural understanding.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards climate change and environmental policies.
The impact of social media on public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The use of social media for promoting financial literacy and access to financial services for low-income individuals.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards immigration policies and refugee crises.
The impact of social media on political activism and social movements.
The use of social media for promoting digital literacy and technology education in developing countries.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards gender and sexual orientation.
The impact of social media on consumer behavior in the food and beverage industry.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among first responders.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards racial justice and police brutality.
The impact of social media on privacy concerns and data security.
The use of social media for promoting interfaith dialogue and religious tolerance.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards income inequality and economic justice.
The impact of social media on the film and television industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among military personnel.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards privacy and data security.
The impact of social media on the hospitality industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting intergenerational communication and understanding.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards animal welfare and animal rights.
The impact of social media on the gaming industry and gamer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting digital literacy and technology skills among seniors.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards renewable energy and sustainability.
The impact of social media on the advertising industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among children and adolescents.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards online privacy and security.
The impact of social media on the beauty industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting cultural preservation and heritage tourism.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards criminal justice reform.
The impact of social media on the automotive industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among marginalized communities.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards sustainable development goals.
The impact of social media on the fashion industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting intercultural communication in the workplace.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards mental health policies.
The impact of social media on the travel industry and sustainable tourism practices.
The use of social media for health information seeking and patient empowerment.
The role of social media in promoting environmental activism and sustainable practices.
The impact of social media on consumer behavior and brand loyalty.
The use of social media for promoting education and lifelong learning.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards mental health issues.
The impact of social media on the fashion industry and fast fashion practices.
The use of social media for promoting social entrepreneurship and social innovation.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards gun control.
The impact of social media on the mental health and well-being of adolescents.
The use of social media for promoting intercultural exchange and understanding.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards climate change.
The impact of social media on political advertising and campaign strategies.
The use of social media for promoting healthy relationships and communication skills.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards police brutality and racial justice.
The use of social media for promoting financial literacy and personal finance management.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards LGBTQ+ rights.
The impact of social media on the music industry and fan engagement.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among marginalized populations.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards immigration and border policies.
The impact of social media on the professional development and networking of journalists.
The use of social media for promoting community building and social cohesion.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards healthcare policies.
The impact of social media on the food industry and consumer behavior.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards gender equality.
The impact of social media on the sports industry and athlete-fan interactions.
The use of social media for promoting financial inclusion and access to banking services.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards animal welfare.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among college students.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards privacy and data security.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards income inequality and poverty.
The use of social media for promoting digital literacy and technology skills.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards renewable energy.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among elderly populations.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards online privacy and security.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards criminal justice reform.
The impact of social media on online activism and social movements.
The use of social media for business-to-business communication and networking.
The role of social media in promoting civic education and engagement.
The impact of social media on the fashion industry and sustainable fashion practices.
The use of social media for promoting cultural diversity and inclusion.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards police reform.
The impact of social media on the mental health and well-being of frontline healthcare workers.
The use of social media for promoting financial literacy and investment education.
The role of social media in promoting environmental sustainability and conservation.
The impact of social media on body image and self-esteem among adolescent girls.
The use of social media for promoting intercultural dialogue and understanding.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards immigration policies and refugees.
The impact of social media on the professional development and networking of healthcare professionals.
The use of social media for promoting community resilience and disaster preparedness.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards the Black Lives Matter movement.
The impact of social media on the music industry and artist-fan interactions.
The use of social media for promoting healthy eating habits and nutrition education.
The role of social media in promoting mental health and well-being among college students.
The impact of social media on the entertainment industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting workplace diversity and inclusion.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards climate change policies.
The impact of social media on the travel industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among military veterans.
The role of social media in promoting intergenerational dialogue and understanding.
The impact of social media on the professional development and networking of educators.
The use of social media for promoting animal welfare and advocacy.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards reproductive rights.
The impact of social media on the sports industry and fan behavior.
The use of social media for promoting financial inclusion and literacy among underprivileged populations.
The role of social media in promoting mental health and well-being among LGBTQ+ populations.
The impact of social media on the food and beverage industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting interfaith dialogue and understanding.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards gun ownership.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among caregivers.
The role of social media in promoting sustainable tourism practices.
The impact of social media on the gaming industry and gamer culture.
The use of social media for promoting cultural heritage tourism and preservation.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards public transportation policies.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among homeless populations.
The role of social media in promoting mental health and well-being among immigrants and refugees.
The use of social media for promoting financial literacy and entrepreneurship among youth.
The use of social media for political mobilization and participation in authoritarian regimes.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards immigration policies.
The impact of social media on the professional development of teachers and educators.
The use of social media for emergency communication during public health crises.
The role of social media in promoting LGBTQ+ rights and advocacy.
The impact of social media on body positivity and self-acceptance among women.
The use of social media for public diplomacy and international relations.
The impact of social media on the mental health and well-being of marginalized communities.
The use of social media for crisis management and disaster response in the corporate sector.
The role of social media in promoting environmental activism and conservation.
The impact of social media on the professional development and networking of entrepreneurs.
The use of social media for medical education and healthcare communication.
The role of social media in promoting cultural exchange and understanding.
The impact of social media on social capital and civic engagement among young adults.
The use of social media for disaster preparedness and community resilience.
The role of social media in promoting religious pluralism and tolerance.
The use of social media for promoting healthy lifestyles and wellness.
The use of social media for fundraising and philanthropy in the non-profit sector.
The role of social media in promoting interfaith dialogue and understanding.
The impact of social media on the travel and tourism industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for customer engagement and brand loyalty in the retail sector.
The impact of social media on the political attitudes and behaviors of young adults.
The use of social media for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The use of social media for promoting animal welfare and adoption.
The role of social media in promoting mental health and well-being among the elderly.
The impact of social media on the art industry and artist-fan interactions.
The use of social media for promoting healthy food choices and nutrition.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards income inequality.
The use of social media for promoting political satire and humor.
The role of social media in promoting disability rights and advocacy.
The use of social media for promoting voter registration and participation.
The role of social media in promoting entrepreneurship and small business development.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among incarcerated populations.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards gun violence prevention.
The use of social media for promoting cultural heritage and preservation.
The impact of social media on mental health and well-being.
The relationship between social media use and academic performance.
The use of social media for emergency communication during natural disasters.
The impact of social media on traditional news media and journalism.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and discourse.
The use of social media for online learning and education.
The impact of social media on the fashion and beauty industry.
The use of social media for brand awareness and marketing.
The impact of social media on privacy and security.
The use of social media for job searching and recruitment.
The impact of social media on political polarization and extremism.
The use of social media for online harassment and cyberbullying.
The role of social media in promoting environmental awareness and sustainability.
The impact of social media on youth culture and identity formation.
The use of social media for travel and tourism marketing.
The impact of social media on consumer behavior and decision-making.
The role of social media in shaping beauty standards and body positivity.
The use of social media for crisis communication and disaster response.
The impact of social media on the music industry.
The use of social media for fundraising and philanthropy.
The role of social media in promoting healthy lifestyles and wellness.
The impact of social media on sports fandom and fan behavior.
The use of social media for political lobbying and advocacy.
The impact of social media on the entertainment industry.
The use of social media for healthcare communication and patient engagement.
The role of social media in promoting gender equality and feminism.
The impact of social media on the restaurant and food industry.
The use of social media for volunteerism and community service.
The role of social media in promoting religious tolerance and interfaith dialogue.
The impact of social media on the art industry.
The use of social media for political satire and humor.
The role of social media in promoting disability awareness and advocacy.
The impact of social media on the real estate industry.
The use of social media for legal advocacy and justice reform.
The role of social media in promoting intercultural communication and understanding.
The impact of social media on the automotive industry.
The use of social media for pet adoption and animal welfare advocacy.
The role of social media in promoting mental health and wellness for marginalized communities.
The impact of social media on the retail industry.
The use of social media for promoting civic engagement and voter participation.
The impact of social media on the film and television industry.
The use of social media for fashion and style inspiration.
The role of social media in promoting activism for human rights and social issues.
The effectiveness of social media for political campaigns.
The role of social media in promoting fake news and misinformation.
The impact of social media on self-esteem and body image.
The impact of social media on romantic relationships.
The use of social media for online activism and social justice movements.
The impact of social media on traditional news media.
The impact of social media on interpersonal communication skills.
The impact of social media on the fashion industry.
The use of social media for social support and mental health awareness.
The use of social media for political lobbying and activism.
The impact of social media on travel and tourism behavior.
The use of social media for customer feedback and market research.
The impact of social media on the restaurant industry.
The role of social media in political activism
The effect of social media on interpersonal communication
The relationship between social media use and body image concerns
The impact of social media on self-esteem
The role of social media in shaping cultural norms and values
The use of social media by celebrities and its impact on their image
The role of social media in building and maintaining personal relationships
The use of social media for job searching and recruitment
The impact of social media on children and adolescents
The use of social media by political candidates during election campaigns
The role of social media in education
The impact of social media on political polarization
The use of social media for news consumption
The effect of social media on sleep habits
The use of social media by non-profit organizations for fundraising
The role of social media in shaping public opinion
The influence of social media on language and communication patterns
The use of social media in crisis communication and emergency management
The role of social media in promoting environmental awareness
The influence of social media on music preferences
The impact of social media on body positivity movements
The role of social media in shaping beauty standards
The influence of social media on sports fandom
The use of social media for health promotion and education
The impact of social media on political participation
The role of social media in shaping parenting practices
The influence of social media on food preferences and eating habits
The use of social media for peer support and mental health advocacy
The role of social media in shaping religious beliefs and practices
The influence of social media on humor and comedy
The use of social media for online activism and social justice advocacy
The impact of social media on public health awareness campaigns
The role of social media in promoting cultural diversity and inclusion
The influence of social media on travel behavior and decision-making
The use of social media for international diplomacy and relations
The impact of social media on job satisfaction and employee engagement
The role of social media in shaping romantic preferences and dating behavior
The influence of social media on language learning and language use
The use of social media for political satire and humor
The impact of social media on social capital and community building
The role of social media in shaping gender identity and expression
The influence of social media on fashion and beauty advertising.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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The Top 10 Most Interesting Social Media Research Topics

Finding social media research topics you’re interested in is tricky. Social media is a fairly new field, and the constant arrival of new technology means that it’s always evolving. So, students have a lot to think about in their search for topics.

In this article, we’re going to walk you through social media research paper topics that are timely and relevant. We’ll also show you examples of social media research topics you can get inspiration from. Lastly, we’re going to lay out some social media research questions you can ponder while formulating your topic.

Find your bootcamp match

What makes a strong social media research topic.

A strong social media research topic requires clarity of focus. This means that your topic must be timely, relevant, and coherent. This allows your research topic to be compelling and easily understandable to others.

Tips for Choosing a Social Media Research Topic

Know the trends. Learning what social media topics are trending allows you to know the relevant issues and emergent themes in the field of social media. This also lets you know what topics are well-researched and which ones are still emerging.
Explore knowledge gaps. Knowing what previous researchers have written prevents you from repeating knowledge that has already been explored and shared. Nobody wants to reinvent the wheel when doing research. Exploring knowledge gaps lets you increase the impact of your work and identify opportunities for further research.
Choose something that you’re interested in. Diving deep into a topic that you’re interested in motivates you to learn more about it. The research process becomes more engaging when you know you care about your topic.
Be specific. Knowing what you want to research and what you don’t want to research are keys to the research process. This entails narrowing down your topic to a specific area, subject, theme, or relationship. You want to know the scope and the limitations of your study.
Check your timeframe. Limiting your topic to a specific timeframe helps in narrowing down what you need to study. For example, you can decide to study a phenomenon that has emerged in just the last three years. By doing this, you’re making sure that your research is both specific and relevant.

What’s the Difference Between a Research Topic and a Research Question?

The difference between a research topic and a research question is in the scope. Research topics tend to be broader than research questions. Research topics focus on a specific area of study within a larger field, while a research question further narrows down what you are researching. A good research question allows you to write on your topic with greater precision.

How to Create Strong Social Media Research Questions

The key to creating strong social media research questions is learning enough about your topic to know where the gaps are. This means that you have to conduct a thorough social media literature review, reading previous studies until you have a handle on what’s been said and what questions are still unanswered. Your question will emerge from this preliminary research.

2. The Influence of Social Media on Mental Health

Mental health has been an important topic in social media research these past few years. Social media use and its connection to mental health has even been the subject of systematic reviews. This means that there’s a huge body of previous studies that you can look to when developing your research question.

Exploring both the positive effects and negative impacts of social media sites on mental health helps people and firms establish guidelines that help user communities. This research topic might also cover strategies for helping social media users improve their mental health.

3. The Role of Social Media in Political Campaigning

Social media is a new tool for political campaigning. Exploring what social media strategies have been conducted by politicians running for office helps in determining how social media aids in political campaigning. Studying new strategies like user-generated content for political campaigning allows you to know how voters interact with political candidates.

4. The Role of Social Media in Disinformation

The rise of fake news has coincided with the rise of social networking websites. This topic involves dissecting how social media technologies allow certain types of online content to thrive and make it easier for bad actors to spread disinformation.

5. How Social Media Can Benefit Communities

More and more social issues have been popularized through online content. Diving deep into how social media can facilitate organizational networking lets you compare the traditional and new organizing strategies being created in digital spaces. It also lets you understand how social media activity influences trends in virtual communities.

6. The Effects of Social Media Exposure on Child Development

Children also use social media sites. Some children use social networking sites under the supervision of their parents, and some do not. Social interaction, online or not, affects how children develop. Studying the psychological effects of social media exposure lets you know how social media may improve or derail the growth of children.

7. How Communication Has Evolved Through Social Media

Body language, tone of voice, and other non-verbal cues are absent in online forms of communication. In their place, emojis and other new ways to express thoughts and emotions have appeared. Learning how social media changes the way we talk to one another allows you to develop a theory of communication that takes into account the role of digital communities.

8. Social Media Platforms as Primary News Sources

A lot of people now are getting their daily dose of news and current events through social media. News networks have also established their social media presence on platforms that they can use to deliver news and current events to their audiences. Researching this topic lets you investigate the changes and innovations in information dissemination.

9. How Social Media Paves Way for Non-Traditional Advertising

Regular social media posts, advertisements, and other forms of online content aren’t the only ways businesses market to their audiences. Social media has paved the way for user-generated content and other non-traditional types of online marketing. With this topic, you can learn social media marketing strategies that have been capitalized on the social connection fostered by social networking websites.

10. Impacts of Social Media Presence on Corporate Image

More businesses increasingly build and curate their digital presence through various social networks. Knowing how a business can improve its corporate image through social media influence clarifies the role of technology in modern economics and online marketing.

Social Media Research Questions

How was Facebook used as a political campaigning tool in the 2020 United States presidential election?
What social platforms are the most effective in influencing consumer behavior?
How does user-generated content boost the credibility of a business?
How do different types of online content disseminated through popular networks affect the attention span of people?
What are the most effective forms of online content and social media strategies for increasing sales conversions for small businesses?

Choosing the Right Social Media Research Topic

Choosing the right social media research topic helps you create meaningful contributions to the discipline of social media studies. Knowing the most popular topics in the field can make you an expert on social media. By reading up on previous studies, you will not only be more informed but you will also be in a position to make a positive impact on future studies.

Studying the relationship between social media and different fields produces valuable knowledge. Even if you’re only interested in exploring one social platform or a single social media event or phenomenon, your research can help people better understand how social media engagement changes the face of social relationships in the world at large.

Social Media Research Topics FAQ

Social media is a computer-based technology that allows digital communities to exchange information through user networks. Various social media networks specialize in text, photo, or video transfer. All of these are ways for people on the Internet to share information and ideas with each other.

Social media research is important because it helps you contribute to the growing body of knowledge about digital social settings. In 2021, according to DataReportal, at least 4.88 billion people around the world use the Internet . The more that people connect with each other through the social media domain, the more their quality of life changes, for better or worse.

According to Statista, the most popular social media platforms right now are Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp , each of which has at least two billion users. These social networks allow users to share text, picture, and video content with one another.

People use social media to connect with each other, share information, and entertain themselves. Social media sites can broadly serve all of these purposes or be focused on just one of these functions.

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234 Social Media Research Topics & Ideas

18 January 2024

last updated

Social media research encompasses a broad range of different topics that delve into the ever-evolving digital landscape. People investigate the impact of social platforms on society, exploring subjects, such as online identity formation, self-presentation, the psychology of virtual interactions, and others. Additionally, studies examine the influence of social media on politics, activism, and public opinion, uncovering patterns of information dissemination and polarization. Privacy concerns, cyberbullying, and online safety are also explored in-depth, seeking strategies to mitigate the associated risks. In this article, people can find many social media research topics, ideas, and examples.

Hot Social Media Research Topics

Impacts of Social Media and Internet Algorithms on User Experience
The Rise of TikTok: A Socio-Cultural Analysis
Dealing With Cyberbullying: Strategies and Solutions
Understanding the Phenomenon of Social Media ‘Cancel Culture’
NFTs and Social Media: The Future of Digital Art?
Ethical Concerns in the Era of Influencer Marketing
Social Media’s Role in Accelerating E-Commerce Growth
Impacts of Internet and Social Media on Journalism and News Reporting
Understanding the Psychology of Viral Challenges on Social Platforms
Cryptocurrency and Social Media: The Intersection
Mitigating Misinformation and ‘Fake News’ on Social Media
Augmented Reality (AR) in Social Media: A Game Changer?
Evaluating the Impact of Social Media on Political Campaigns
Social Media’s Influence on Fashion and Beauty Trends
Privacy, Safety, and Security Concerns in the Age of Social Networking
Roles of Free Access and Social Media in Promoting Sustainable Practices
Implications of Social Media Addiction on Mental Health
Examining Social Media’s Role in Crisis Communication
The Power of User-Generated Content in Branding
Influence of Social Media on Food Culture and Dining Trends

Easy Social Media Research Topics

Impacts of Online Videos and Social Media on Mental Health
Influencer Marketing: Efficacy and Ethical Concerns
Evolution of Privacy Policies Across Social Platforms
Understanding Virality: What Makes Content Shareable?
Cyberbullying: Prevalence and Prevention Strategies
Social Media and Political Polarization: An In-Depth Study
Role of Social Media in Modern Business Strategies
Effect of Social Media on Interpersonal Relationships
Social Platforms as Tools for Social Change
Navigating Online Hate Speech: A Legal Perspective
Emerging Trends in Social Media Advertising
Online Identity Construction and Self-Presentation
The Psychology of Social Media Addiction
Social Media’s Role in Crisis Management and Communication
Sentiment Analysis in Social Media and Its Implications
Social Media Algorithms: Bias and Implications
The Phenomenon of Cancel Culture on Social Platforms
Cybersecurity Threats in the Era of Social Media
Analyzing Adverse Impacts of Social Media on Consumer Behavior

Interesting Social Media Research Topics

Evaluating the Effects of Social Media on Language and Communication
Roles of Social Media in Fostering Political Engagement
Misinformation and Propaganda Spread Through Social Platforms
Analyzing the Shift From Traditional Media to Social Media
Dark Patterns in Social Media: Hidden Manipulative Tactics
Social Media and Digital Activism: Revolutionizing Advocacy
Augmented Reality (AR) and Its Impact on Social Networking
Exploring Cybersecurity Issues in Social Media Platforms
Roles and Effects of Social Media and News in Mental Health Promotion
Strategies for Effective Social Media Crisis Management
The Power of Live Streaming for Brands and Influencers
Using Social Media to Enhance Classroom Learning
Analyzing the Influence of Memes on Internet Culture
Impacts of Social Media Algorithms on User Behavior
Assessing the Correlation Between Social Media and Loneliness
Geotagging and Its Implications for Personal Privacy
Social Media and E-commerce: A Cross-Industry Study
The Ethics of Digital Advertising on Social Platforms
Understanding the Psychology of Social Media Trolls
The Cultural Shift Caused by Social Media Localization

Social Media Research Paper Topics for High School

The Phenomenon of Cyberbullying: Prevention and Strategies
How Does Social Media Influence Teen Body Image?
Evaluating the Educational Potential of Social Media Platforms
Impacts of Social Media on Adolescents’ Self-Esteem
Roles of Free Connection and Social Media in Modern Political Activism
Exploring the Concept of ‘Digital Citizenship’ Among Teenagers
The Ethics of Social Media Privacy: User Rights and Responsibilities
Social Media Addiction: Understanding Its Causes and Effects
Influence of Social Media on Modern Communication Styles
Analyzing Positive Roles of Social Media in Promoting Reading Culture
Social Media and Mental Health: Correlation or Causation?
The Role of Social Media in Global Environmental Awareness
Examining Social Media’s Impact on Real-Life Social Skills
Social Media Platforms: Tools for Personal Branding or Narcissism?
Influence of Social Media Trends on Youth Fashion Choices
Impacts of Social Media on Teenagers’ Sleep Patterns
Online Safety: The Role of Parents and Schools in Social Media Usage
How Does Social Media Influence Teenagers’ Views on Relationships?
Social Media and Empathy: Does Online Interaction Decrease Compassion?

Social Media Research Paper Topics for College Students

Evaluating the Impact of Social Media on Body Image and Self-Esteem
The Influence of Social Media on Voting Patterns Among Young Adults
Social Media as a Valid Tool for Social Change: A Case Study Approach
Unveiling the Psychology of Social Media Addiction
Social Media’s Role in Modern Journalism: Opportunities and Challenges
Privacy Implications of Data Collection on Social Media Platforms
Cyberbullying in the Age of Social Media: Scope and Solutions
The Ethical Aspects of Social Media Influencer Marketing
Roles and Effects of Social Media in Crisis Communication and Management
Social Media and Its Effects on Interpersonal Communication Skills
Analyzing Social Media Strategies of Successful Businesses
Impacts of Internet Use and Social Media on Mental Health Among College Students
The Roles That Social Media Has in Modern Political Campaigns
Understanding the Social Media Algorithm: Bias and Implications
Social Media and Consumer Behavior: The Power of Influencer Marketing
Fake News, Authors, and Disinformation Spread Through Social Media Platforms
Exploring Direct Links Between Social Media Use and Academic Performance
Social Media’s Role in Promoting Sustainable Lifestyle Choices
Regulation of Hate Speech and Offensive Content on Social Media
The Power and Peril of Virality in the Age of Social Media

Social Media Research Paper Topics for University

The Effect That Social Media Has on Global Politics
The Ethics of Data Mining in Social Media
Roles of Social Media in Business Marketing Strategies
Social Media, Internet Use, and Their Impacts on Mental Health: A Systematic Review
Algorithmic Bias in Social Media Platforms: Causes and Consequences
The Influence of Colors and Social Media on Consumer Behavior
Exploring Possible Relationships Between Social Media Use and Academic Performance
Privacy, Morality, and Security Concerns in the Age of Social Media
Social Media as a Platform for Digital Activism
Impacts of Social Media on Interpersonal Communication and Relationships
Cyberbullying on Social Media: Scope, Impact, and Preventive Measures
The Role of Social Media in Spreading Health-Related Misinformation
Analyzing the Effect of Social Media on Journalism Practices
Understanding the Influence of Social Media on Body Image Perceptions
Social Media’s Role in Crisis Management: Case Studies
The Power and Effectiveness of Influencer Marketing on Social Media
Fake News and Disinformation in the Social Media Age
Regulatory Approaches to Hate Speech on Social Media Platforms
The Economic Implications of Social Media: From Startups to Giants

Social Media Research Paper Topics for Masters

Advanced Algorithms and Their Role in Shaping Social Media Interactions
Evaluating the Impact of Social Media on Democratic Processes Globally
The Intersection of Privacy, Data Mining, and Ethics in Social Media
Quantitative Analysis of Social Media’s Impact on Consumer Buying Behavior
Cybersecurity Threats in Social Media: Mitigation and Prevention Strategies
Analyzing the Psychological Implications of Social Media Addiction
Using Social Media Data to Predict Market Trends: An Econometric Approach
Role of Social Media in Crisis Management: A Comparative Study
The Sociolinguistic Impact of Social Media on Communication
Machine Learning and AI in Social Media: An Examination of Emerging Trends
Social Media as a Valid Tool for Public Health: Opportunities and Challenges
Social Media’s Influence on Modern Journalism: A Critical Analysis
Mapping Social Networks: A Graph Theory Approach
Evaluating the Efficacy of Social Media Campaigns in Social Change Movements
Analyzing the Role of Social Media in Corporate Reputation Management
Data Privacy Laws and Social Media: A Comparative Study
The Use of Small and Big Data Analytics in Social Media Marketing
Social Media and Its Role in Strengthening Democracy: A Deep Dive
The Impact of Social Media on Cultural Assimilation and Identity
Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Social Media Content Moderation

Social Media Research Paper Topics for Ph.D.

Analyzing the Impact of Social Media Algorithms on User Behavior and Perceptions
Deciphering the Influence of Social Media on Political Campaign Strategies
Examining the Role of Social Media in Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives
Social Media and Mental Health: A Comprehensive Analysis of Recent Studies
Effects of Social Media and Internet Use on Consumer Buying Behavior: An Econometric Approach
Social Media and Digital Diplomacy: A Critical Analysis
Ethical Implications of Data Mining Techniques in Social Media Platforms
Unpacking the Psychological Mechanisms of Social Media Addiction
Role of Social Media in Contemporary Journalism: Opportunities and Challenges
Social Media and Privacy: A Comparative Study of Data Protection Laws
Machine Learning and AI in Social Media: Identifying Future Trends
Social Media’s Possible Influence on People, Body Image, and Self-Esteem: A Meta-Analysis
Analyzing the Role of Social Media in Crisis Management and Communication
Impacts of Social Media on Different Language and Communication Styles
Cybersecurity in Social Media: An Analysis of Current Threats and Mitigation Strategies
Social Media as a Good Tool for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Effects of Social Media on Children and Their Parents: Social Skills and Interpersonal Relationships
Roles of Social Media in Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Rights
Social Media and its Influence on Cultural Assimilation and Identity Formation

Social Media Research Topics for Argumentative Papers

Impacts of Social Media on Social and Political Discourses: Enhancing or Hindering Democratic Engagement?
Social Media and Mental Health: Exploring the Association Between Excessive Usage and Psychological Well-Being
Fostering Online Activism and Social Movements: The Role of Social Media
Balancing Personal Information Sharing and Data Protection: Social Media and Privacy
Exploring the Effects of Social Media on Body Image and Self-Esteem
Social Media and Political Polarization: Reinforcing Echo Chambers or Encouraging Diverse Perspectives?
Youth Culture and Identity Formation: The Influence of Social Media
Fake News and Misinformation: Combating Inaccurate Information in the Era of Social Media
Social Media and Cyberbullying: Examining the Impact on Mental Health and Well-Being
The Ethics of Social Media Research: Privacy, Informed Consent, and Ethical Considerations
Relationships in the Digital Age: Exploring the Influence of Social Media Use
The Influence of Internet, Technology, and Social Media on Consumer Behavior and Buying Decisions
Analyzing the Role of Online Platforms in Elections: Social Media and Political Campaigns
Social Media in Education: Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Integration in the Classroom
Impacts of Social Media and Interface on News Consumption and Journalism Practices
Body Politics in the Digital Space: Examining Representations of Gender, Race, and Body Image on Social Media
Addressing Ethical and Security Concerns in the Digital Age: Social Media and Cybersecurity
Shaping Consumer Behavior and Brand Perception: The Role of Social Media Influencers
Civic Engagement in the Digital Era: Assessing the Role of Social Media Platforms
The Influence of Social Media Algorithms on Information Consumption and Personalization

Social Media Research Topics for Persuasive Papers

The Power of Social Media in Driving Social and Political Change
Promoting Digital Literacy: Empowering Users to Navigate the Complexities of Social Media
Social Media as a Catalyst for Social Justice Movements: Amplifying Marginalized Voices
Countering Fake News and Misinformation on Social Media: Strategies for Critical Thinking
Harnessing the Influence of Social Media for Environmental Activism and Sustainability
The Dark Side of Social Media: Addressing Online Harassment and Cyberbullying
Influencer Marketing: Ethical Considerations and Consumer Protection in the Digital Age
Leveraging Social Media for Public Health Campaigns: Increasing Awareness and Behavioral Change
Social Media and Mental Health: Promoting Well-Being in a Hyperconnected World
Navigating the Privacy Paradox: Balancing Convenience and Personal Data Protection on Social Media
Roles of Social Media and Internet in Fostering Civic Engagement and Democratic Participation
Promoting Positive Body Image on Social Media: Redefining Beauty Standards and Empowering Individuals
Enhancing Online Safety: Developing Policies and Regulations for Social Media Platforms
Social Media and the Spread of Disinformation: Combating the Infodemic
Roles of Social Media and Technology in Building and Sustaining Relationships: Connecting in a Digital Era
Influencer Culture and Materialism: Examining the Impact on Consumer Behavior
Social Media and Education: Maximizing Learning Opportunities and Bridging the Digital Divide
The Power of Viral Hashtags: Exploring Social Movements and Online Activism
Social Media and Political Polarization: Bridging Divides and Encouraging Constructive Dialogue

Social Media Topics for Pros and Cons Research Papers

Examining the Social Effects of Digital Connectivity: Pros and Cons of Using Social Media
Balancing Privacy Concerns in the Digital Age: Evaluating the Cons and Risks of Social Media Use
Information Sharing in the Digital Era: Uncovering the Advantages of Social Media Platforms
Building Online Communities: Analyzing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Social Media Interaction
Navigating Political Discourse in the Digital Age: The Disadvantages of Social Media Engagement
Mental Health in the Digital Sphere: Understanding the Benefits and Drawbacks of Social Media
Combating Cyberbullying: Addressing the Negative Side of Online Social Interactions
Personal Branding in the Digital Landscape: Empowerment vs. Self-Objectification on Social Media
Establishing Meaningful Connections: Exploring the Pros and Cons of Social Media Relationships
Leveraging the Educational Potential of Digital Platforms: Examining the Benefits of Social Media in Learning
Body Image and Self-Esteem in the Age of Social Media: Weighing the Positives and Negatives
From Digital Activism to Political Change: Assessing the Opportunities and Limitations of Social Media
Unraveling the Influence: Social Media and Consumer Behavior in the Digital Marketplace
Misinformation in the Digital Landscape: The Pros and Cons of Social Media in the Spread of Disinformation
Crisis Communication in the Digital Age: Navigating the Benefits and Challenges of Social Media
Tackling Fake News: Navigating Misinformation in the Era of Social Media
Maximizing Business Opportunities: Evaluating the Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing
The Psychology of Social Media: Analyzing the Upsides and Downsides of Digital Engagement
Exploring the Impact of Social Media on Socialization: Benefits, Drawbacks, and Implications
Online Activism: The Power and Limitations of Social Media Movements

Social Media Topics for Cause and Effect Research Papers

Enhancing Political Activism: Exploring the Relationship Between Social Media and Civic Engagement
The Psychological Effects of Digital Connectivity: Investigating the Relationship Between Mental Health of People and Social Media Use
Political Polarization in the Online Sphere: Understanding the Impact of Digital Networks
Disrupted Sleep Patterns in the Digital Era: Exploring the Role of Online Platforms
Digital Distractions and Academic Performance: Analyzing the Effects of Online Engagement
Navigating Online Relationships: Understanding the Impacts of Digital Interactions
The Digital Marketplace: Exploring Consumer Behavior in the Age of Online Platforms
The Loneliness Epidemic: Investigating the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Social Isolation
Redefining Political Participation: The Influence of Digital Networks on Democracy
Unmasking Digital Identities: The Psychological Effects of Social Media Use
News Consumption in the Digital Era: Exploring the Impacts of Online Platforms
Cyberbullying in the Virtual World: Analyzing the Effects of Online Interactions
The Digital Campaign Trail: Investigating the Influence of Online Platforms on Voter Behavior
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) in the Digital Age: Exploring the Psychological Consequences
Body Dissatisfaction in the Digital Sphere: Understanding the Impacts of Online Presence
Information Overload: Coping With the Digital Deluge in the Information Age
Privacy Concerns in the Online Landscape: Analyzing the Implications of Digital Footprints
Unveiling the Dark Side: Exploring the Relationship Between Online Activities and Substance Abuse
Bridging the Political Divide: The Impact of Digital Networks on Sociopolitical Polarization

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MRA Guide to the Top 16 Social Media Research Questions

MRA and IMRO published this simple guide to Social Media Research (SMR) in 2010 in order to help researchers identify and find answers to the most important questions to SMR techniques.

Introduction Social networks engulf everyday life. They represent a place to share news, ideas, and information of all kinds. The connections made among people in these networks, and the resulting information shared, can have a profound effect on the thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs of individuals. Moreover, even the flow of information itself can be a powerful predictor of key business and program outcomes.

Recognizing the power of social networks, opinion researchers have increasingly begun to take advantage of social media to answer critical business questions. In doing so, the research profession has invented new tools and methods to supplement an already impressive array of techniques. The Marketing Research Association (MRA) has developed this guide in order to describe the current landscape of social media research as well as to facilitate and advance further development of the technique. Ultimately, it is the goal of the Association and its members to foster universally accepted and practiced standards and best practices for these and other research methods.

What is Social Media?

There are many definitions of social media but, at its core, social media uses Internet-based technologies that facilitate the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Social media refers to Web sites that permit people to interact with the site and with each other using simple interfaces. At the time of publication, Facebook, qq.com, Twitter and YouTube are among the most popular social media sites.

Social media refers to the information that people share on those sites, including status updates, image and video comments, responses to blogs and forums, and any other individual contributions to the online space. This information reflects naturally occurring conversations among people who may or may not personally know each other.

What is Social Media Research?

Though evolving rapidly, social media research (SMR) is the application of marketing and opinion research methods to social media data for the purposes of conducting research (e.g., usage and attitude studies, social media research tracking studies, custom research, etc.). Similar to other types of marketing research usage and attitude studies, tracking studies, research goals and objectives are developed, methodologies are prepared, and social media data are analyzed quantitatively and/or qualitatively depending on the goals of the project.

SMR is distinct from other forms of marketing research in that it uses social media as its data source as opposed to surveys, focus groups and other data collection modes and techniques. SMR can be a complementary or stand-alone analytical tool for researchers, providing them with a unique opportunity to listen and measure the opinions of potentionally vast numbers of people who communicate online, some of whom may not normally or easily be accessible through non-observational forms of research.

About the Authors MRA is grateful to the following for their contributions to this Guide to the Top 16 Social Media Research Questions: Jim Longo, PRC, Itracks, Committee Chair; Janet Savoie, PRC, Online Survey Solution; Annie Pettit, Conversition Strategies; Ray Poynter, The Future Place; Ellie Schwartz; Ed Sugar, PRC, OLC Global; Tamara Barber, Forrester Research; Tamara Kenworthy, PRC, On Point Strategies; Steven Runfeldt, Schwartz Consulting; Benjamin Smithee, Spych Market Analytics; Aaron Hill, PRC, Sawtooth Software; Susan Saurage-Altenloh, PRC; Steffen Hück, HVYE; and Patrick Glaser, MRA.

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH

#1. what are the advantages and disadvantages of smr.

From a capacity standpoint, SMR provides the ability to collect and analyze information from the past as well as in real-time, as it is generated. Moreover, the richness of data available on social media networks is conducive to both qualitative designs (e.g., digital ethnographies) as well as quantitative designs, including numerical aggregation of large quantities of data.

In terms of methodological considerations, SMR utilizes an observational form of data collection. Information is collected from Web sites as posted by individuals who may not be specifically aware of the research role. As such, social media communications are thought to be free of, or less subject to, response biases that occurs in interviewer-administered, and even self-administered, forms of opinion surveys and focus groups. However, social media is inherently a public form of communication, with varying degrees of privacy which may affect some social media users’ willingness to reveal information, particularly sensitive or potentially embarrassing personal details.

From an ethical standpoint, SMR has the additional advantage of eliminating the burden that would otherwise be placed on a research participant. Social media users do not participate in “active” data collection (e.g., survey, focus group). They generate data simply by engaging in their natural online communications. However, SMR presents unique ethical considerations of which researchers must be aware (see “Ethical and Legal Issues”).

SMR offers researchers a host of benefits, a few of which include:

Ease of adjusting research criteria throughout the study
Potential cost savings and reduced logistical burden
Ease of application across locations
Access to hard-to-reach research participants
Benchmarking (e.g., reported vs. observed opinions)

Likewise, researchers should be aware of various challenges associated with SMR. For example, researchers who are new to SMR methods will need to familiarize themselves with both the characteristics of social media users as well as specific SM sites in order to properly draw conclusions about research findings. Additional considerations include the need to learn and become proficient with:

SM tools and techniques including sentiment and content analysis
Indicators of SMR validity and reliability at each stage of the process
Relevant types of biases, particularly those arising from unique SMR tools
The types of brands and categories that are more likely to be successful carrying out SMR, e.g., due to volume of data or consumer importance

#2. What data sources are typically used in SMR?

Millions of Web sites (small and large) currently facilitate the practice of social media research. However, online sites, which currently facilitate social media communications come and go, and change very rapidly. Researchers involved in SMR need to stay abreast of changes in social media communication patterns and trends, including the rise of mobile access, and popular SM vehicles. Current examples of SM Web sites that generate data suitable for SMR include:

Social Networking Sites:Social News: e.g., Digg, Reddit, Mashable, Technorati Facebook: Search, Community Pages, Fan Pages, Groups, Chat, Facebook-based Apps

Twitter: Location-based Application, Real-time Search, Advanced Search (search.twitter.com)

LinkedIn: Search, Groups, Q&A

Photo/Video Sharing: e.g., YouTube, Flickr
Online Communities: Industry, Topic-related, Branded or Unbranded
Blogs: e.g., Blogger, Posterous, Wordpress
Forums: Industry or Topic-related
Questions and Answers: e.g., Yahoo Answers, Linkedin Answers, Yedda
Commenting: e.g., Disqus, Backtype
Traditional News: e.g., CNN, BusinessWeek

#3. How does SMR interact with other forms of traditional and non-traditional research, including online, offline, in-person, and qualitative and quantitative?

SMR can effectively stand on its own, but may also be integrated with traditional research methods to create a holistic research solution. In fact, SMR may sometimes springboard or support other forms of traditional research. Examples of SMR integration with other research methods include:

Observing the flow of conversation in real time, thus prompting the most effective methodology for further research
Accessing user supplied media such as photos and video
Measuring trending topics for further “traditional” research
Assisting in the preparation of discussion guides or surveys
Identifying key influencers in an industry or on a topic
Reaching a segment of the population that may not otherwise be reachable
Comparing community-based insights to natural observational social media insights
Establishing trust between researcher and participant, potentially for further recruitment into another form of research
Exploring, and discovering “unknowns” via observations

#4. How reliable are SMR results?

Validity refers to the degree to which results reflect truth or reality while reliability reflects the degree to which results can be replicated if someone else were to conduct a similar study. Because research suppliers have different methods, standards of quality, and processing rules, research consumers must conduct their own validity and reliability analysis of any potential supplier to ensure the quality of work is sufficient. As with all types of marketing research, the validity and reliability of social media research varies greatly:

What is the validity and reliability of the sentiment and/or content analysis processes? If manual coders are used, reliability might be lower. If automated coders are used, validity might be lower.

Given that sentiment differs by Web site (e.g., Twitter is more negative while blogs are more positive), what is the range of social media venues that are measured and what percentage of the Internet population do they represent? Do any of the sites overwhelm the data collection strategy in a proportion that does not reflect the Internet space? Does the vendor know how and why to sample and weight data?
To what extent is the intended target group reflected by the social media venues being used?
Is the intention to measure and generalize to the general Internet population or to a particular segment of the Internet?
How is geographic and demographic information being measured in order to assess the validity of generalizing outside of the sample?
What timeframe is appropriate for the research objectives? Though small samples may be acceptable for long-term research, shorter time frames must use larger sample sizes.

#5. Within businesses and organizations, how will SMR activities be tracked and aggregated, and whose responsibility is it to handle each of those functions?

Social media research may be executed in multiple ways. For example, numerous departments within a single company may be involved in SMR, including internal research departments, and cross-functional teams from marketing, customer relationship management, public relations, public affairs, and other departments. SMR may also be outsourced to vendors who may or may not specialize in research. Regardless, the skill set of the user must be appropriate for the function.

#6. What additional knowledge, skills, and abilities will a corporate researcher need to learn in order to improve their level of competency with SMR?

SMR may involve several different methods and analytical approaches. As such, corporate researchers may find it most advantageous to learn a wide breadth of relevant techniques while continually honing their skills and knowledge in the areas that are most relevant to their organization. Commonly used techniques include both sentiment analysis and content analysis. Additionally, researchers will need to learn about, and become comfortable with, important explanatory variables beyond traditional “respondent” demographics, such as how different types of Web sites (e.g., blogs, forums, media, etc.) generate and facilitate different types of data (e.g., whether data is more positive versus negative, descriptive versus condensed, etc.).

#7. Are the participants aware that their usergenerated content is under observation?

Research contributors have demonstrated the occasional tendency to provide sub-optimal information when they are aware that others are studying or observing them. Oftentimes, this is attributable to concerns over the privacy of sensitive information or feelings of being compelled to give a socially-desirable response to a question. In SMR, though it commonly is understood that conversations are generally public and open to viewing by almost anyone, the individual under observation may or may not be aware of the presence of a researcher.

At the same time, participation in the social media space offers varying degrees of privacy. Users may participate for personal and/or professional reasons and they may or not seek relationships with other users. Researchers should be aware of the potential and likelihood for “social observational bias” and the effect it will have on the type, candor and direction of the user’s comments.

Ethical and Legal Issues

#8. how are sources cited in research reports and on research web portals are the citations different based on the source, e.g., twitter, blogger, forums.

As in traditional forms of research, it is important to protect the privacy of contributors. As such, without prior express consent, data transmitted from vendor to client should not include direct references or citations to individuals that would reveal their identity.

However, sources may be recorded for validation purposes as well as for potential data quality checks. Any data or reporting intended for transfer to an outside entity should be purged of personally identifiable information (PII) prior to changing-hands. This includes IP addresses, usernames, user id numbers, user photos, e-mail addresses, and other types of commonly available online data.

Where detailed information must be shared for the purposes of data quality or validation, the data should include source citations using the current link of the information (e.g., http:// twitter.com/xxxx/xxxx/). Notably, links should be expected to expire or become “broken” overtime. Researchers should plan to record any pertinent administrative or relevant source data (e.g., date/time, source identifier, query details, etc.) to be used in validation at the time of data collection.

#9. What are the controversies and legal issues regarding the rights of the people whose data is being used?

Social media is a relatively new form of communication and individuals from every stakeholder group, including the public, researchers and governments, are participating in an on-going conversation about the nature of its privacy and ethics. For this reason, it’s critical for researchers to understand that they have a responsibility to respect social media user’s privacy and that the definition and expectations for social media user’s privacy can and will change over time. Some brief areas of consideration are described below.

Privacy: Individuals and their social media privacy expectations should be respected. If an individual has posted information on a public Web site under a public “privacy” setting, they may be considered to have a very low or no expectation of privacy for the information they reveal. Even so, researchers who collect and analyze this information should take care to protect it from becoming identifiable to an individual.

Conversations should not be copied verbatim into reports as those direct quotes can be searched and identities discovered. A small number of relevant conversations can be summarized, without losing their flavor, in reports. Moreover, full quotations can be used with permission.

Interacting with individuals: Clients must never use information collected during or for social media research for the purpose of direct marketing or otherwise influencing the opinions and behaviors of the data subject. Marketing may only occur in places like branded and client communities where contributors would naturally expect those types of conversations to take place.

Combining data from multiple sources where privacy policies differ: In general, the policy provisions that tend to favor the rights and needs of the contributors should be given weight. Best practices call for researchers to respect the coded crawling terms of every Web site they visit. Where Web sites are coded to indicate that crawling is not permitted, those Web sites should not be crawled even if it is technically possible. Researchers must not join Web sites under the pretense of being a member so that they then have access to crawl a Web site that prohibits such crawling otherwise – this condition holds for both automated and manual crawling. Where researchers do join groups, they must immediately make it explicit that they are there for the purposes of marketing research. Notably, issues concerning access to data sources are paramount to the conduct of social media research and can be expected to be a major focus of the opinion research industry moving forward, both in terms of how to ethically gain access to the widest net of sources as well as appropriate ways to handle and adjust for cases where this is not possible.

SM Research Processes & Providers

#10. what is the level of expertise and industry qualifications of social media researchers and/or smr companies.

Anyone selecting a social media research vendor must be aware that the technique is relatively new. They must be careful to select a research partner with the appropriate level of expertise and skill in the practice of SMR. Some relevant questions to ask include:

Is the company primarily an IT or social media company that expanded into research, or a research company that expanded into social media? While IT and social media companies may have expertise in social media, crawling and data collection techniques, research companies have expertise in data analysis techniques.
Does the company focus on research exclusively or do they maintain other functions as well? For example, companies that conduct SMR may specialize in buzz monitoring, customer relationship management, public relations, research, or some other social media function.
Does the company specialize in qualitative methods, quantitative methods, or a combination of both?
Is the provider aware of traditional research practices such as sampling and weighting and, if so, how and when do they apply those practices?
For the practice of ethics and standards of quality, does the provider classify themselves as a researcher or as some other profession?

#11. What are the standard data and/or research outputs?

Since SMR is relatively new, industry standards for outputs have not yet been developed. It is important to understand the vendor’s policies and capacities for standard and custom reporting. Relevant questions include:

Does the company offer a full-service model of data collection, analysis and presentation or do they offer a self-service tool such as a portal?
In cases where the vendor offers full-service reporting and presentation, what substantive outputs may be expected? What technical explanation and reporting may be expected (e.g., a technical appendix)?
Are the SMR analyses incorporated with traditional types of marketing research and does the company have expertise doing so?
Does the provider offer standardized or customized tools?
How often are outputs updated and/or delivered?

#12. What is the process for gathering data?

Like other forms of opinion research, a wide variety of approaches exist for the implementation of SMR. It is important to understand the company policies undertaken. Relevant questions include:

Does the company gather its own data or is a data collection vendor used?
How many Web sites are crawled and how are those Web sites selected?
Does the company seek out permission-based relationships with the sites they crawl?
Does the company honor the electronic privacy notifications of individual Web sites?

#13. What data quality processes are implemented in each stage of the SMR?

What quality and validation protocols have been adopted and implemented to safeguard the quality of the research at each stage of the process? Are there validation processes in place for initial data collection, scoring and coding, etc.? Does the organization collect and retain information at the initial stages for validation purposes while removing/anonymizing data for reporting purposes?

#14. Does the company provide sentiment scoring?

Sentiment scoring is a process of assigning a positive or negative emotion to a conversation. Some vendors may provide strictly positive or negative emotions, while others may assign a continuum ranging from positive to neutral, to negative. If the vendor provides sentiment scoring, is the process an internal proprietary method, a third party purchased product, or some combination of the two? How is the sentiment scored (e.g., dictionary, bayesian, manually)?

#15. If sentiment scoring is provided, what is the process for validating results?

Simple and commonly-used systems of sentiment validation may prove to be inadequate. More rigorous approaches should be used, specifically blinded methods. For example:

For automated systems, researchers should receive a list of uncoded conversations and then code them manually. The manual codes should then be matched back and compared to the automated codes to derive a percentage match (i.e., validation coefficient).

For manual systems, two unique raters should independently code conversations. A validation coefficient may be derived from a comparison of the two outputs.

The above processes are two relatively simple examples of validation systems. More complicated calculations are available, but their use should be weighed according to the capacity of stakeholders to understand the meaning and method of the technique.

Language constantly changes and evolves due to new and lapsed slang, terminology, and speech patterns. As such, simple systems of sentiment validation may prove to be inadequate. When conducting SMR, rigorous and constantly monitored approaches to sentiment analysis are most appropriate.

#16. What, if any, methods are used for determining the geography associated with the data?

Demographic and geographic information can often be an important and meaningful element for research and validation purposes. When considering SMR, what geographic information is available and how precise is the information (e.g., city or town, region, country, unknown)? What types of demographic data are available (e.g., age, gender, income, education)?

Researchers must take care to specify the methodology and sample size associated with the information. Inferred methods (based on Web site sources or language) may be associated with large sample sizes but have low validity. On the other hand, precise information is currently only available for an extremely tiny percentage of conversations and therefore often has insufficient generalizability.

The “Top 16 Questions” presented in this guide represent the core matters of importance to the research field with respect to social media research. They include issues of reliability, execution, interaction with other kinds of research, ethics and legal compliance, data quality, process, and outputs.

Importantly, the 16 questions in this document do not stand as the only ones the opinion research profession needs to address, nor do they take the place of standards of practice. Instead, they provide a starting point for experts and professionals to debate and discuss development toward this goal. As in any profession, a reasonable consensus should be reached in order to validly define and represent an industry standard of best practice. It is the goal of the Marketing Research Association that this document be widely distributed and contribute as such.

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Social media research: Step-by-step tutorial with examples

Introduction: What is social media research?
Step 1: Develop a research design
Step 2: Collect & import your social media data
Step 3: Data preparation

Step 4: Get an overview

Step 5: Categorize your data
Step 6: Aggregate & present your results

Further learning materials

Friday, January 5, 2024

How to conduct social media research with MAXQDA?

Social Media has drastically changed the way we communicate. Nowadays it’s a lot easier for an individual to communicate with a large audience or with strangers living on the other side of the planet, and to find and communicate with others researching similar topics. Companies, organizations, and political parties can target a specific group of people for their campaign and receive immediate feedback. So, it’s not a surprise that online communication has become more prevalent, which in turn has increased the significance of social media platforms.

Researchers and marketers alike benefit from the wealth of data available on social media platforms, gaining insights into the public’s opinions, communication patterns, and more. Social media research describes the process of collecting and analyzing social media data, such as posts, comments, and likes in order to understand communication patterns, public opinions, and trends.

Who conducts social media research?

Compared to other data collection instruments, such as focus group discussions, collecting social media data is less resource-intensive as the data is easily accessible. However, researchers are confronted with extensive data when performing social media research. Depending on the topic thousands and thousands of posts and comments exist. Consequently, social media researchers need QDA software that is well-equipped for challenges like these, such as MAXQDA. MAXQDA can facilitate your social media research with its numerous data organization and analysis tools. MAXQDA’s auto-coding and sentiment analysis are particularly useful tools, allowing you to explore many posts without reading each one individually. Furthermore, AI Assist, MAXQDA’s AI-based features, are well-suited to handle big data. In the present guide we aim to explain how you can perform social media research with MAXQDA.

Step 1: Develop a research design for social media research

As for any other research project, we advise you to develop a research design before starting your social media research. A research design serves as a structured plan outlining how a researcher intends to answer a specific research question. Determine the specific social media data you wish to analyze and define the precise methodology for your analysis. Among other considerations, ask yourself which social media platform(s) you want to consider, whether there is a time frame of interest; and if you plan to exclusively focus on social media posts containing particular hashtags or keywords. You must address these questions to develop a well-designed study that ensures reliable and valid results. We recommend reading our Research Design guide if you need clarification on what a research design entails.

Please note that the order of the steps presented here is flexible and depends on your research design and research question.

Step 2: Collect & import your social media data

With MAXQDA, you have several options for importing your social media data. On the one side, MAXQDA provides specialized import tools for YouTube comments and specialized analysis tools for YouTube data and X (formerly known as Twitter) data. Suppose you want to import and analyze data from a different social media platform. Then, you can either use MAXQDA’s WebCollector to collect and import entire webpages into MAXQDA or another social media data collection service, saving the data in a MAXQDA-compatible format, like an Excel file. There are several online tools for exporting social media data.

MAXQDA’s WebCollector

You can use MAXQDA’s WebCollector – a free Chrome Browser extension – to export entire websites in a format that can be imported into MAXQDA. The free MAXQDA WebCollector is availale on the Chrome WebStore.

Get the MAXQDA WebCollector

After installing the extension, export the webpage from your social media platform of interest. In the case of X (formerly known as Twitter) you have two options. You can either export only top-level posts or a specific top-level post, including all its replies. Search for a hashtag and export the search results, i.e., all posts containing this hashtag, by opening the WebCollector extension and clicking “Collect.” If you want, you can add notes in the Document Memo section, such as the time frame or other parameters of your search. Upon import into MAXQDA, these notes will be imported as a Document Memo.

Use the MAXQDA WebCollector to export social media data

In the case you are specifically interested in specific posts, e.g., posts from a certain account or posts with a lot of replies, click on the post so that the original post and all comments are displayed. Now, export the website with MAXQDA’s WebCollector to compile the original posts, including all replies.

Step 3: Social media research data preparation

Before starting the actual analysis, you might want to clean and organize your data in a meaningful way. For example, you could remove irrelevant and duplicate posts. You could also organize your data in document groups, e.g., based on the social media platform, a time range, a hashtag, or whatever category is important to your social media research.

Organize your data in Document groups

You may add variables to the imported social media data depending on your research design. For example, when investigating social media trends over time, it can be handy for further analysis to add variables such as the date and timing of the post. To do so, simply go to the “Variables” tab and click “List of Document Variables.” By clicking “New variable,” you can add new variables, specify their type, and define missing values.

Add document variables to improve your social media research

Depending on your research approach, you might benefit from an overview of the data before creating and applying codes, e.g., when following an inductive approach. In other cases, you might already have codes in mind and use them prior to summarizing the data, e.g., in deductive approaches.

When following an inductive approach, you might want to get a basic understanding of the collected social media data and base your codes on the actual content. MAXQDA offers numerous tools, allowing you to get a quick overview. Especially useful when working with big data, such as in social media research, are MAXQDA’s auto-coding and AI-based tools.

Summarize social media data with AI Assist

We acknowledge that AI can assist researchers in qualitative data analysis as well as in other areas of life. Therefore, we developed the AI Assist add-on – your virtual research assistant. AI Assist features several tools that can facilitate your social media research. AI Assist’s Summarize Document function is handy for a quick content overview. This feature creates a summary of entire documents, e.g., of a post and its replies, which it stores in Document Memos. To let AI Assist summarize your document, right-click on it in the Documents window, and choose AI Assist > Summarize Document. You can edit and refine the summary within the Document Memo. These summaries might help you get an idea about the key points discussed and develop codes accordingly.

With AI-generated summaries you can speed up your social media research

Automatically analyze the public’s sentiment

Often, people performing social media research are not interested in every single opinion of every single individual but in the general sentiment towards a topic, politician, issue, or product. With MAXQDA, you can perform a sentiment analysis in no time. To perform a sentiment analysis, open the Smart Coding Tool in the Codes tab. Since the Smart Coding tool works on the level of coded segments, you need to dummy-code your data prior to the sentiment analysis. When importing YouTube comments, comments and replies are automatically coded. However, when importing data through other means, such as via the WebCollector, you may want to manually create the codes ‘post’ and ‘reply’ to quickly code your data. Subsequently, you can perform automatic sentiment analysis by clicking on the button “Analyze Sentiments.” To autocode your social media data with the respective sentiment, click “Autocode Segments with Sentiment.” Then, MAXQDA creates the code ‘Sentiment’ with the identified sentiments as subcodes. By looking at the code frequencies you get a first impression of the general public sentiment.

Autocode the sentiment of your social media data

Subsequently, you can use MAXQDA’s retrieval function to, e.g., focus your social media research on negative posts. To do so, simply activate the documents of interest and the code ‘Sentiment’ > ‘Negative’. All text segments coded with this code will be displayed in the Retrieved Segments window. If you plan to create subcodes, for example to divide the negative sentiment into reasons why people dislike your product, you can again use the Smart Coding tool. Select the code ‘Negative’ from the Code tree on the left site and MAXQDA will display only the segments with a negative sentiment to which you can apply additional codes.

Summarize coded segments with AI Assist

Rather than going through the ‘Negative’ posts individually, you can again use the power of artificial intelligence to create a summary of the coded segments. To do so, right-click the code ‘Negative’ in the Codes window and select AI Assist > Summarize coded segments. Similarly, to the Summarize Document feature, AI Assist will add the summary in a memo.

Step 5: Categorize your social media research data

In many qualitative research projects, including social media research, coding/categorizing your data is an important step. When working inductively, the AI-generated summaries might provide initial ideas for codes. When working deductively, you probably already have codes in mind. With MAXQDA you can easily create codes, assign code colors, and define rules for coding in the New Code window regardless of your approach. Furthermore, you can organize your codes hierarchically. But there is more – MAXQDA allows you to create emoticodes which might come handy when analyzing social media data. For more information on various coding methods, you can refer to:

Learn more about coding with MAXQDA

Autocode your social media data

Especially useful for big data is MAXQDA’s Text Search & Autocode feature, which is located in the Analysis tab. This feature allows you to search for keywords and automatically code them. You can also use logical operators, such as OR, to search for a list of keywords simultaneously e.g., to find all synonyms of a word with just one search. If you are interested in certain concepts, you can create dictionaries of keywords defining the concept and search for multiple concepts at once (search for the whole dictionary). To do so, you first need to create a dictionary. Therefore, go to the MAXDictio tab and select Dictionaries.

Search & autocode important keywords for your social media research

Generate subcode suggestions with AI Assist

In the coding of qualitative data, researchers often start with broad codes, intending to refine them in a later step of the social media research. Alongside the Smart Coding Tool, which is ideal for code refinement, as explained earlier, AI Assist’s “Suggest Subcodes” is another valuable tool. You can use this feature to to get subcode suggestions. Simply, right-click on a code and select AI Assist > Subcode Suggestions.

Step 6: Aggregate & present your results

A crucial step involves consolidating your social media research results into a format that is easily understandable for others. For example, charts and visualisations can aggregate huge amount of data in an easily comprehensible graph that answers your research question. Of course, MAXQDA has integrated visualisation and charting tools. Some tools that might be especially useful for presenting social media data are presented in the following sections.

Word Cloud for visualizing the most frequent words

MAXQDA’s World Cloud, which can also be used with data that hasn’t been coded, is one of the most appropriate visualization tools in social media research. Select the document(s) that serve as the basis for your word cloud and generate a visual representation of the most recurring words. To exclude frequent, yet non-informative words such as ‘the’ or ‘a,’ you can apply a stop word list to the data, effectively filtering out these ubiquitous terms. We offer several Stop Word Lists in several languages on our website, so you don’t have to create one yourself.

Get Stop Word Lists

Word Cloud displaying the most frequent words of YouTube comments

Visualize trends

If your social media research analyzes a topic over time, the Trends function might also interest you. Currently, MAXQDA offers Word Trends, Code Trends, and Dictionary Categories Trends. To explore how code or word frequencies change across time, you should store your social media data in distinct documents – one document per time range. While Word Trends can be used even when the data is not coded, Code Trends requires coded data. No matter whether you are using Code or Word trends, select Trends for multiple documents. Then, select the documents (and codes) of interest and MAXQDA will visualize them. For example, you can use the Code Trends tool on auto-generated sentiment codes to investigate how sentiments towards a topic change over time.

Aside from analyzing trends across time, you can also use MAXQDA’s Trends tool to compare reactions, e.g., between different social media plattforms. To do this, you need to organize your data as follows: create a separate document for each social media plattform containing all posts of interest. Next, choose your preferred Trends tool and again choose trends for multiple documents. In case you are interested in how a discussion evolves in a comment section, given that the data is stored in one document, you can opt for the single document trends feature. MAXQDA splits the document in 10 segments, allowing you to see how word/code frequencies look across them.

Visualizing sentiment trends for #maxqda across weeks

Write your report with QTT

Questions-Themes-Theories (QTT) provides an innovative workspace for gathering important visualizations, notes, segments, and other analytical results. It is an excellent tool for organizing your thoughts and crafting your social media research report. To get started, create a dedicated worksheet for your topics and research questions, and populate it with pertinent analysis elements extracted from other MAXQDA functions. For example, you can incorporate your Trends visualization to a QTT worksheet by clicking on the button, as shown in the screenshot below. Exploratory coded segments related to a set of social media posts can be added to the QTT worksheet via the context menu. For each imported element you can add insights. Furthermore, you have the option to add your conclusions and theories, as well as your research design. Subsequently, you can view all analysis elements and insights to write your final conclusion. The new Questions-Themes-Theories tool is designed to assist you finalize your social media research. With just one click, you can export your worksheet and use it as a starting point for your social media research report.

Add a visualization to a QTT worksheet

We offer a variety of complimentary learning materials to help you get started with your social media research. Check out the recording of a spotlight session on analyzing social media data with MAXQDA which was held at the MAXDAYS conference in 2023. In addition, the free book “The Practice of Qualitative Data Analysis,” provides ten case studies with brief real-world examples, demonstrating MAXQDA’s practical applications.

Spotlight Session: Analyzing Social Media Data with MAXQDA

The Practice of Qualitative Data Analysis

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Published September 6 th 2016

Conducting Social Media Research: How to Find Real Consumer Insights

Social is a rich source of data but only if you know how to conduct good social media research. This post explains the methods for finding consumer insights

Social media research can surface consumer insights that can be difficult and expensive to find in any other way. The volume of conversation on the web gives this research method a unique ability – uncovering qualitative insights on a quantitative scale.

For many people, however, it can be daunting. There is so much data: millions upon millions of conversations happen online every day. If you don’t know how to refine what you are listening to, you’ll drown in the data.

It’s also easy to rely on the metrics that are constantly produced on social: likes, followers, fans and so on. Knowing how to cut through the noise to find the information that can drive business decisions is a real skill. I recently spoke to Bex Carson, Head of Brandwatch’s Research Services team, to get an insight into best practice when it comes to social media research.

social media research puts the whole world in your hands

Developing an approach to social media research

Uncovering insights requires a certain approach. You need to move beyond the simple social metrics to uncover robust insights that can recommend a real business action. The problem can be knowing who to listen to, how to spot a trend, knowing what’s significant and putting your findings into context.

Many people will start with the metrics they know about. They then think about the questions it is possible to answer with those metrics, and develop a research plan based on that. A good social intelligence tool has the flexibility that renders this way of thinking very restrictive – it starts with what was already known and therefore limits the possibilities of what can be discovered.

Ask interesting questions

The foundation for good social media research is asking the right questions. If you start with a bad question, you’ll receive a bad answer.

Start by forgetting any concerns about how you are going to conduct the research. Focus on the problems and questions you need to answer, without thinking about the methodology. Once you have the question, you can work on the methodology.

With Brandwatch there’s a way to answer pretty much any question. The joy of social media is its flexibility and Brandwatch Analytics has been built to be flexible to match that.

Bex Carson, Head of Research Services, Brandwatch

The questions need to be specific. They need to be able to deliver an answer that can be acted upon. Examples of this sort of question might be “What do women in their 50s want from a fashion brand?” or “Is our content resonating with our target customers?”

Spend time developing questions, and brainstorm with others where possible. Consider the following:

What do we want to be able to do that is different based on this research?
What capacity/power/authority for change does the reader of the report have?
How do I recognize success? What does good look like?
What do I already know about this subject/audience?
Is my question answerable within the timeframe available?

Do better analysis

There are two main approaches you can take to answering your questions. The first involves uncovering metrics that answer a defined question. The second is more of an exploratory approach, discovering insights as you work through the data. Where time and budget allows, a combination of the two approaches will generally reveal the most interesting and robust answers.

The best social media research that produces the best results will combine some elements of both. That way you know you are investing time to get definite answers to specific questions, but you’re leaving yourself open to discover something new about your audience.

BEX CARSON, BRANDWATCH

Structured and planned analysis.

For this type of research, you are looking for an answer to a specific question. You need to identify specific metrics that you can bring together to answer that question. By using the power of segmentation – Brandwatch’s Rules , Categories, and Tags – you can arrive at specific answers.

You can take a structured approach to social media research

This method is great for answering defined, objective questions. For example, if you have run a campaign and want to know if it drove spontaneous awareness, you can look at the volume of discussion for both the campaign assets and the brand baseline over time. These relatively simple queries will result in metrics that uncover the success of your campaign.

Follow the breadcrumbs analysis

This approach is exploratory, listening to the data to discover the story within it. Think of it as social media ethnography. You can arrive at a fuller understanding of your consumers, uncovering different audience groups as you move through the data and spot trends.

This methodology can be a challenge. You need to enter the project without preconceptions and ensure you don’t draw your own conclusions. It’s a harder way to conduct social media research – using open listening to find underlying themes.

The benefits are plentiful, though. First, you are closer to the voice of the customer . There is no substitute for listening to your customers verbatim, understanding the nuance and sentiment of their conversations.

As a human analyst, you can understand and categorize things that a machine simply can’t. Someone might be talking about the same topic even if they don’t use the same words. Reading through the conversations, you can find people might talk in a way that you hadn’t thought of, and use that to enrich your research.

1. Decide on your dataset

Broad topics and themes often drive more interesting results than brand queries. You want to analyze of a type of conversation rather than a particular brand. Within the conversation theme, you still need to define the problem clearly so you can create a targeted query and reduce noise in the data.

As an example, let’s say you wanted to know what people who have seen the movie thought about the new Ghostbusters film . If you just wrote a query on Ghostbusters, there would be a lot of conversation around the all-female cast, or the abuse that Leslie Jones received on Twitter.

By writing a query that includes personal pronouns, mentions of cinema brands, people saying “just seen/watched” and so on, you will have a much cleaner data set without manipulating it too much.

2. Clean your data

This can be a really important way of revealing the interesting, more concealed consumer insights. Many topics can be dominated by a few obvious and popular themes, so that the insights get lost in comparison.

You want to surface underlying themes with a unique value, rather things you can see easily on a topic cloud/trend line. To do this, you can look at you initial query results to identify the popular themes, and then exclude those mentions by using tags.

The data that remains lets you see what else people are saying beyond what you already know. It can also be useful to remove retweets, leaving you with only the original conversations.

3. Take a random sample

While automation can be a useful tool, the type of analysis we are talking about here is human led. This means you need a manageable dataset. It needs to be large enough to be representative of the mentions, but small enough so it can be read completely, and in detail. Mark off the mentions as you work through them to ensure you cover your whole sample.

This allows you to undertake the next step…

4. Read and code using grouped categories

There is no right way to do this step, and it will largely depend on your dataset. This is where you go on a journey of discovery, hunting down the insights in the data. You want to start grouping themes and topics.

You can start by creating categories that you think you are going to find. To go back to the Ghostbusters example, you would expect some people to say they “loved it”, others that “hated it”, and everything in between.

It’s important to remember that this is just a starting point. You need to be completely data-led. New themes will emerge as you work through the data, so you need to add these.

Human analysis allows you to have nuanced emotional categories, such as anger, frustration, humor, joy and so on. A human analyst is able to pick these up where automated processes would not be able to.

You can also set up categories for author type, to understand the different conversations among different actors.

Brandwatch allows you to group categories together, so each emotional or author response can form a sub-group within a parent group. This can prove useful during your analysis.

Crucially, you want to liberally add categories as you read through the data. At the end, you might find there were only a couple of mentions of one category and decide to delete it. It’s better to do this than be conservative and realize you missed an important topic of discussion only once you reach the end of the dataset.

5. Analyze and chart

Now you need to dive into the charts and start analyzing.

The best way to start is to simply create a standard chart component and apply filters to the data. You can start looking at your different categories, moving the data around to spot interesting patterns.

Some of the most useful insights come from crossing your parent categories. So if you have author type on one axis, and emotion on the other, you can start to see different emotional responses from different author types.

Golden rules for social media research

1. compare everything and constantly seek out difference.

The fundamental tenet of social media research is noticing a difference between things. You don’t know what good looks like without seeing the bad, but you are looking for a significant difference. You don’t want to recommend sweeping changes because of a tiny difference in the data. Be curious and keep exploring.

If you want to be interesting, be interested.

2. Be curious and ask why

If you notice a difference, start digging into it. Then dig some more. Keep digging until you have read something that helps explain why that difference exists.

You can’t create a suggested action based on a piece of data if you don’t understand why that piece of data is the way that it is.

Presenting your social media research

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Front Psychiatry

Research trends in social media addiction and problematic social media use: A bibliometric analysis

Alfonso pellegrino.

1 Sasin School of Management, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Alessandro Stasi

2 Business Administration Division, Mahidol University International College, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand

Veera Bhatiasevi

Associated data.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors.

Despite their increasing ubiquity in people's lives and incredible advantages in instantly interacting with others, social media's impact on subjective well-being is a source of concern worldwide and calls for up-to-date investigations of the role social media plays in mental health. Much research has discovered how habitual social media use may lead to addiction and negatively affect adolescents' school performance, social behavior, and interpersonal relationships. The present study was conducted to review the extant literature in the domain of social media and analyze global research productivity during 2013–2022. Bibliometric analysis was conducted on 501 articles that were extracted from the Scopus database using the keywords social media addiction and problematic social media use. The data were then uploaded to VOSviewer software to analyze citations, co-citations, and keyword co-occurrences. Volume, growth trajectory, geographic distribution of the literature, influential authors, intellectual structure of the literature, and the most prolific publishing sources were analyzed. The bibliometric analysis presented in this paper shows that the US, the UK, and Turkey accounted for 47% of the publications in this field. Most of the studies used quantitative methods in analyzing data and therefore aimed at testing relationships between variables. In addition, the findings in this study show that most analysis were cross-sectional. Studies were performed on undergraduate students between the ages of 19–25 on the use of two social media platforms: Facebook and Instagram. Limitations as well as research directions for future studies are also discussed.

Introduction

Social media generally refers to third-party internet-based platforms that mainly focus on social interactions, community-based inputs, and content sharing among its community of users and only feature content created by their users and not that licensed from third parties ( 1 ). Social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are prominent examples of social media that allow people to stay connected in an online world regardless of geographical distance or other obstacles ( 2 , 3 ). Recent evidence suggests that social networking sites have become increasingly popular among adolescents following the strict policies implemented by many countries to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, including social distancing, “lockdowns,” and quarantine measures ( 4 ). In this new context, social media have become an essential part of everyday life, especially for children and adolescents ( 5 ). For them such media are a means of socialization that connect people together. Interestingly, social media are not only used for social communication and entertainment purposes but also for sharing opinions, learning new things, building business networks, and initiate collaborative projects ( 6 ).

Among the 7.91 billion people in the world as of 2022, 4.62 billion active social media users, and the average time individuals spent using the internet was 6 h 58 min per day with an average use of social media platforms of 2 h and 27 min ( 7 ). Despite their increasing ubiquity in people's lives and the incredible advantages they offer to instantly interact with people, an increasing number of studies have linked social media use to negative mental health consequences, such as suicidality, loneliness, and anxiety ( 8 ). Numerous sources have expressed widespread concern about the effects of social media on mental health. A 2011 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) identifies a phenomenon known as Facebook depression which may be triggered “when preteens and teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites, such as Facebook, and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression” ( 9 ). Similarly, the UK's Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) claims that there is a clear evidence of the relationship between social media use and mental health issues based on a survey of nearly 1,500 people between the ages of 14–24 ( 10 ). According to some authors, the increase in usage frequency of social media significantly increases the risks of clinical disorders described (and diagnosed) as “Facebook depression,” “fear of missing out” (FOMO), and “social comparison orientation” (SCO) ( 11 ). Other risks include sexting ( 12 ), social media stalking ( 13 ), cyber-bullying ( 14 ), privacy breaches ( 15 ), and improper use of technology. Therefore, social media's impact on subjective well-being is a source of concern worldwide and calls for up-to-date investigations of the role social media plays with regard to mental health ( 8 ). Many studies have found that habitual social media use may lead to addiction and thus negatively affect adolescents' school performance, social behavior, and interpersonal relationships ( 16 – 18 ). As a result of addiction, the user becomes highly engaged with online activities motivated by an uncontrollable desire to browse through social media pages and “devoting so much time and effort to it that it impairs other important life areas” ( 19 ).

Given these considerations, the present study was conducted to review the extant literature in the domain of social media and analyze global research productivity during 2013–2022. The study presents a bibliometric overview of the leading trends with particular regard to “social media addiction” and “problematic social media use.” This is valuable as it allows for a comprehensive overview of the current state of this field of research, as well as identifies any patterns or trends that may be present. Additionally, it provides information on the geographical distribution and prolific authors in this area, which may help to inform future research endeavors.

In terms of bibliometric analysis of social media addiction research, few studies have attempted to review the existing literature in the domain extensively. Most previous bibliometric studies on social media addiction and problematic use have focused mainly on one type of screen time activity such as digital gaming or texting ( 20 ) and have been conducted with a focus on a single platform such as Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat ( 21 , 22 ). The present study adopts a more comprehensive approach by including all social media platforms and all types of screen time activities in its analysis.

Additionally, this review aims to highlight the major themes around which the research has evolved to date and draws some guidance for future research directions. In order to meet these objectives, this work is oriented toward answering the following research questions:

(1) What is the current status of research focusing on social media addiction?
(2) What are the key thematic areas in social media addiction and problematic use research?
(3) What is the intellectual structure of social media addiction as represented in the academic literature?
(4) What are the key findings of social media addiction and problematic social media research?
(5) What possible future research gaps can be identified in the field of social media addiction?

These research questions will be answered using bibliometric analysis of the literature on social media addiction and problematic use. This will allow for an overview of the research that has been conducted in this area, including information on the most influential authors, journals, countries of publication, and subject areas of study. Part 2 of the study will provide an examination of the intellectual structure of the extant literature in social media addiction while Part 3 will discuss the research methodology of the paper. Part 4 will discuss the findings of the study followed by a discussion under Part 5 of the paper. Finally, in Part 7, gaps in current knowledge about this field of research will be identified.

Literature review

Social media addiction research context.

Previous studies on behavioral addictions have looked at a lot of different factors that affect social media addiction focusing on personality traits. Although there is some inconsistency in the literature, numerous studies have focused on three main personality traits that may be associated with social media addiction, namely anxiety, depression, and extraversion ( 23 , 24 ).

It has been found that extraversion scores are strongly associated with increased use of social media and addiction to it ( 25 , 26 ). People with social anxiety as well as people who have psychiatric disorders often find online interactions extremely appealing ( 27 ). The available literature also reveals that the use of social media is positively associated with being female, single, and having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), or anxiety ( 28 ).

In a study by Seidman ( 29 ), the Big Five personality traits were assessed using Saucier's ( 30 ) Mini-Markers Scale. Results indicated that neurotic individuals use social media as a safe place for expressing their personality and meet belongingness needs. People affected by neurosis tend to use online social media to stay in touch with other people and feel better about their social lives ( 31 ). Narcissism is another factor that has been examined extensively when it comes to social media, and it has been found that people who are narcissistic are more likely to become addicted to social media ( 32 ). In this case users want to be seen and get “likes” from lots of other users. Longstreet and Brooks ( 33 ) did a study on how life satisfaction depends on how much money people make. Life satisfaction was found to be negatively linked to social media addiction, according to the results. When social media addiction decreases, the level of life satisfaction rises. But results show that in lieu of true-life satisfaction people use social media as a substitute (for temporary pleasure vs. longer term happiness).

Researchers have discovered similar patterns in students who tend to rank high in shyness: they find it easier to express themselves online rather than in person ( 34 , 35 ). With the use of social media, shy individuals have the opportunity to foster better quality relationships since many of their anxiety-related concerns (e.g., social avoidance and fear of social devaluation) are significantly reduced ( 36 , 37 ).

Problematic use of social media

The amount of research on problematic use of social media has dramatically increased since the last decade. But using social media in an unhealthy manner may not be considered an addiction or a disorder as this behavior has not yet been formally categorized as such ( 38 ). Although research has shown that people who use social media in a negative way often report negative health-related conditions, most of the data that have led to such results and conclusions comprise self-reported data ( 39 ). The dimensions of excessive social media usage are not exactly known because there are not enough diagnostic criteria and not enough high-quality long-term studies available yet. This is what Zendle and Bowden-Jones ( 40 ) noted in their own research. And this is why terms like “problematic social media use” have been used to describe people who use social media in a negative way. Furthermore, if a lot of time is spent on social media, it can be hard to figure out just when it is being used in a harmful way. For instance, people easily compare their appearance to what they see on social media, and this might lead to low self-esteem if they feel they do not look as good as the people they are following. According to research in this domain, the extent to which an individual engages in photo-related activities (e.g., taking selfies, editing photos, checking other people's photos) on social media is associated with negative body image concerns. Through curated online images of peers, adolescents face challenges to their self-esteem and sense of self-worth and are increasingly isolated from face-to-face interaction.

To address this problem the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) has been used by some scholars ( 41 , 42 ). These scholars have used criteria from the DSM-V to describe one problematic social media use, internet gaming disorder, but such criteria could also be used to describe other types of social media disorders. Franchina et al. ( 43 ) and Scott and Woods ( 44 ), for example, focus their attention on individual-level factors (like fear of missing out) and family-level factors (like childhood abuse) that have been used to explain why people use social media in a harmful way. Friends-level factors have also been explored as a social well-being measurement to explain why people use social media in a malevolent way and demonstrated significant positive correlations with lower levels of friend support ( 45 ). Macro-level factors have also been suggested, such as the normalization of surveillance ( 46 ) and the ability to see what people are doing online ( 47 ). Gender and age seem to be highly associated to the ways people use social media negatively. Particularly among girls, social media use is consistently associated with mental health issues ( 41 , 48 , 49 ), an association more common among older girls than younger girls ( 46 , 48 ).

Most studies have looked at the connection between social media use and its effects (such as social media addiction) and a number of different psychosomatic disorders. In a recent study conducted by Vannucci and Ohannessian ( 50 ), the use of social media appears to have a variety of effects “on psychosocial adjustment during early adolescence, with high social media use being the most problematic.” It has been found that people who use social media in a harmful way are more likely to be depressed, anxious, have low self-esteem, be more socially isolated, have poorer sleep quality, and have more body image dissatisfaction. Furthermore, harmful social media use has been associated with unhealthy lifestyle patterns (for example, not getting enough exercise or having trouble managing daily obligations) as well as life threatening behaviors such as illicit drug use, excessive alcohol consumption and unsafe sexual practices ( 51 , 52 ).

A growing body of research investigating social media use has revealed that the extensive use of social media platforms is correlated with a reduced performance on cognitive tasks and in mental effort ( 53 ). Overall, it appears that individuals who have a problematic relationship with social media or those who use social media more frequently are more likely to develop negative health conditions.

Social media addiction and problematic use systematic reviews

Previous studies have revealed the detrimental impacts of social media addiction on users' health. A systematic review by Khan and Khan ( 20 ) has pointed out that social media addiction has a negative impact on users' mental health. For example, social media addiction can lead to stress levels rise, loneliness, and sadness ( 54 ). Anxiety is another common mental health problem associated with social media addiction. Studies have found that young adolescents who are addicted to social media are more likely to suffer from anxiety than people who are not addicted to social media ( 55 ). In addition, social media addiction can also lead to physical health problems, such as obesity and carpal tunnel syndrome a result of spending too much time on the computer ( 22 ).

Apart from the negative impacts of social media addiction on users' mental and physical health, social media addiction can also lead to other problems. For example, social media addiction can lead to financial problems. A study by Sharif and Yeoh ( 56 ) has found that people who are addicted to social media tend to spend more money than those who are not addicted to social media. In addition, social media addiction can also lead to a decline in academic performance. Students who are addicted to social media are more likely to have lower grades than those who are not addicted to social media ( 57 ).

Research methodology

Bibliometric analysis.

Merigo et al. ( 58 ) use bibliometric analysis to examine, organize, and analyze a large body of literature from a quantitative, objective perspective in order to assess patterns of research and emerging trends in a certain field. A bibliometric methodology is used to identify the current state of the academic literature, advance research. and find objective information ( 59 ). This technique allows the researchers to examine previous scientific work, comprehend advancements in prior knowledge, and identify future study opportunities.

To achieve this objective and identify the research trends in social media addiction and problematic social media use, this study employs two bibliometric methodologies: performance analysis and science mapping. Performance analysis uses a series of bibliometric indicators (e.g., number of annual publications, document type, source type, journal impact factor, languages, subject area, h-index, and countries) and aims at evaluating groups of scientific actors on a particular topic of research. VOSviewer software ( 60 ) was used to carry out the science mapping. The software is used to visualize a particular body of literature and map the bibliographic material using the co-occurrence analysis of author, index keywords, nations, and fields of publication ( 61 , 62 ).

Data collection

After picking keywords, designing the search strings, and building up a database, the authors conducted a bibliometric literature search. Scopus was utilized to gather exploration data since it is a widely used database that contains the most comprehensive view of the world's research output and provides one of the most effective search engines. If the research was to be performed using other database such as Web Of Science or Google Scholar the authors may have obtained larger number of articles however they may not have been all particularly relevant as Scopus is known to have the most widest and most relevant scholar search engine in marketing and social science. A keyword search for “social media addiction” OR “problematic social media use” yielded 553 papers, which were downloaded from Scopus. The information was gathered in March 2022, and because the Scopus database is updated on a regular basis, the results may change in the future. Next, the authors examined the titles and abstracts to see whether they were relevant to the topics treated. There were two common grounds for document exclusion. First, while several documents emphasized the negative effects of addiction in relation to the internet and digital media, they did not focus on social networking sites specifically. Similarly, addiction and problematic consumption habits were discussed in relation to social media in several studies, although only in broad terms. This left a total of 511 documents. Articles were then limited only to journal articles, conference papers, reviews, books, and only those published in English. This process excluded 10 additional documents. Then, the relevance of the remaining articles was finally checked by reading the titles, abstracts, and keywords. Documents were excluded if social networking sites were only mentioned as a background topic or very generally. This resulted in a final selection of 501 research papers, which were then subjected to bibliometric analysis (see Figure 1 ).

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Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) flowchart showing the search procedures used in the review.

After identifying 501 Scopus files, bibliographic data related to these documents were imported into an Excel sheet where the authors' names, their affiliations, document titles, keywords, abstracts, and citation figures were analyzed. These were subsequently uploaded into VOSViewer software version 1.6.8 to begin the bibliometric review. Descriptive statistics were created to define the whole body of knowledge about social media addiction and problematic social media use. VOSViewer was used to analyze citation, co-citation, and keyword co-occurrences. According to Zupic and Cater ( 63 ), co-citation analysis measures the influence of documents, authors, and journals heavily cited and thus considered influential. Co-citation analysis has the objective of building similarities between authors, journals, and documents and is generally defined as the frequency with which two units are cited together within the reference list of a third article.

The implementation of social media addiction performance analysis was conducted according to the models recently introduced by Karjalainen et al. ( 64 ) and Pattnaik ( 65 ). Throughout the manuscript there are operational definitions of relevant terms and indicators following a standardized bibliometric approach. The cumulative academic impact (CAI) of the documents was measured by the number of times they have been cited in other scholarly works while the fine-grained academic impact (FIA) was computed according to the authors citation analysis and authors co-citation analysis within the reference lists of documents that have been specifically focused on social media addiction and problematic social media use.

Results of the study presented here include the findings on social media addiction and social media problematic use. The results are presented by the foci outlined in the study questions.

Volume, growth trajectory, and geographic distribution of the literature

After performing the Scopus-based investigation of the current literature regarding social media addiction and problematic use of social media, the authors obtained a knowledge base consisting of 501 documents comprising 455 journal articles, 27 conference papers, 15 articles reviews, 3 books and 1 conference review. The included literature was very recent. As shown in Figure 2 , publication rates started very slowly in 2013 but really took off in 2018, after which publications dramatically increased each year until a peak was reached in 2021 with 195 publications. Analyzing the literature published during the past decade reveals an exponential increase in scholarly production on social addiction and its problematic use. This might be due to the increasingly widespread introduction of social media sites in everyday life and the ubiquitous diffusion of mobile devices that have fundamentally impacted human behavior. The dip in the number of publications in 2022 is explained by the fact that by the time the review was carried out the year was not finished yet and therefore there are many articles still in press.

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Annual volume of social media addiction or social media problematic use ( n = 501).

The geographical distribution trends of scholarly publications on social media addiction or problematic use of social media are highlighted in Figure 3 . The articles were assigned to a certain country according to the nationality of the university with whom the first author was affiliated with. The figure shows that the most productive countries are the USA (92), the U.K. (79), and Turkey ( 63 ), which combined produced 236 articles, equal to 47% of the entire scholarly production examined in this bibliometric analysis. Turkey has slowly evolved in various ways with the growth of the internet and social media. Anglo-American scholarly publications on problematic social media consumer behavior represent the largest research output. Yet it is interesting to observe that social networking sites studies are attracting many researchers in Asian countries, particularly China. For many Chinese people, social networking sites are a valuable opportunity to involve people in political activism in addition to simply making purchases ( 66 ).

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Global dispersion of social networking sites in relation to social media addiction or social media problematic use.

Analysis of influential authors

This section analyses the high-impact authors in the Scopus-indexed knowledge base on social networking sites in relation to social media addiction or problematic use of social media. It provides valuable insights for establishing patterns of knowledge generation and dissemination of literature about social networking sites relating to addiction and problematic use.

Table 1 acknowledges the top 10 most highly cited authors with the highest total citations in the database.

Highly cited authors on social media addiction and problematic use ( n = 501).

a Total link strength indicates the number of publications in which an author occurs.

Table 1 shows that MD Griffiths (sixty-five articles), CY Lin (twenty articles), and AH Pakpour (eighteen articles) are the most productive scholars according to the number of Scopus documents examined in the area of social media addiction and its problematic use . If the criteria are changed and authors ranked according to the overall number of citations received in order to determine high-impact authors, the same three authors turn out to be the most highly cited authors. It should be noted that these highly cited authors tend to enlist several disciplines in examining social media addiction and problematic use. Griffiths, for example, focuses on behavioral addiction stemming from not only digital media usage but also from gambling and video games. Lin, on the other hand, focuses on the negative effects that the internet and digital media can have on users' mental health, and Pakpour approaches the issue from a behavioral medicine perspective.

Intellectual structure of the literature

In this part of the paper, the authors illustrate the “intellectual structure” of the social media addiction and the problematic use of social media's literature. An author co-citation analysis (ACA) was performed which is displayed as a figure that depicts the relations between highly co-cited authors. The study of co-citation assumes that strongly co-cited authors carry some form of intellectual similarity ( 67 ). Figure 4 shows the author co-citation map. Nodes represent units of analysis (in this case scholars) and network ties represent similarity connections. Nodes are sized according to the number of co-citations received—the bigger the node, the more co-citations it has. Adjacent nodes are considered intellectually similar.

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Two clusters, representing the intellectual structure of the social media and its problematic use literature.

Scholars belonging to the green cluster (Mental Health and Digital Media Addiction) have extensively published on medical analysis tools and how these can be used to heal users suffering from addiction to digital media, which can range from gambling, to internet, to videogame addictions. Scholars in this school of thought focus on the negative effects on users' mental health, such as depression, anxiety, and personality disturbances. Such studies focus also on the role of screen use in the development of mental health problems and the increasing use of medical treatments to address addiction to digital media. They argue that addiction to digital media should be considered a mental health disorder and treatment options should be made available to users.

In contrast, scholars within the red cluster (Social Media Effects on Well Being and Cyberpsychology) have focused their attention on the effects of social media toward users' well-being and how social media change users' behavior, focusing particular attention on the human-machine interaction and how methods and models can help protect users' well-being. Two hundred and two authors belong to this group, the top co-cited being Andreassen (667 co-citations), Pallasen (555 co-citations), and Valkenburg (215 co-citations). These authors have extensively studied the development of addiction to social media, problem gambling, and internet addiction. They have also focused on the measurement of addiction to social media, cyberbullying, and the dark side of social media.

Most influential source title in the field of social media addiction and its problematic use

To find the preferred periodicals in the field of social media addiction and its problematic use, the authors have selected 501 articles published in 263 journals. Table 2 gives a ranked list of the top 10 journals that constitute the core publishing sources in the field of social media addiction research. In doing so, the authors analyzed the journal's impact factor, Scopus Cite Score, h-index, quartile ranking, and number of publications per year.

Top 10 most cited and more frequently mentioned documents in the field of social media addiction.

The journal Addictive Behaviors topped the list, with 700 citations and 22 publications (4.3%), followed by Computers in Human Behaviors , with 577 citations and 13 publications (2.5%), Journal of Behavioral Addictions , with 562 citations and 17 publications (3.3%), and International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction , with 502 citations and 26 publications (5.1%). Five of the 10 most productive journals in the field of social media addiction research are published by Elsevier (all Q1 rankings) while Springer and Frontiers Media published one journal each.

Documents citation analysis identified the most influential and most frequently mentioned documents in a certain scientific field. Andreassen has received the most citations among the 10 most significant papers on social media addiction, with 405 ( Table 2 ). The main objective of this type of studies was to identify the associations and the roles of different variables as predictors of social media addiction (e.g., ( 19 , 68 , 69 )). According to general addiction models, the excessive and problematic use of digital technologies is described as “being overly concerned about social media, driven by an uncontrollable motivation to log on to or use social media, and devoting so much time and effort to social media that it impairs other important life areas” ( 27 , 70 ). Furthermore, the purpose of several highly cited studies ( 31 , 71 ) was to analyse the connections between young adults' sleep quality and psychological discomfort, depression, self-esteem, and life satisfaction and the severity of internet and problematic social media use, since the health of younger generations and teenagers is of great interest this may help explain the popularity of such papers. Despite being the most recent publication Lin et al.'s work garnered more citations annually. The desire to quantify social media addiction in individuals can also help explain the popularity of studies which try to develop measurement scales ( 42 , 72 ). Some of the highest-ranked publications are devoted to either the presentation of case studies or testing relationships among psychological constructs ( 73 ).

Keyword co-occurrence analysis

The research question, “What are the key thematic areas in social media addiction literature?” was answered using keyword co-occurrence analysis. Keyword co-occurrence analysis is conducted to identify research themes and discover keywords. It mainly examines the relationships between co-occurrence keywords in a wide variety of literature ( 74 ). In this approach, the idea is to explore the frequency of specific keywords being mentioned together.

Utilizing VOSviewer, the authors conducted a keyword co-occurrence analysis to characterize and review the developing trends in the field of social media addiction. The top 10 most frequent keywords are presented in Table 3 . The results indicate that “social media addiction” is the most frequent keyword (178 occurrences), followed by “problematic social media use” (74 occurrences), “internet addiction” (51 occurrences), and “depression” (46 occurrences). As shown in the co-occurrence network ( Figure 5 ), the keywords can be grouped into two major clusters. “Problematic social media use” can be identified as the core theme of the green cluster. In the red cluster, keywords mainly identify a specific aspect of problematic social media use: social media addiction.

Frequency of occurrence of top 10 keywords.

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Keywords co-occurrence map. Threshold: 5 co-occurrences.

The results of the keyword co-occurrence analysis for journal articles provide valuable perspectives and tools for understanding concepts discussed in past studies of social media usage ( 75 ). More precisely, it can be noted that there has been a large body of research on social media addiction together with other types of technological addictions, such as compulsive web surfing, internet gaming disorder, video game addiction and compulsive online shopping ( 76 – 78 ). This field of research has mainly been directed toward teenagers, middle school students, and college students and university students in order to understand the relationship between social media addiction and mental health issues such as depression, disruptions in self-perceptions, impairment of social and emotional activity, anxiety, neuroticism, and stress ( 79 – 81 ).

The findings presented in this paper show that there has been an exponential increase in scholarly publications—from two publications in 2013 to 195 publications in 2021. There were 45 publications in 2022 at the time this study was conducted. It was interesting to observe that the US, the UK, and Turkey accounted for 47% of the publications in this field even though none of these countries are in the top 15 countries in terms of active social media penetration ( 82 ) although the US has the third highest number of social media users ( 83 ). Even though China and India have the highest number of social media users ( 83 ), first and second respectively, they rank fifth and tenth in terms of publications on social media addiction or problematic use of social media. In fact, the US has almost double the number of publications in this field compared to China and almost five times compared to India. Even though East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia make up the top three regions in terms of worldwide social media users ( 84 ), except for China and India there have been only a limited number of publications on social media addiction or problematic use. An explanation for that could be that there is still a lack of awareness on the negative consequences of the use of social media and the impact it has on the mental well-being of users. More research in these regions should perhaps be conducted in order to understand the problematic use and addiction of social media so preventive measures can be undertaken.

From the bibliometric analysis, it was found that most of the studies examined used quantitative methods in analyzing data and therefore aimed at testing relationships between variables. In addition, many studies were empirical, aimed at testing relationships based on direct or indirect observations of social media use. Very few studies used theories and for the most part if they did they used the technology acceptance model and social comparison theories. The findings presented in this paper show that none of the studies attempted to create or test new theories in this field, perhaps due to the lack of maturity of the literature. Moreover, neither have very many qualitative studies been conducted in this field. More qualitative research in this field should perhaps be conducted as it could explore the motivations and rationales from which certain users' behavior may arise.

The authors found that almost all the publications on social media addiction or problematic use relied on samples of undergraduate students between the ages of 19–25. The average daily time spent by users worldwide on social media applications was highest for users between the ages of 40–44, at 59.85 min per day, followed by those between the ages of 35–39, at 59.28 min per day, and those between the ages of 45–49, at 59.23 per day ( 85 ). Therefore, more studies should be conducted exploring different age groups, as users between the ages of 19–25 do not represent the entire population of social media users. Conducting studies on different age groups may yield interesting and valuable insights to the field of social media addiction. For example, it would be interesting to measure the impacts of social media use among older users aged 50 years or older who spend almost the same amount of time on social media as other groups of users (56.43 min per day) ( 85 ).

A majority of the studies tested social media addiction or problematic use based on only two social media platforms: Facebook and Instagram. Although Facebook and Instagram are ranked first and fourth in terms of most popular social networks by number of monthly users, it would be interesting to study other platforms such as YouTube, which is ranked second, and WhatsApp, which is ranked third ( 86 ). Furthermore, TikTok would also be an interesting platform to study as it has grown in popularity in recent years, evident from it being the most downloaded application in 2021, with 656 million downloads ( 87 ), and is ranked second in Q1 of 2022 ( 88 ). Moreover, most of the studies focused only on one social media platform. Comparing different social media platforms would yield interesting results because each platform is different in terms of features, algorithms, as well as recommendation engines. The purpose as well as the user behavior for using each platform is also different, therefore why users are addicted to these platforms could provide a meaningful insight into social media addiction and problematic social media use.

Lastly, most studies were cross-sectional, and not longitudinal, aiming at describing results over a certain point in time and not over a long period of time. A longitudinal study could better describe the long-term effects of social media use.

This study was conducted to review the extant literature in the field of social media and analyze the global research productivity during the period ranging from 2013 to 2022. The study presents a bibliometric overview of the leading trends with particular regard to “social media addiction” and “problematic social media use.” The authors applied science mapping to lay out a knowledge base on social media addiction and its problematic use. This represents the first large-scale analysis in this area of study.

A keyword search of “social media addiction” OR “problematic social media use” yielded 553 papers, which were downloaded from Scopus. After performing the Scopus-based investigation of the current literature regarding social media addiction and problematic use, the authors ended up with a knowledge base consisting of 501 documents comprising 455 journal articles, 27 conference papers, 15 articles reviews, 3 books, and 1 conference review.

The geographical distribution trends of scholarly publications on social media addiction or problematic use indicate that the most productive countries were the USA (92), the U.K. (79), and Turkey ( 63 ), which together produced 236 articles. Griffiths (sixty-five articles), Lin (twenty articles), and Pakpour (eighteen articles) were the most productive scholars according to the number of Scopus documents examined in the area of social media addiction and its problematic use. An author co-citation analysis (ACA) was conducted which generated a layout of social media effects on well-being and cyber psychology as well as mental health and digital media addiction in the form of two research literature clusters representing the intellectual structure of social media and its problematic use.

The preferred periodicals in the field of social media addiction and its problematic use were Addictive Behaviors , with 700 citations and 22 publications, followed by Computers in Human Behavior , with 577 citations and 13 publications, and Journal of Behavioral Addictions , with 562 citations and 17 publications. Keyword co-occurrence analysis was used to investigate the key thematic areas in the social media literature, as represented by the top three keyword phrases in terms of their frequency of occurrence, namely, “social media addiction,” “problematic social media use,” and “social media addiction.”

This research has a few limitations. The authors used science mapping to improve the comprehension of the literature base in this review. First and foremost, the authors want to emphasize that science mapping should not be utilized in place of established review procedures, but rather as a supplement. As a result, this review can be considered the initial stage, followed by substantive research syntheses that examine findings from recent research. Another constraint stems from how 'social media addiction' is defined. The authors overcame this limitation by inserting the phrase “social media addiction” OR “problematic social media use” in the search string. The exclusive focus on SCOPUS-indexed papers creates a third constraint. The SCOPUS database has a larger number of papers than does Web of Science although it does not contain all the publications in a given field.

Although the total body of literature on social media addiction is larger than what is covered in this review, the use of co-citation analyses helped to mitigate this limitation. This form of bibliometric study looks at all the publications listed in the reference list of the extracted SCOPUS database documents. As a result, a far larger dataset than the one extracted from SCOPUS initially has been analyzed.

The interpretation of co-citation maps should be mentioned as a last constraint. The reason is that the procedure is not always clear, so scholars must have a thorough comprehension of the knowledge base in order to make sense of the result of the analysis ( 63 ). This issue was addressed by the authors' expertise, but it remains somewhat subjective.

Implications

The findings of this study have implications mainly for government entities and parents. The need for regulation of social media addiction is evident when considering the various risks associated with habitual social media use. Social media addiction may lead to negative consequences for adolescents' school performance, social behavior, and interpersonal relationships. In addition, social media addiction may also lead to other risks such as sexting, social media stalking, cyber-bullying, privacy breaches, and improper use of technology. Given the seriousness of these risks, it is important to have regulations in place to protect adolescents from the harms of social media addiction.

Regulation of social media platforms

One way that regulation could help protect adolescents from the harms of social media addiction is by limiting their access to certain websites or platforms. For example, governments could restrict adolescents' access to certain websites or platforms during specific hours of the day. This would help ensure that they are not spending too much time on social media and are instead focusing on their schoolwork or other important activities.

Another way that regulation could help protect adolescents from the harms of social media addiction is by requiring companies to put warning labels on their websites or apps. These labels would warn adolescents about the potential risks associated with excessive use of social media.

Finally, regulation could also require companies to provide information about how much time each day is recommended for using their website or app. This would help adolescents make informed decisions about how much time they want to spend on social media each day. These proposed regulations would help to protect children from the dangers of social media, while also ensuring that social media companies are more transparent and accountable to their users.

Parental involvement in adolescents' social media use

Parents should be involved in their children's social media use to ensure that they are using these platforms safely and responsibly. Parents can monitor their children's online activity, set time limits for social media use, and talk to their children about the risks associated with social media addiction.

Education on responsible social media use

Adolescents need to be educated about responsible social media use so that they can enjoy the benefits of these platforms while avoiding the risks associated with addiction. Education on responsible social media use could include topics such as cyber-bullying, sexting, and privacy breaches.

Research directions for future studies

A content analysis was conducted to answer the fifth research questions “What are the potential research directions for addressing social media addiction in the future?” The study reveals that there is a lack of screening instruments and diagnostic criteria to assess social media addiction. Validated DSM-V-based instruments could shed light on the factors behind social media use disorder. Diagnostic research may be useful in order to understand social media behavioral addiction and gain deeper insights into the factors responsible for psychological stress and psychiatric disorders. In addition to cross-sectional studies, researchers should also conduct longitudinal studies and experiments to assess changes in users' behavior over time ( 20 ).

Another important area to examine is the role of engagement-based ranking and recommendation algorithms in online habit formation. More research is required to ascertain how algorithms determine which content type generates higher user engagement. A clear understanding of the way social media platforms gather content from users and amplify their preferences would lead to the development of a standardized conceptualization of social media usage patterns ( 89 ). This may provide a clearer picture of the factors that lead to problematic social media use and addiction. It has been noted that “misinformation, toxicity, and violent content are inordinately prevalent” in material reshared by users and promoted by social media algorithms ( 90 ).

Additionally, an understanding of engagement-based ranking models and recommendation algorithms is essential in order to implement appropriate public policy measures. To address the specific behavioral concerns created by social media, legislatures must craft appropriate statutes. Thus, future qualitative research to assess engagement based ranking frameworks is extremely necessary in order to provide a broader perspective on social media use and tackle key regulatory gaps. Particular emphasis must be placed on consumer awareness, algorithm bias, privacy issues, ethical platform design, and extraction and monetization of personal data ( 91 ).

From a geographical perspective, the authors have identified some main gaps in the existing knowledge base that uncover the need for further research in certain regions of the world. Accordingly, the authors suggest encouraging more studies on internet and social media addiction in underrepresented regions with high social media penetration rates such as Southeast Asia and South America. In order to draw more contributions from these countries, journals with high impact factors could also make specific calls. This would contribute to educating social media users about platform usage and implement policy changes that support the development of healthy social media practices.

The authors hope that the findings gathered here will serve to fuel interest in this topic and encourage other scholars to investigate social media addiction in other contexts on newer platforms and among wide ranges of sample populations. In light of the rising numbers of people experiencing mental health problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, food disorders, and substance addiction) in recent years, it is likely that the number of papers related to social media addiction and the range of countries covered will rise even further.

Data availability statement

Author contributions.

AP took care of bibliometric analysis and drafting the paper. VB took care of proofreading and adding value to the paper. AS took care of the interpretation of the findings. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

83 Qualitative Research Questions & Examples

Qualitative research questions help you understand consumer sentiment. They’re strategically designed to show organizations how and why people feel the way they do about a brand, product, or service. It looks beyond the numbers and is one of the most telling types of market research a company can do.

The UK Data Service describes this perfectly, saying, “The value of qualitative research is that it gives a voice to the lived experience .”

Read on to see seven use cases and 83 qualitative research questions, with the added bonus of examples that show how to get similar insights faster with Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence.

Inspirational quote about customer insights

What is a qualitative research question?

A qualitative research question explores a topic in-depth, aiming to better understand the subject through interviews, observations, and other non-numerical data. Qualitative research questions are open-ended, helping to uncover a target audience’s opinions, beliefs, and motivations.

How to choose qualitative research questions?

Choosing the right qualitative research questions can be incremental to the success of your research and the findings you uncover. Here’s my six-step process for choosing the best qualitative research questions.

Start by understanding the purpose of your research. What do you want to learn? What outcome are you hoping to achieve?
Consider who you are researching. What are their experiences, attitudes, and beliefs? How can you best capture these in your research questions ?
Keep your questions open-ended . Qualitative research questions should not be too narrow or too broad. Aim to ask specific questions to provide meaningful answers but broad enough to allow for exploration.
Balance your research questions. You don’t want all of your questions to be the same type. Aim to mix up your questions to get a variety of answers.
Ensure your research questions are ethical and free from bias. Always have a second (and third) person check for unconscious bias.
Consider the language you use. Your questions should be written in a way that is clear and easy to understand. Avoid using jargon , acronyms, or overly technical language.

Types of qualitative research questions

For a question to be considered qualitative, it usually needs to be open-ended. However, as I’ll explain, there can sometimes be a slight cross-over between quantitative and qualitative research questions.

Open-ended questions

These allow for a wide range of responses and can be formatted with multiple-choice answers or a free-text box to collect additional details. The next two types of qualitative questions are considered open questions, but each has its own style and purpose.

Probing questions are used to delve deeper into a respondent’s thoughts, such as “Can you tell me more about why you feel that way?”
Comparative questions ask people to compare two or more items, such as “Which product do you prefer and why?” These qualitative questions are highly useful for understanding brand awareness , competitive analysis , and more.

Closed-ended questions

These ask respondents to choose from a predetermined set of responses, such as “On a scale of 1-5, how satisfied are you with the new product?” While they’re traditionally quantitative, adding a free text box that asks for extra comments into why a specific rating was chosen will provide qualitative insights alongside their respective quantitative research question responses.

Ranking questions get people to rank items in order of preference, such as “Please rank these products in terms of quality.” They’re advantageous in many scenarios, like product development, competitive analysis, and brand awareness.
Likert scale questions ask people to rate items on a scale, such as “On a scale of 1-5, how satisfied are you with the new product?” Ideal for placement on websites and emails to gather quick, snappy feedback.

Qualitative research question examples

There are many applications of qualitative research and lots of ways you can put your findings to work for the success of your business. Here’s a summary of the most common use cases for qualitative questions and examples to ask.

Qualitative questions for identifying customer needs and motivations

These types of questions help you find out why customers choose products or services and what they are looking for when making a purchase.

What factors do you consider when deciding to buy a product?
What would make you choose one product or service over another?
What are the most important elements of a product that you would buy?
What features do you look for when purchasing a product?
What qualities do you look for in a company’s products?
Do you prefer localized or global brands when making a purchase?
How do you determine the value of a product?
What do you think is the most important factor when choosing a product?
How do you decide if a product or service is worth the money?
Do you have any specific expectations when purchasing a product?
Do you prefer to purchase products or services online or in person?
What kind of customer service do you expect when buying a product?
How do you decide when it is time to switch to a different product?
Where do you research products before you decide to buy?
What do you think is the most important customer value when making a purchase?

Qualitative research questions to enhance customer experience

Use these questions to reveal insights into how customers interact with a company’s products or services and how those experiences can be improved.

What aspects of our product or service do customers find most valuable?
How do customers perceive our customer service?
What factors are most important to customers when purchasing?
What do customers think of our brand?
What do customers think of our current marketing efforts?
How do customers feel about the features and benefits of our product?
How do customers feel about the price of our product or service?
How could we improve the customer experience?
What do customers think of our website or app?
What do customers think of our customer support?
What could we do to make our product or service easier to use?
What do customers think of our competitors?
What is your preferred way to access our site?
How do customers feel about our delivery/shipping times?
What do customers think of our loyalty programs?

Qualitative research question example for customer experience

🙋‍♀️ Question: What is your preferred way to access our site?
🤓 Insight sought: How mobile-dominant are consumers? Should you invest more in mobile optimization or mobile marketing?
🤯 Challenges with traditional qualitative research methods: While using this type of question is ideal if you have a large database to survey when placed on a site or sent to a limited customer list, it only gives you a point-in-time perspective from a limited group of people.
💡 A new approach: You can get better, broader insights quicker with Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence. To fully inform your research, you need to know preferences at the industry or market level.
⏰ Time to insight: 30 seconds
✅ How it’s done: Similarweb offers multiple ways to answer this question without going through a lengthy qualitative research process.

First, I’m going to do a website market analysis of the banking credit and lending market in the finance sector to get a clearer picture of industry benchmarks.

Here, I can view device preferences across any industry or market instantly. It shows me the device distribution for any country across any period. This clearly answers the question of how mobile dominate my target audience is , with 59.79% opting to access site via a desktop vs. 40.21% via mobile

I then use the trends section to show me the exact split between mobile and web traffic for each key player in my space. Let’s say I’m about to embark on a competitive campaign that targets customers of Chase and Bank of America ; I can see both their audiences are highly desktop dominant compared with others in their space .

Qualitative question examples for developing new products or services

Research questions like this can help you understand customer pain points and give you insights to develop products that meet those needs.

What is the primary reason you would choose to purchase a product from our company?
How do you currently use products or services that are similar to ours?
Is there anything that could be improved with products currently on the market?
What features would you like to see added to our products?
How do you prefer to contact a customer service team?
What do you think sets our company apart from our competitors?
What other product or service offerings would like to see us offer?
What type of information would help you make decisions about buying a product?
What type of advertising methods are most effective in getting your attention?
What is the biggest deterrent to purchasing products from us?

Qualitative research question example for service development

🙋‍♀️ Question: What type of advertising methods are most effective in getting your attention?
🤓 Insight sought: The marketing channels and/or content that performs best with a target audience .
🤯 Challenges with traditional qualitative research methods: When using qualitative research surveys to answer questions like this, the sample size is limited, and bias could be at play.
💡 A better approach: The most authentic insights come from viewing real actions and results that take place in the digital world. No questions or answers are needed to uncover this intel, and the information you seek is readily available in less than a minute.
⏰ Time to insight: 5 minutes
✅ How it’s done: There are a few ways to approach this. You can either take an industry-wide perspective or hone in on specific competitors to unpack their individual successes. Here, I’ll quickly show a snapshot with a whole market perspective.

qualitative example question - marketing channels

Using the market analysis element of Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence, I select my industry or market, which I’ve kept as banking and credit. A quick click into marketing channels shows me which channels drive the highest traffic in my market. Taking direct traffic out of the equation, for now, I can see that referrals and organic traffic are the two highest-performing channels in this market.

Similarweb allows me to view the specific referral partners and pages across these channels.

qualitative question example - Similarweb referral channels

Looking closely at referrals in this market, I’ve chosen chase.com and its five closest rivals . I select referrals in the channel traffic element of marketing channels. I see that Capital One is a clear winner, gaining almost 25 million visits due to referral partnerships.

Next, I get to see exactly who is referring traffic to Capital One and the total traffic share for each referrer. I can see the growth as a percentage and how that has changed, along with an engagement score that rates the average engagement level of that audience segment. This is particularly useful when deciding on which new referral partnerships to pursue.

Once I’ve identified the channels and campaigns that yield the best results, I can then use Similarweb to dive into the various ad creatives and content that have the greatest impact.

Qualitative research example for ad creatives

These ads are just a few of those listed in the creatives section from my competitive website analysis of Capital One. You can filter this list by the specific campaign, publishers, and ad networks to view those that matter to you most. You can also discover video ad creatives in the same place too.

In just five minutes ⏰

I’ve captured audience loyalty statistics across my market
Spotted the most competitive players
Identified the marketing channels my audience is most responsive to
I know which content and campaigns are driving the highest traffic volume
I’ve created a target list for new referral partners and have been able to prioritize this based on results and engagement figures from my rivals
I can see the types of creatives that my target audience is responding to, giving me ideas for ways to generate effective copy for future campaigns

Qualitative questions to determine pricing strategies

Companies need to make sure pricing stays relevant and competitive. Use these questions to determine customer perceptions on pricing and develop pricing strategies to maximize profits and reduce churn.

How do you feel about our pricing structure?
How does our pricing compare to other similar products?
What value do you feel you get from our pricing?
How could we make our pricing more attractive?
What would be an ideal price for our product?
Which features of our product that you would like to see priced differently?
What discounts or deals would you like to see us offer?
How do you feel about the amount you have to pay for our product?

Get Faster Answers to Qualitative Research Questions with Similarweb Today

Qualitative research question example for determining pricing strategies.

🙋‍♀️ Question: What discounts or deals would you like to see us offer?
🤓 Insight sought: The promotions or campaigns that resonate with your target audience.
🤯 Challenges with traditional qualitative research methods: Consumers don’t always recall the types of ads or campaigns they respond to. Over time, their needs and habits change. Your sample size is limited to those you ask, leaving a huge pool of unknowns at play.
💡 A better approach: While qualitative insights are good to know, you get the most accurate picture of the highest-performing promotion and campaigns by looking at data collected directly from the web. These analytics are real-world, real-time, and based on the collective actions of many, instead of the limited survey group you approach. By getting a complete picture across an entire market, your decisions are better informed and more aligned with current market trends and behaviors.
✅ How it’s done: Similarweb’s Popular Pages feature shows the content, products, campaigns, and pages with the highest growth for any website. So, if you’re trying to unpack the successes of others in your space and find out what content resonates with a target audience, there’s a far quicker way to get answers to these questions with Similarweb.

Here, I’m using Capital One as an example site. I can see trending pages on their site showing the largest increase in page views. Other filters include campaign, best-performing, and new–each of which shows you page URLs, share of traffic , and growth as a percentage. This page is particularly useful for staying on top of trending topics , campaigns, and new content being pushed out in a market by key competitors.

Qualitative research questions for product development teams

It’s vital to stay in touch with changing consumer needs. These questions can also be used for new product or service development, but this time, it’s from the perspective of a product manager or development team.

What are customers’ primary needs and wants for this product?
What do customers think of our current product offerings?
What is the most important feature or benefit of our product?
How can we improve our product to meet customers’ needs better?
What do customers like or dislike about our competitors’ products?
What do customers look for when deciding between our product and a competitor’s?
How have customer needs and wants for this product changed over time?
What motivates customers to purchase this product?
What is the most important thing customers want from this product?
What features or benefits are most important when selecting a product?
What do customers perceive to be our product’s pros and cons?
What would make customers switch from a competitor’s product to ours?
How do customers perceive our product in comparison to similar products?
What do customers think of our pricing and value proposition?
What do customers think of our product’s design, usability, and aesthetics?

Qualitative questions examples to understand customer segments

Market segmentation seeks to create groups of consumers with shared characteristics. Use these questions to learn more about different customer segments and how to target them with tailored messaging.

What motivates customers to make a purchase?
How do customers perceive our brand in comparison to our competitors?
How do customers feel about our product quality?
How do customers define quality in our products?
What factors influence customers’ purchasing decisions ?
What are the most important aspects of customer service?
What do customers think of our customer service?
What do customers think of our pricing?
How do customers rate our product offerings?
How do customers prefer to make purchases (online, in-store, etc.)?

Qualitative research question example for understanding customer segments

🙋‍♀️ Question: Which social media channels are you most active on?
🤓 Insight sought: Formulate a social media strategy . Specifically, the social media channels most likely to succeed with a target audience.
🤯 Challenges with traditional qualitative research methods: Qualitative research question responses are limited to those you ask, giving you a limited sample size. Questions like this are usually at risk of some bias, and this may not be reflective of real-world actions.
💡 A better approach: Get a complete picture of social media preferences for an entire market or specific audience belonging to rival firms. Insights are available in real-time, and are based on the actions of many, not a select group of participants. Data is readily available, easy to understand, and expandable at a moment’s notice.
✅ How it’s done: Using Similarweb’s website analysis feature, you can get a clear breakdown of social media stats for your audience using the marketing channels element. It shows the percentage of visits from each channel to your site, respective growth, and specific referral pages by each platform. All data is expandable, meaning you can select any platform, period, and region to drill down and get more accurate intel, instantly.

Qualitative question example social media

This example shows me Bank of America’s social media distribution, with YouTube , Linkedin , and Facebook taking the top three spots, and accounting for almost 80% of traffic being driven from social media.

When doing any type of market research, it’s important to benchmark performance against industry averages and perform a social media competitive analysis to verify rival performance across the same channels.

Qualitative questions to inform competitive analysis

Organizations must assess market sentiment toward other players to compete and beat rival firms. Whether you want to increase market share , challenge industry leaders , or reduce churn, understanding how people view you vs. the competition is key.

What is the overall perception of our competitors’ product offerings in the market?
What attributes do our competitors prioritize in their customer experience?
What strategies do our competitors use to differentiate their products from ours?
How do our competitors position their products in relation to ours?
How do our competitors’ pricing models compare to ours?
What do consumers think of our competitors’ product quality?
What do consumers think of our competitors’ customer service?
What are the key drivers of purchase decisions in our market?
What is the impact of our competitors’ marketing campaigns on our market share ? 10. How do our competitors leverage social media to promote their products?

Qualitative research question example for competitive analysis

🙋‍♀️ Question: What other companies do you shop with for x?
🤓 Insight sought: W ho are your competitors? Which of your rival’s sites do your customers visit? How loyal are consumers in your market?
🤯 Challenges with traditional qualitative research methods: Sample size is limited, and customers could be unwilling to reveal which competitors they shop with, or how often they around. Where finances are involved, people can act with reluctance or bias, and be unwilling to reveal other suppliers they do business with.
💡 A better approach: Get a complete picture of your audience’s loyalty, see who else they shop with, and how many other sites they visit in your competitive group. Find out the size of the untapped opportunity and which players are doing a better job at attracting unique visitors – without having to ask people to reveal their preferences.
✅ How it’s done: Similarweb website analysis shows you the competitive sites your audience visits, giving you access to data that shows cross-visitation habits, audience loyalty, and untapped potential in a matter of minutes.

Qualitative research example for audience analysis

Using the audience interests element of Similarweb website analysis, you can view the cross-browsing behaviors of a website’s audience instantly. You can see a matrix that shows the percentage of visitors on a target site and any rival site they may have visited.

Qualitative research question example for competitive analysis

With the Similarweb audience overlap feature, view the cross-visitation habits of an audience across specific websites. In this example, I chose chase.com and its four closest competitors to review. For each intersection, you see the number of unique visitors and the overall proportion of each site’s audience it represents. It also shows the volume of unreached potential visitors.

Here, you can see a direct comparison of the audience loyalty represented in a bar graph. It shows a breakdown of each site’s audience based on how many other sites they have visited. Those sites with the highest loyalty show fewer additional sites visited.

From the perspective of chase.com, I can see 47% of their visitors do not visit rival sites. 33% of their audience visited 1 or more sites in this group, 14% visited 2 or more sites, 4% visited 3 or more sites, and just 0.8% viewed all sites in this comparison.

How to answer qualitative research questions with Similarweb

Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence drastically improves market research efficiency and time to insight. Both of these can impact the bottom line and the pace at which organizations can adapt and flex when markets shift, and rivals change tactics.

Outdated practices, while still useful, take time . And with a quicker, more efficient way to garner similar insights, opting for the fast lane puts you at a competitive advantage.

With a birds-eye view of the actions and behaviors of companies and consumers across a market , you can answer certain research questions without the need to plan, do, and review extensive qualitative market research .

Wrapping up

Qualitative research methods have been around for centuries. From designing the questions to finding the best distribution channels, collecting and analyzing findings takes time to get the insights you need. Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence drastically improves efficiency and time to insight. Both of which impact the bottom line and the pace at which organizations can adapt and flex when markets shift.

Similarweb’s suite of digital intelligence solutions offers unbiased, accurate, honest insights you can trust for analyzing any industry, market, or audience.

Methodologies used for data collection are robust, transparent, and trustworthy.
Clear presentation of data via an easy-to-use, intuitive platform.
It updates dynamically–giving you the freshest data about an industry or market.
Data is available via an API – so you can plug into platforms like Tableau or PowerBI to streamline your analyses.
Filter and refine results according to your needs.

Are quantitative or qualitative research questions best?

Both have their place and purpose in market research. Qualitative research questions seek to provide details, whereas quantitative market research gives you numerical statistics that are easier and quicker to analyze. You get more flexibility with qualitative questions, and they’re non-directional.

What are the advantages of qualitative research?

Qualitative research is advantageous because it allows researchers to better understand their subject matter by exploring people’s attitudes, behaviors, and motivations in a particular context. It also allows researchers to uncover new insights that may not have been discovered with quantitative research methods.

What are some of the challenges of qualitative research?

Qualitative research can be time-consuming and costly, typically involving in-depth interviews and focus groups. Additionally, there are challenges associated with the reliability and validity of the collected data, as there is no universal standard for interpreting the results.

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research question examples about social media

Adolescence

More research questions the “social media hypothesis” of mental health, a new study shows that social media does not lead to anxiety or depression..

Posted August 10, 2023 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

What Changes During Adolescence?
Find a therapist to support kids and teens
Many believe that social media causes teens to experience depression and anxiety, despite lacking evidence.
A new study found that when teenagers used social media more, their mental health did not change over time.
Mainstream media should devote more coverage to studies like this one.

As I’ve discussed previously , conventional wisdom suggests that using social media promotes poor mental health, especially in teenagers . But there is good reason to question this idea. As more high-quality research becomes available, we can see room for nuance and see that social media is not consistently detrimental to everyone’s well-being.

A critical limitation in many existing studies on this topic is that they are cross-sectional. This means all variables are assessed only once, and at the same time. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it just means we don’t know how behavioral changes over time might be associated with changes in emotional variables. Longitudinal research helps us to better understand how change happens by measuring these variables repeatedly over a period of months or even years.

Longitudinal research is especially valuable in this case because some young people may use social media to alleviate distress , so we might observe that increases in depression or anxiety will predict increases in social media use , rather than the reverse. On the other hand, if the social media hypothesis is correct, then as teenagers spend more and more time online, this should be followed by decreased mental health (i.e., greater anxiety/depression). But that’s not what the data reveal.

What Researchers Found

A research team in Norway recently published a study in which they tracked young people aged 10-16, and assessed them every 2 years. Each time, the researchers interviewed participants about their behaviors online (e.g., posting photos, “liking,” or commenting on others' posts), and they conducted clinical assessments of depression and anxiety with standardized psychiatric measures. The researchers found no evidence that increased social media use was followed by elevated anxiety or depression. This means that as these teenagers used more social media, their mental health did not change. These findings directly contradict the idea that social media use leads to poor psychological well-being.

The authors are careful to note that even though social media did not make teenagers feel worse, on average, it also did not make them feel better. So, social media use may not have an overall negative or positive effect for the average teenager. This idea is consistent with what I have argued previously , which is that social media use may have differential effects depending on the user’s initial motivations. When people are motivated to use social media because they find it interesting or rewarding, then it’s likelier to make them happy, whereas when they feel compelled or obligated to use it, then it’s likelier to make them feel worse. Motivations matter more than the technology itself.

The researchers also suggest that perhaps subgroups of teenagers may experience different outcomes following social media use, such as those who are bullied or have low self-esteem . The specific content that people view on social media may also play a role. It is also true that digital technologies change rapidly and we cannot assume that all future forms of social media will operate the same way psychologically. New applications have the potential to be better or worse than what people currently use.

Time Trend Data Are Inconclusive

Those who hold with the “social media hypothesis” of mental health will often point to time trend data as evidence. They argue that because social media use has risen in teenagers over the past 15 years, and that teen depression and anxiety has also risen over the same period of time, then those two trends are likely connected.

But if that were true, we ought to be able to observe this trend happening during teenagers’ lives. The fact is, we do not observe this pattern, and these null findings should make us skeptical about such claims. When researchers track teenagers’ mental health over a span of years, there is no link between their social media use and their experiences of depression or anxiety. In the words of the authors , “ the frequency with which adolescents engage in behaviors like posting, liking, and commenting on others’ posts does not influence their risk for symptoms of depression and anxiety .”

It would be great to see more mainstream media coverage of studies like this, especially considering the widespread belief that if young people are permitted to use social media, their mental health will deteriorate. Perhaps parents of teenagers can take some comfort in the fact that for the average user, there is little risk of this.

Cauberghe, V., Van Wesenbeeck, I., De Jans, S., Hudders, L., & Ponnet, K. (2021). How Adolescents Use Social Media to Cope with Feelings of Loneliness and Anxiety During COVID-19 Lockdown. Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking , 24 (4), 250–257. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2020.0478

Puukko, K., Hietajärvi, L., Maksniemi, E., Alho, K., & Salmela-Aro, K. (2020). Social Media Use and Depressive Symptoms—A Longitudinal Study from Early to Late Adolescence. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , 17 (16), 5921. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17165921

Steinsbekk, S., Nesi, J., & Wichstrøm, L. (2023). Social media behaviors and symptoms of anxiety and depression. A four-wave cohort study from age 10–16 years. Computers in Human Behavior , 147 , 107859.

Dylan Selterman, Ph.D., is an Associate Teaching Professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. He teaches courses and conducts research on personality traits, happiness, relationships, morality/ethics, game theory, political psychology, and more.

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80 fascinating psychology research questions for your next project

Last updated

15 February 2024

Reviewed by

Brittany Ferri, PhD, OTR/L

Psychology research is essential for furthering our understanding of human behavior and improving the diagnosis and treatment of psychological conditions.

When psychologists know more about how different social and cultural factors influence how humans act, think, and feel, they can recommend improvements to practices in areas such as education, sport, healthcare, and law enforcement.

Below, you will find 80 research question examples across 16 branches of psychology. First, though, let’s look at some tips to help you select a suitable research topic.

How to choose a good psychology research topic

Psychology has many branches that break down further into topics. Choosing a topic for your psychology research paper can be daunting because there are so many to choose from. It’s an important choice, as the topic you select will open up a range of questions to explore.

The tips below can help you find a psychology research topic that suits your skills and interests.

Tip #1: Select a topic that interests you

Passion and interest should fuel every research project. A topic that fascinates you will most likely interest others as well. Think about the questions you and others might have and decide on the issues that matter most. Draw on your own interests, but also keep your research topical and relevant to others.

Don’t limit yourself to a topic that you already know about. Instead, choose one that will make you want to know more and dig deeper. This will keep you motivated and excited about your research.

Tip #2: Choose a topic with a manageable scope

If your topic is too broad, you can get overwhelmed by the amount of information available and have trouble maintaining focus. On the other hand, you may find it difficult to find enough information if you choose a topic that is too narrow.

To determine if the topic is too broad or too narrow, start researching as early as possible. If you find there’s an overwhelming amount of research material, you’ll probably need to narrow the topic down. For example, instead of researching the general population, it might be easier to focus on a specific age group. Ask yourself what area of the general topic interests you most and focus on that.

If your scope is too narrow, try to generalize or focus on a larger related topic. Expand your search criteria or select additional databases for information. Consider if the topic is too new to have much information published on it as well.

Tip #3: Select a topic that will produce useful and relevant insights

Doing some preliminary research will reveal any existing research on the topic. If there is existing research, will you be able to produce new insights? You might need to focus on a different area or see if the existing research has limitations that you can overcome.

Bear in mind that finding new information from which to draw fresh insights may be impossible if your topic has been over-researched.

You’ll also need to consider whether your topic is relevant to current trends and needs. For example, researching psychology topics related to social media use may be highly relevant today.

80 psychology research topics and questions

Psychology is a broad subject with many branches and potential areas of study. Here are some of them:

Developmental

Personality

Experimental

Organizational

Educational

Neuropsychology

Controversial topics

Below we offer some suggestions on research topics and questions that can get you started. Keep in mind that these are not all-inclusive but should be personalized to fit the theme of your paper.

Social psychology research topics and questions

Social psychology has roots as far back as the 18th century. In simple terms, it’s the study of how behavior is influenced by the presence and behavior of others. It is the science of finding out who we are, who we think we are, and how our perceptions affect ourselves and others. It looks at personalities, relationships, and group behavior.

Here are some potential research questions and paper titles for this topic:

How does social media use impact perceptions of body image in male adolescents?

2. Is childhood bullying a risk factor for social anxiety in adults?

Is homophobia in individuals caused by genetic or environmental factors?

What is the most important psychological predictor of a person’s willingness to donate to charity?

Does a person’s height impact how other people perceive them? If so, how?

Cognitive psychology research questions

Cognitive psychology is the branch that focuses on the interactions of thinking, emotion, creativity, and problem-solving. It also explores the reasons humans think the way they do.

This topic involves exploring how people think by measuring intelligence, thoughts, and cognition.

Here are some research question ideas:

6. Is there a link between chronic stress and memory function?

7. Can certain kinds of music trigger memories in people with memory loss?

8. Do remote meetings impact the efficacy of team decision-making?

9. Do word games and puzzles slow cognitive decline in adults over the age of 80?

10. Does watching television impact a child’s reading ability?

Developmental psychology research questions

Developmental psychology is the study of how humans grow and change over their lifespan. It usually focuses on the social, emotional, and physical development of babies and children, though it can apply to people of all ages. Developmental psychology is important for understanding how we learn, mature, and adapt to changes.

Here are some questions that might inspire your research:

11. Does grief accelerate the aging process?

12. How do parent–child attachment patterns influence the development of emotion regulation in teenagers?

13. Does bilingualism affect cognitive decline in adults over the age of 70?

14. How does the transition to adulthood impact decision-making abilities

15. How does early exposure to music impact mental health and well-being in school-aged children?

Personality psychology research questions

Personality psychology studies personalities, how they develop, their structures, and the processes that define them. It looks at intelligence, disposition, moral beliefs, thoughts, and reactions.

The goal of this branch of psychology is to scientifically interpret the way personality patterns manifest into an individual’s behaviors. Here are some example research questions:

16. Nature vs. nurture: Which impacts personality development the most?

17. The role of genetics on personality: Does an adopted child take on their biological parents’ personality traits?

18. How do personality traits influence leadership styles and effectiveness in organizational settings?

19. Is there a relationship between an individual’s personality and mental health?

20. Can a chronic illness affect your personality?

Abnormal psychology research questions

As the name suggests, abnormal psychology is a branch that focuses on abnormal behavior and psychopathology (the scientific study of mental illness or disorders).

Abnormal behavior can be challenging to define. Who decides what is “normal”? As such, psychologists in this area focus on the level of distress that certain behaviors may cause, although this typically involves studying mental health conditions such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and phobias.

Here are some questions to consider:

21. How does technology impact the development of social anxiety disorder?

22. What are the factors behind the rising incidence of eating disorders in adolescents?

23. Are mindfulness-based interventions effective in the treatment of PTSD?

24. Is there a connection between depression and gambling addiction?

25. Can physical trauma cause psychopathy?

Clinical psychology research questions

Clinical psychology deals with assessing and treating mental illness or abnormal or psychiatric behaviors. It differs from abnormal psychology in that it focuses more on treatments and clinical aspects, while abnormal psychology is more behavioral focused.

This is a specialty area that provides care and treatment for complex mental health conditions. This can include treatment, not only for individuals but for couples, families, and other groups. Clinical psychology also supports communities, conducts research, and offers training to promote mental health. This category is very broad, so there are lots of topics to explore.

Below are some example research questions to consider:

26. Do criminals require more specific therapies or interventions?

27. How effective are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in treating mental health disorders?

28. Are there any disadvantages to humanistic therapy?

29. Can group therapy be more beneficial than one-on-one therapy sessions?

30. What are the factors to consider when selecting the right treatment plan for patients with anxiety?

Experimental psychology research questions

Experimental psychology deals with studies that can prove or disprove a hypothesis. Psychologists in this field use scientific methods to collect data on basic psychological processes such as memory, cognition, and learning. They use this data to test the whys and hows of behavior and how outside factors influence its creation.

Areas of interest in this branch relate to perception, memory, emotion, and sensation. The below are example questions that could inspire your own research:

31. Do male or female parents/carers have a more calming influence on children?

32. Will your preference for a genre of music increase the more you listen to it?

33. What are the psychological effects of posting on social media vs. not posting?

34. How is productivity affected by social connection?

35. Is cheating contagious?

Organizational psychology research questions

Organizational psychology studies human behavior in the workplace. It is most frequently used to evaluate an employee, group, or a company’s organizational dynamics. Researchers aim to isolate issues and identify solutions.

This area of study can be beneficial to both employees and employers since the goal is to improve the overall work environment and experience. Researchers apply psychological principles and findings to recommend improvements in performance, communication, job satisfaction, and safety.

Some potential research questions include the following:

36. How do different leadership styles affect employee morale?

37. Do longer lunch breaks boost employee productivity?

38. Is gender an antecedent to workplace stress?

39. What is the most effective way to promote work–life balance among employees?

40. How do different organizational structures impact the effectiveness of communication, decision-making, and productivity?

Forensic psychology research questions

Some questions to consider exploring in this branch of psychology are:

41. How does incarceration affect mental health?

42. Is childhood trauma a driver for criminal behavior during adulthood?

43. Are people with mental health conditions more likely to be victims of crimes?

44. What are the drivers of false memories, and how do they impact the justice system?

45. Is the media responsible for copycat crimes?

Educational psychology research questions

Educational psychology studies children in an educational setting. It covers topics like teaching methods, aptitude assessment, self-motivation, technology, and parental involvement.

Research in this field of psychology is vital for understanding and optimizing learning processes. It informs educators about cognitive development, learning styles, and effective teaching strategies.

Here are some example research questions:

46. Are different teaching styles more beneficial for children at different times of the day?

47. Can listening to classical music regularly increase a student’s test scores?

48. Is there a connection between sugar consumption and knowledge retention in students?

49. Does sleep duration and quality impact academic performance?

50. Does daily meditation at school influence students’ academic performance and mental health?

Sports psychology research question examples

Sport psychology aims to optimize physical performance and well-being in athletes by using cognitive and behavioral practices and interventions. Some methods include counseling, training, and clinical interventions.

Research in this area is important because it can improve team and individual performance, resilience, motivation, confidence, and overall well-being

Here are some research question ideas for you to consider:

51. How can a famous coach affect a team’s performance?

52. How can athletes control negative emotions in violent or high-contact sports?

53. How does using social media impact an athlete’s performance and well-being?

54. Can psychological interventions help with injury rehabilitation?

55. How can mindfulness practices boost sports performance?

Cultural psychology research question examples

The premise of this branch of psychology is that mind and culture are inseparable. In other words, people are shaped by their cultures, and their cultures are shaped by them. This can be a complex interaction.

Cultural psychology is vital as it explores how cultural context shapes individuals’ thoughts, behaviors, and perceptions. It provides insights into diverse perspectives, promoting cross-cultural understanding and reducing biases.

Here are some ideas that you might consider researching:

56. Are there cultural differences in how people perceive and deal with pain?

57. Are different cultures at increased risk of developing mental health conditions?

58. Are there cultural differences in coping strategies for stress?

59. Do our different cultures shape our personalities?

60. How does multi-generational culture influence family values and structure?

Health psychology research question examples

Health psychology is a crucial field of study. Understanding how psychological factors influence health behaviors, adherence to medical treatments, and overall wellness enables health experts to develop effective interventions and preventive measures, ultimately improving health outcomes.

Health psychology also aids in managing stress, promoting healthy behaviors, and optimizing mental health, fostering a holistic approach to well-being.

Here are five ideas to inspire research in this field:

61. How can health psychology interventions improve lifestyle behaviors to prevent cardiovascular diseases?

62. What role do social norms play in vaping among adolescents?

63. What role do personality traits play in the development and management of chronic pain conditions?

64. How do cultural beliefs and attitudes influence health-seeking behaviors in diverse populations?

65. What are the psychological factors influencing the adherence to preventive health behaviors, such as vaccination and regular screenings?

Neuropsychology research paper question examples

Neuropsychology research explores how a person’s cognition and behavior are related to their brain and nervous system. Researchers aim to advance the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral and cognitive effects of neurological disorders.

Researchers may work with children facing learning or developmental challenges, or with adults with declining cognitive abilities. They may also focus on injuries or illnesses of the brain, such as traumatic brain injuries, to determine the effect on cognitive and behavioral functions.

Neuropsychology informs diagnosis and treatment strategies for conditions such as dementia, traumatic brain injuries, and psychiatric disorders. Understanding the neural basis of behavior enhances our ability to optimize cognitive functioning, rehabilitate people with brain injuries, and improve patient care.

Here are some example research questions to consider:

66. How do neurotransmitter imbalances in specific brain regions contribute to mood disorders such as depression?

67. How can a traumatic brain injury affect memory?

68. What neural processes underlie attention deficits in people with ADHD?

69. Do medications affect the brain differently after a traumatic brain injury?

70. What are the behavioral effects of prolonged brain swelling?

Psychology of religion research question examples

The psychology of religion is a field that studies the interplay between belief systems, spirituality, and mental well-being. It explores the application of the psychological methods and interpretive frameworks of religious traditions and how they relate to both religious and non-religious people.

Psychology of religion research contributes to a holistic understanding of human experiences. It fosters cultural competence and guides therapeutic approaches that respect diverse spiritual beliefs.

Here are some example research questions in this field:

71. What impact does a religious upbringing have on a child’s self-esteem?

72. How do religious beliefs shape decision-making and perceptions of morality?

73. What is the impact of religious indoctrination?

74. Is there correlation between religious and mindfulness practices?

75. How does religious affiliation impact attitudes towards mental health treatment and help-seeking behaviors?

Controversial topics in psychology research question examples

Some psychology topics don’t fit into any of the subcategories above, but they may still be worthwhile topics to consider. These topics are the ones that spark interest, conversation, debate, and disagreement. They are often inspired by current issues and assess the validity of older research.

Consider some of these research question examples:

76. How does the rise in on-screen violence impact behavior in adolescents.

77. Should access to social media platforms be restricted in children under the age of 12 to improve mental health?

78. Are prescription mental health medications over-prescribed in older adults? If so, what are the effects of this?

79. Cognitive biases in AI: what are the implications for decision-making?

80. What are the psychological and ethical implications of using virtual reality in exposure therapy for treating trauma-related conditions?

Inspiration for your next psychology research project

You can choose from a diverse range of research questions that intersect and overlap across various specialties.

From cognitive psychology to clinical studies, each inquiry contributes to a deeper understanding of the human mind and behavior. Importantly, the relevance of these questions transcends individual disciplines, as many findings offer insights applicable across multiple areas of study.

As health trends evolve and societal needs shift, new topics emerge, fueling continual exploration and discovery. Diving into this ever-changing and expanding area of study enables you to navigate the complexities of the human experience and pave the way for innovative solutions to the challenges of tomorrow.

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Developing a Research Question

Understanding Your Assignment

Selecting and narrowing a topic, exercises for generating topics, constructing your research question.

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Before you select a topic or develop a research question, it is important to understand your assignment. Understanding your assignment from the outset will help you craft a re search question that you can adequately answer in the space and time allotted to you. In this section, we will look at some questions to ask when first decoding a prompt:

What is the purpose of the assignment? Think about the goal of your assignment: Are you trying to persuade a reader? Explain an idea? Apply theories to a text? Tell a story? The purpose of your assignment will guide your research and writing.
What kind of writing am I doing? Look for words in the assignment that tell you about the type of writing you are being asked to produce. For example, there is a difference between being asked to summarize and being asked to analyze. Other verbs to look out for include, discuss, define, explain, evaluate, etc.
Who is my audience? How will this affect the tone and content of my paper? What are the conventions of the discipline within which I am working?
What is the scope of the assignment? Determine what the purpose of the paper will be and how much ground you will need to cover. How many topics will you be looking at? How long should the paper be?
What is the topic of the assignment? Has the professor given you a specific topic? Will you need to find your own?
What are the requirements of the assignment? Familiarize yourself with the criteria of the prompt. It is easy to forget about details like number/types of sources, word counts, and formatting guidelines. Look at these early on so that you can better plan for the content and scope of your project.
Ask for clarification. Reach out to your professor, other instructors, Writing Tutorial Services (WTS) , or the Learning Commons Research Desk , for assistance with understanding and getting started on an assignment.

Video: Understanding Assignments . UNC Writing Center (2018)

Adapted from: Swarthmore Writing Associates Program, Understanding Your Assignment (2023); Grinnell College, Choosing A Research Topic ; The University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center, Understanding Your Assignment .

In some cases, an instructor may assign you a topic or a list of topics. In other cases, you might be asked to generate a topic on your own. An assignment may also fall somewhere between these two cases, asking you to pick a narrower topic from a broader one. In this section we will talk about strategies for selecting a topic that both interests you and helps you develop a research question.

Think about the scope and content requirements of your assignment.
Consider topics or units which have come up in class.
Was there a reading you really enjoyed? A lecture that stuck with you? If you’re excited about your topic, others will be too! Plus, your research will be much more fun.
Do you feel a personal or academic connection to any specific topic?
Generate a list of subtopics that relate to the broader topic.
Look at your class notes and syllabus for themes.
Find an interesting text on IUCAT , Indiana University's Library Catalog.
Scroll down on the catalog page to find the subject headings for this text, which may contain more specific topics of interest to you. Below is an example of subject headings for Shadowlines: Women and Borders in Contemporary Asia :

Subject Headings: Women-Asian-Social Conditions-21st century; Women-Political activity-Asia; Sex role and globalization-Asia; Postcolonialism.

Video: Picking a Topic is Research . University of Houston Libraries (2020).

Adapted from: Purdue Online Writing Lab, Choosing a Topic .

In this section we will discuss some exercises designed to help you generate topics for your paper:

Brainstorm with classmates, friends, and professors. This can help you develop ideas and explore topics you might not have considered on your own.
Explore non-peer reviewed sources such as newspapers , blogs, and magazines. Looking at current events can help you identify topics that interest you and explore subtopics within those areas.
Free-write about the broader topic: Set a time limit and write about your topic. Even if you feel as though you have nothing else to say, keep writing! When you’re done, read over the text and look for patterns in your thoughts, ideas that stick out, and anything of interest that you want to explore some more.
Concept map : A concept map is a visual way to organize your thoughts and make connections between ideas. They can take the form of charts, graphic organizers, tables, flowcharts, Venn Diagrams, timelines, or T-charts. Concept mapping is similar to visual mapping, visual webbing, and mind mapping. You can draw a concept map on a piece of paper, reserve a space at the library to use a whiteboard, or use these websites to create concepts maps online: Miro , TheBrain , Lucidchart , Coggle . Below are concept maps for "Concept Mapping" and a "Personal Philosophy of Online Learning":

Chart : Concept Mapping Concept Map . Teton Science Schools (TSS). This concept map depicts ideas related to the concept mapping technique.

Concept map of a personal philosophy for online learning.

Chart: Personal philosophy concept map and rationale . Myles’ Blog (2016).

In the video below, English Literature PhD student Lucy Hargrave explains how graduate students in the humanities can use concept maps to help them organize their thoughts and notes:

Video: How I Use MindMaps as a PhD Student: Organising my Research Notes . Lucy Hargrave (2021).

Now that you have narrowed down your topic, let's turn that topic into a research question. In this section we will talk about how to develop a question that sets you up for success. Keep in mind that your question may change as you gather more information and start writing—this is okay! Having a sense of your direction from the outset can help you evaluate sources and identify relevant information during the research process.

Explore your topic

Return to some of the articles/sources that you discussed in class or that you found when researching your topic—what questions do these sources raise? What are other researchers in this area writing about?
Ask open-ended “how” and “why” questions about your topic.
Consider the “so what?” of your topic. Why does this topic matter to you? Why should it matter to others?
What would you like to know more about? What do you think your audience would like to learn about?
Think about the value of focusing on a specific period of time, geographic location, organization, or group of people. Narrowing the scope of your paper can make it easier to find sources and develop a strong, concise argument.
What do you want to say in your assignment? What are the key points and arguments that you want to get across? Which subtopic, timeframe, or other limitation would allow you to make these points in the most effective way?
Try filling out a worksheet to organize your thoughts.

Pick One Research Question

Evaluate the questions you’ve asked and pick one that speaks to you. If there are a few questions that interest you, focus and tailor their components into a singular research question which you can address in the space and time allotted for your paper. Consider the wording of the question and the scope of the assignment. A good research question is clear, focused, and has an appropriate level of complexity. Developing a strong question is a process, so you will likely refine your question as you continue to research and to develop your ideas. Use the following guidelines to evaluate whether or your question will be appropriate for your assignment:

Clarity. Is your question clear? Do you have a specific aspect of your general topic that you are going to explore further?

Unclear: Why are social networking sites harmful sometimes? Clear: How are online users experiencing privacy issues on the social networking sites Facebook and TikTok?

Focus. Is your question focused? Will you be able to cover the topic adequately in the space available?

Unfocused: How are Asian Americans represented in the media? Focused: How do television advertisements in the United States perpetuate the model minority stereotype?

Complexity. Is your question sufficiently complex? Can your question be answered with a simple yes/no response or does it requires research and analysis?

Too simple: Did COVID-19 affect parents? Appropriately Complex: How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact the mental health and work-life balance of teleworking parents with young children?

Video: Developing a Research Question . Laurier Library (2017).

Adapted from: George Mason University Writing Center, How to Write a Research Question (2008); Monash University Library, Developing research questions .

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Likes, Shares, and Beyond: Exploring the Impact of Social Media in Essays

Table of contents

1 Definition and Explanation of a Social Media Essay
2.1 Topics for an Essay on Social Media and Mental Health
2.2 Social Dynamics
2.3 Social Media Essay Topics about Business
2.4 Politics
3 Research and Analysis
4 Structure Social Media Essay
5 Tips for Writing Essays on Social Media
6 Examples of Social Media Essays
7 Navigating the Social Media Labyrinth: Key Insights

In the world of digital discourse, our article stands as a beacon for those embarking on the intellectual journey of writing about social media. It is a comprehensive guide for anyone venturing into the dynamic world of social media essays. Offering various topics about social media and practical advice on selecting engaging subjects, the piece delves into research methodologies, emphasizing the importance of credible sources and trend analysis. Furthermore, it provides invaluable tips on structuring essays, including crafting compelling thesis statements and hooks balancing factual information with personal insights. Concluding with examples of exemplary essays, this article is an essential tool for students and researchers alike, aiding in navigating the intricate landscape of its impact on society.

Definition and Explanation of a Social Media Essay

Essentially, when one asks “What is a social media essay?” they are referring to an essay that analyzes, critiques, or discusses its various dimensions and effects. These essays can range from the psychological implications of its use to its influence on politics, business strategies, and social dynamics.

A social media essay is an academic or informational piece that explores various aspects of social networking platforms and their impact on individuals and society.

In crafting such an essay, writers blend personal experiences, analytical perspectives, and empirical data to paint a full picture of social media’s role. For instance, a social media essay example could examine how these platforms mold public opinion, revolutionize digital marketing strategies, or raise questions about data privacy ethics. Through a mix of thorough research, critical analysis, and personal reflections, these essays provide a layered understanding of one of today’s most pivotal digital phenomena.

Great Social Media Essay Topics

When it comes to selecting a topic for your essay, consider its current relevance, societal impact, and personal interest. Whether exploring the effects on business, politics, mental health, or social dynamics, these social media essay titles offer a range of fascinating social media topic ideas. Each title encourages an exploration of the intricate relationship between social media and our daily lives. A well-chosen topic should enable you to investigate the impact of social media, debate ethical dilemmas, and offer unique insights. Striking the right balance in scope, these topics should align with the objectives of your essays, ensuring an informative and captivating read.

Topics for an Essay on Social Media and Mental Health

The Impact of Social Media on Self-Esteem.
Unpacking Social Media Addiction: Causes, Effects, and Solutions.
Analyzing Social Media’s Role as a Catalyst for Teen Depression and Anxiety.
Social Media and Mental Health Awareness: A Force for Good?
The Psychological Impacts of Cyberbullying in the Social Media Age.
The Effects of Social Media on Sleep and Mental Health.
Strategies for Positive Mental Health in the Era of Social Media.
Real-Life vs. Social Media Interactions: An Essay on Mental Health Aspects.
The Mental Well-Being Benefits of a Social Media Detox.
Social Comparison Psychology in the Realm of Social Media.

Social Dynamics

Social Media and its Impact on Interpersonal Communication Skills: A Cause and Effect Essay on Social Media.
Cultural Integration through Social Media: A New Frontier.
Interpersonal Communication in the Social Media Era: Evolving Skills and Challenges.
Community Building and Social Activism: The Role of Social Media.
Youth Culture and Behavior: The Influence of Social Media.
Privacy and Personal Boundaries: Navigating Social Media Challenges.
Language Evolution in Social Media: A Dynamic Shift.
Leveraging Social Media for Social Change and Awareness.
Family Dynamics in the Social Media Landscape.
Friendship in the Age of Social Media: An Evolving Concept.

Social Media Essay Topics about Business

Influencer Marketing on Social Media: Impact and Ethics.
Brand Building and Customer Engagement: The Power of Social Media.
The Ethics and Impact of Influencer Marketing in Social Media.
Measuring Business Success Through Social Media Analytics.
The Changing Face of Advertising in the Social Media World.
Revolutionizing Customer Service in the Social Media Era.
Market Research and Consumer Insights: The Social Media Advantage.
Small Businesses and Startups: The Impact of Social Media.
Ethical Dimensions of Social Media Advertising.
Consumer Behavior and Social Media: An Intricate Relationship.
The Role of Social Media in Government Transparency and Accountability
Social Media’s Impact on Political Discourse and Public Opinion.
Combating Fake News on Social Media: Implications for Democracy.
Political Mobilization and Activism: The Power of Social Media.
Social Media: A New Arena for Political Debates and Discussions.
Government Transparency and Accountability in the Social Media Age.
Voter Behavior and Election Outcomes: The Social Media Effect.
Political Polarization: A Social Media Perspective.
Tackling Political Misinformation on Social Media Platforms.
The Ethics of Political Advertising in the Social Media Landscape.
Memes as a Marketing Tool: Successes, Failures, and Pros of Social Media.
Shaping Public Opinion with Memes: A Social Media Phenomenon.
Political Satire and Social Commentary through Memes.
The Psychology Behind Memes: Understanding Their Viral Nature.
The Influence of Memes on Language and Communication.
Tracing the History and Evolution of Internet Memes.
Memes in Online Communities: Culture and Subculture Formation.
Navigating Copyright and Legal Issues in the World of Memes.
Memes as a Marketing Strategy: Analyzing Successes and Failures.
Memes and Global Cultural Exchange: A Social Media Perspective.

Research and Analysis

In today’s fast-paced information era, the ability to sift through vast amounts of data and pinpoint reliable information is more crucial than ever. Research and analysis in the digital age hinge on identifying credible sources and understanding the dynamic landscape. Initiating your research with reputable websites is key. Academic journals, government publications, and established news outlets are gold standards for reliable information. Online databases and libraries provide a wealth of peer-reviewed articles and books. For websites, prioritize those with domains like .edu, .gov, or .org, but always critically assess the content for bias and accuracy. Turning to social media, it’s a trove of real-time data and trends but requires a discerning approach. Focus on verified accounts and official pages of recognized entities.

Analyzing current trends and user behavior is crucial for staying relevant. Platforms like Google Trends, Twitter Analytics, and Facebook Insights offer insights into what’s resonating with audiences. These tools help identify trending topics, hashtags, and the type of content that engages users. Remember, it reflects and influences public opinion and behavior. Observing user interactions, comments, and shares can provide a deeper understanding of consumer attitudes and preferences. This analysis is invaluable for tailoring content, developing marketing strategies, and staying ahead in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Structure Social Media Essay

In constructing a well-rounded structure for a social media essay, it’s crucial to begin with a strong thesis statement. This sets the foundation for essays about social media and guides the narrative.

Thesis Statements

A thesis statement is the backbone of your essay, outlining the main argument or position you will explore throughout the text. It guides the narrative, providing a clear direction for your essay and helping readers understand the focus of your analysis or argumentation. Here are some thesis statements:

“Social media has reshaped communication, fostering a connected world through instant information sharing, yet it has come at the cost of privacy and genuine social interaction.”
“While social media platforms act as potent instruments for societal and political transformation, they present significant challenges to mental health and the authenticity of information.”
“The role of social media in contemporary business transcends mere marketing; it impacts customer relationships, shapes brand perception, and influences operational strategies.”

Social Media Essay Hooks

Social media essay hooks are pivotal in grabbing the reader’s attention right from the beginning and compelling them to continue reading. A well-crafted hook acts as the engaging entry point to your essay, setting the tone and framing the context for the discussion that will follow.

Here are some effective social media essay hooks:

“In a world where a day without social media is unimaginable, its pervasive presence is both a testament to its utility and a source of various societal issues.”
“Each scroll, like, and share on social media platforms carries the weight of influencing public opinion and shaping global conversations.”
“Social media has become so ingrained in our daily lives that its absence would render the modern world unrecognizable.”

Introduction:

Navigating the digital landscape, an introduction for a social media essay serves as a map, charting the terrain of these platforms’ broad influence across various life aspects. This section should briefly summarize the scope of the essay, outlining both the benefits and the drawbacks, and segue into the thesis statement.

When we move to the body part of the essay, it offers an opportunity for an in-depth exploration and discussion. It can be structured first to examine the positive aspects of social media, including improved communication channels, innovative marketing strategies, and the facilitation of social movements. Following this, the essay should address the negative implications, such as issues surrounding privacy, the impact on mental health, and the proliferation of misinformation. Incorporating real-world examples, statistical evidence, and expert opinions throughout the essay will provide substantial support for the arguments presented.

Conclusion:

It is the summit of the essay’s exploration, offering a moment to look back on the terrain covered. The conclusion should restate the thesis in light of the discussions presented in the body. It should summarize the key points made, reflecting on the multifaceted influence of social media in contemporary society. The essay should end with a thought-provoking statement or question about the future role of social media, tying back to the initial hooks and ensuring a comprehensive and engaging end to the discourse.

Tips for Writing Essays on Social Media

In the ever-evolving realm of digital dialogue, mastering the art of essay writing on social media is akin to navigating a complex web of virtual interactions and influences. Writing an essay on social media requires a blend of analytical insight, factual accuracy, and a nuanced understanding of the digital landscape. Here are some tips to craft a compelling essay:

Incorporate Statistical Data and Case Studies

Integrate statistical data and relevant case studies to lend credibility to your arguments. For instance, usage statistics, growth trends, and demographic information can provide a solid foundation for your points. Case studies, especially those highlighting its impact on businesses, politics, or societal change, offer concrete examples that illustrate your arguments. Ensure your sources are current and reputable to maintain the essay’s integrity.

Balance Personal Insights with Factual Information

While personal insights can add a unique perspective to your essay, balancing them with factual information is crucial. Personal observations and experiences can make your essay relatable and engaging, but grounding these insights in factual data ensures credibility and helps avoid bias.

Respect Privacy

When discussing real-world examples or case studies, especially those involving individuals or specific organizations, be mindful of privacy concerns. Avoid sharing sensitive information, and always respect the confidentiality of your sources.

Maintain an Objective Tone

It is a polarizing topic, but maintaining an objective tone in your essay is essential. Avoid emotional language and ensure that your arguments are supported by evidence. An objective approach allows readers to form opinions based on the information presented.

Use Jargon Wisely

While using social media-specific terminology can make your essay relevant and informed, it’s important to use jargon judiciously. Avoid overuse and ensure that terms are clearly defined for readers who might not be familiar with their lingo.

Examples of Social Media Essays

Title: The Dichotomy of Social Media: A Tool for Connection and a Platform for Division

Introduction

In the digital era, social media has emerged as a paradoxical entity. It serves as a bridge connecting distant corners of the world and a battleground for conflicting ideologies. This essay explores this dichotomy, utilizing statistical data, case studies, and real-world examples to understand its multifaceted impact on society.

Section 1 – Connection Through Social Media:

Social media’s primary allure lies in its ability to connect. A report by the Pew Research Center shows that 72% of American adults use some form of social media, where interactions transcend geographical and cultural barriers. This statistic highlights the platform’s popularity and role in fostering global connections. An exemplary case study of this is the #MeToo movement. Originating as a hashtag on Twitter, it grew into a global campaign against sexual harassment, demonstrating its power to mobilize and unify people for a cause.

However, personal insights suggest that while it bridges distances, it can also create a sense of isolation. Users often report feeling disconnected from their immediate surroundings, hinting at the platform’s double-edged nature. Despite enabling connections on a global scale, social media can paradoxically alienate individuals from their local context.

Section 2 – The Platform for Division

Conversely, social media can amplify societal divisions. Its algorithm-driven content can create echo chambers, reinforcing users’ preexisting beliefs. A study by the Knight Foundation found that it tends to polarize users, especially in political contexts, leading to increased division. This is further exacerbated by the spread of misinformation, as seen in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election case, where it was used to disseminate false information, influencing public opinion and deepening societal divides.

Respecting privacy and maintaining an objective tone, it is crucial to acknowledge that social media is not divisive. Its influence is determined by both its usage and content. Thus, it is the obligation of both platforms to govern content and consumers to access information.

In conclusion, it is a complex tool. It has the unparalleled ability to connect individuals worldwide while possessing the power to divide. Balancing the personal insights with factual information presented, it’s clear that its influence is a reflection of how society chooses to wield it. As digital citizens, it is imperative to use it judiciously, understanding its potential to unite and divide.

Delving into the intricacies of social media’s impact necessitates not just a keen eye for detail but an analytical mindset to dissect its multifaceted layers. Analysis is paramount because it allows us to navigate through the vast sea of information, distinguishing between mere opinion and well-supported argumentation.

This essay utilizes tips for writing a social media essay. Statistical data from the Pew Research Center and the Knight Foundation lend credibility to the arguments. The use of the #MeToo movement as a case study illustrates its positive impact, while the reference to the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election demonstrates its negative aspects. The essay balances personal insights with factual information, respects privacy, maintains an objective tone, and appropriately uses jargon. The structure is clear and logical, with distinct sections for each aspect of its impact, making it an informative and well-rounded analysis of its role in modern society.

Navigating the Social Media Labyrinth: Key Insights

In the digital age, the impact of social media on various aspects of human life has become a critical area of study. This article has provided a comprehensive guide for crafting insightful and impactful essays on this subject, blending personal experiences with analytical rigor. Through a detailed examination of topics ranging from mental health and social dynamics to business and politics, it has underscored the dual nature of social media as both a unifying and divisive force. The inclusion of statistical data and case studies has enriched the discussion, offering a grounded perspective on the nuanced effects of these platforms.

The tips and structures outlined serve as a valuable framework for writers to navigate the complex interplay between social media and societal shifts. As we conclude, it’s clear that understanding social media’s role requires a delicate balance of critical analysis and open-mindedness. Reflecting on its influence, this article guides the creation of thoughtful essays and encourages readers to ponder the future of digital interactions and their implications for the fabric of society.

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Writing Strong Research Questions | Criteria & Examples

Writing Strong Research Questions | Criteria & Examples

Published on October 26, 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 21, 2023.

A research question pinpoints exactly what you want to find out in your work. A good research question is essential to guide your research paper , dissertation , or thesis .

All research questions should be:

Focused on a single problem or issue
Researchable using primary and/or secondary sources
Feasible to answer within the timeframe and practical constraints
Specific enough to answer thoroughly
Complex enough to develop the answer over the space of a paper or thesis
Relevant to your field of study and/or society more broadly

How to write a research question, what makes a strong research question, using sub-questions to strengthen your main research question, research questions quiz, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about research questions.

You can follow these steps to develop a strong research question:

Choose your topic
Do some preliminary reading about the current state of the field
Narrow your focus to a specific niche
Identify the research problem that you will address

The way you frame your question depends on what your research aims to achieve. The table below shows some examples of how you might formulate questions for different purposes.

Using your research problem to develop your research question

Note that while most research questions can be answered with various types of research , the way you frame your question should help determine your choices.

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Research questions anchor your whole project, so it’s important to spend some time refining them. The criteria below can help you evaluate the strength of your research question.

Focused and researchable

Feasible and specific, complex and arguable, relevant and original.

Chances are that your main research question likely can’t be answered all at once. That’s why sub-questions are important: they allow you to answer your main question in a step-by-step manner.

Good sub-questions should be:

Less complex than the main question
Focused only on 1 type of research
Presented in a logical order

Here are a few examples of descriptive and framing questions:

Descriptive: According to current government arguments, how should a European bank tax be implemented?
Descriptive: Which countries have a bank tax/levy on financial transactions?
Framing: How should a bank tax/levy on financial transactions look at a European level?

Keep in mind that sub-questions are by no means mandatory. They should only be asked if you need the findings to answer your main question. If your main question is simple enough to stand on its own, it’s okay to skip the sub-question part. As a rule of thumb, the more complex your subject, the more sub-questions you’ll need.

Try to limit yourself to 4 or 5 sub-questions, maximum. If you feel you need more than this, it may be indication that your main research question is not sufficiently specific. In this case, it’s is better to revisit your problem statement and try to tighten your main question up.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

Sampling methods
Simple random sampling
Stratified sampling
Cluster sampling
Likert scales
Reproducibility

Statistics

Null hypothesis
Statistical power
Probability distribution
Effect size
Poisson distribution

Research bias

Optimism bias
Cognitive bias
Implicit bias
Hawthorne effect
Anchoring bias
Explicit bias

The way you present your research problem in your introduction varies depending on the nature of your research paper . A research paper that presents a sustained argument will usually encapsulate this argument in a thesis statement .

A research paper designed to present the results of empirical research tends to present a research question that it seeks to answer. It may also include a hypothesis —a prediction that will be confirmed or disproved by your research.

As you cannot possibly read every source related to your topic, it’s important to evaluate sources to assess their relevance. Use preliminary evaluation to determine whether a source is worth examining in more depth.

This involves:

Reading abstracts , prefaces, introductions , and conclusions
Looking at the table of contents to determine the scope of the work
Consulting the index for key terms or the names of important scholars

A research hypothesis is your proposed answer to your research question. The research hypothesis usually includes an explanation (“ x affects y because …”).

A statistical hypothesis, on the other hand, is a mathematical statement about a population parameter. Statistical hypotheses always come in pairs: the null and alternative hypotheses . In a well-designed study , the statistical hypotheses correspond logically to the research hypothesis.

Formulating a main research question can be a difficult task. Overall, your question should contribute to solving the problem that you have defined in your problem statement .

However, it should also fulfill criteria in three main areas:

Researchability
Feasibility and specificity
Relevance and originality

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33 Social Media Survey Questionnaires

Nearly 45% of the world’s population can be found on social media according to a recent research report. With such a huge human presence on multiple social platforms, there’s definitely a lot of information you can gather from these platforms by carrying out a social media survey.

Social media represents a virtual simulation of everyday life and this means that you can gather useful information about human behavior by observing interactions as they occur on these channels. A social media questionnaire or survey is a full-proof method that can help you gather and interpret online behaviors.

Why Conduct Social Media Surveys?

Market Research

Social media platforms are extremely conducive and rich-data contexts for market research. By tracking social media interactions across different channels, you can discover the preferences and interests of your target audience, and also leverage this information to create user-centered campaigns.

Social media surveys help you to identify trending issues and hot topics that your target audience is interested in. In fact, there are a variety of different methods, tools, and tips you can use to uncover market insights and consumer behavior on social media.

Monitoring and searching hashtags related to your industry, product, or brand is a good way to discover what your target audience is talking about at a particular point in time. Social media survey is also a valuable tool for real-time market research and allows you to drive user engagement and interactions that translate to accurate data for market research.

Monitoring Societal Issues

Social media surveys also help you to carry out social listening on trending issues. For example, you can post a short survey on your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages to find out what your online community thinks about a trending social issue.

For organizations looking to intensify corporate social responsibility efforts, tracking societal issues via social media surveys can help you decide on the best ways to weigh in on these issues. You can get feedback from your audience to find out what they expect from your organization with regards to a trending societal issue.

Track Harassment and Bullying

With increased social media activity and interactions, cyberbullying is now on the rise. One way to track and address this is to conduct smart social media surveys that allow people to share their experiences with bullying and targeted harassment online.

You can start by creating a simple poll with a dichotomous question on your social media platforms. Based on the responses provided, you can take things a notch further by sharing social media questionnaires where they can detail their experiences and suggest ways to address the problem.

10 Social Media Survey Questions for Market Research

How often have you come across this product online?

What is your favorite product within this industry?

Do you prefer to shop online or offline?

Do social conversations influence your product choices?

social-media-survey-question-market-research

How likely are you to buy a product recommended online?

Very likely
Somewhat likely
Quite Unlikely
Very Unlikely

How likely are you to recommend a product to your online community?

To what extent does a brand’s social media presence influence your purchasing decision?

To a large extent

What social media channels are you most active on? Choose as many as are applicable.

How old are you?

60 and above

Kindly indicate your employment status?

Self-employed

15 Social Media Survey Questions for Addiction, Education Harassment, Depression and Bullying

Have you ever been bullied online?

Please describe what happened when you were cyberbullied.

Did you report to anyone when you were cyberbullied? If no, why?

What can be done to address cyberbullying?

On which social media platforms have you experienced cyberbullying? Choose all the options that apply.

Have you ever been harassed online?

In your opinion, what platforms have the least anti-discrimination laws?

What platform has the highest anti-discriminatory laws?

Has social media had any effect on your mental health?

Do you experience any form of anxiety while using social media platforms?

Do you have a different personality on your social media pages?

To what extent does social media influence your behaviors and actions?

Do you filter the content you consume online?

Tell us how social media has impacted your mental health.

To what extent has social media affected your self-esteem?

How to Create Social Media Surveys with Formplus

Formplus has a drag-and-drop form builder where you can seamlessly create your social media surveys for use. In the form builder, you can add different fields to your social media survey and customize the form’s appearance in line with your preferences.

Here, we’ll show you how to create a social media survey using Formplus.

The first thing you have to do is sign up for a Formplus account at www.formpl.us . Once you do this, confirm your email and log into your Formplus dashboard.

On your Formplus dashboard, click on the ‘create new form’ button to access the form builder.

This should take you to the form builder. You’d notice the form fields section just on the left side of the builder, where you’d find different fields that you can add to your form.

To start creating your social media survey from scratch, click on preferred fields in the form fields section to automatically add them to your form. You can also drag and drop preferred fields from the builder’s form field section into your survey.

After adding the fields to your form, click on the edit icon. You’d find it just beside each of the fields.
Clicking on the edit icon gives you access to the edit section where you can add questions and answer-options; if any, to your form.

Save all form changes to automatically access the form customization section.

Use preferred customization options to tweak the appearance of your social media survey. You can change the form font, add preferred background images, and insert your organization’s logo.

If you want to add the survey to your website, go to the builder’s ‘share’ section, choose the options you want, and follow the prompt instructions. You can also share the survey via the Formplus social media direct sharing buttons.

Alternatively, you can copy the form link and share it with your target audience. Formplus also allows you to send out custom email invitations to form respondents.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve examined different social media survey questions and shown you how social media can be used to gather real-time insights into individuals’ behaviors. Asking the right social media survey questions help you to better understand the behavior of your target audience on social media.

Many social media platforms allow you to create polls for real-time feedback. However, if you want to gather more information about a topic, you can create a social media survey with Formplus, then share it with your online community using the social media direct sharing buttons.

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How to Create a Survey

Social media survey questions: Examples and best practices

Social media usage is skyrocketing. In fact, the total global number of social media users in 2022 was 4.62 billion, up from 4.2 billion in 2021. January 2023 added another 137 million users to the total. Put another way, more than half the world is using social media. It’s no wonder marketers in nearly every industry are using these channels to get to know their target audiences better.

One of the best ways to gain valuable insights from customers is to ask them to complete online surveys. However, getting surveys in front of customers can sometimes be challenging.

Apart from the most obvious channel — a business’s own website — there are innumerable places on the web where a marketer can find customers. They can reach out to and connect with customers in groups (through mailing list databases) or one by one (through email opt-ins and ad clicks).

But the best option is going where huge numbers of the target audience are already congregating — on social media.

Asking social media survey questions gives marketers the ability to reach members of their target audience where they regularly hang out. To gain the insights your business is looking for, you’ll need to be deliberate and concise when developing questions, and you’ll need to strategize how and where you’ll ask them. In this article, we’ll look at what social media surveys are and how you can benefit from them, and we’ll give examples of different types of social media survey questions.

Social media surveys and their benefits

A social media survey, as the name implies, is a method of gathering opinion and observational data through a social media platform. Whether it’s via Facebook or LinkedIn, Instagram or Tik Tok, marketers can use social media channels to ask a target audience to participate in surveys. They can do this by sharing the surveys as posts on the business’s social media channels or through social media ads on a platform.

“Creating an effective social media survey can be a great way to gather insights, opinions, and feedback from your target audience,” says Noel Griffith, CMO of SupplyGem , a website that offers reviews of digital business platforms.

There are many benefits to using social media as a survey distribution platform. The key advantage is how easily your business can reach its target audience. With so many billions of people already on social media, it provides a built-in audience that regularly engages with content.

Add to this the refined targeting capabilities that all social media channels offer — your business can select the demographics it wants to reach with posts and ads — and getting survey responses from the people you want to hear from gets a whole lot easier.

Another benefit of social media surveys is that social media platforms provide a smooth user experience. Plus, people spend a lot of time on them — an average of two hours and 31 minutes a day.

Of course, it’s important to note that having a ready-made audience doesn’t guarantee survey responses. But meeting a few basic requirements will help ensure success.

First, a social media survey must be easy to use, quick to complete, and engaging. Second, it must communicate to customers that its purpose is not merely to collect data, but also to give the customer a voice. To accomplish this, you need a brief survey with a compelling headline.

“Keep your survey brief and to the point,” says Griffith. “Social media surveys should be kept relatively short so that people don’t become frustrated and give up before they’ve finished.”

Some marketers also include an incentive for participating in surveys.

Common social media survey questions

The questions you ask in your social media survey depend on your overarching goals. For example, if your business wants to learn about how loyal its customer base is, your survey questions should focus on finding out how committed the customers feel to your brand.

Regardless of the goal, however, the quality of the questions is key. “Make sure your questions are clear and easy to understand,” says Griffith. “Avoid long, complicated sentences or jargon that could confuse respondents.”

Here are some common categories of social media surveys and examples of social media survey questions businesses can use.

Product or service social media survey questions

Many businesses use social media surveys to ask their target audience how they feel about specific products or services. The questions typically cover topics ranging from general user satisfaction to opinions or observations about specific features. This data can help the business plan future products and services, upcoming promotions, and even inventory levels.

Here are some typical product or service social media survey questions:

What is your favorite item from this product line?
If you could get any product from this product line for free, what would it be?
Do you prefer the red, blue, or green product?
Would you consider purchasing this service bundle for $99?
Does this service package include what you’re looking for?

Customer service social media survey questions

Whether you conduct business online, in person, or both, customer service is crucial to your success. After all, the way a business treats customers affects the overall customer experience and the perception of the brand.

If the service is exceptional, a customer may rave about it to friends and family, fueling valuable word-of-mouth advertising. If it’s rotten, the customer may complain about it, not only in private circles, but publicly — like in a public social media feed.

Here are some useful customer service social media survey questions:

How would you rate the customer service at our store?
Who is your favorite customer service representative?
If you could change anything about our returns process, what would it be?
Do you prefer to reach customer service via phone, email, or live chat?
Was customer service able to answer all of your questions during your last experience?

Customer loyalty social media survey questions

It’s essential for a business to understand its target audience’s level of loyalty toward the brand and what fosters that loyalty in customers. Such insights help the business make future decisions in areas such as promotions, internal processes like product or service design and customer service, and advertising campaigns. After all, it takes far less money to retain existing customers than it does to gain new ones, so it’s important to keep existing customers as happy as possible.

Here are some customer loyalty social media survey questions to consider:

How many times have you purchased from our business?
How likely are you to recommend our business to your friends and family?
Do you feel committed to our brand, or would you purchase from a competitor?
How would you rate your loyalty to our brand on a scale of 1–10?
Would you consider purchasing a gift card from our business for a friend or family member?

New product idea social media survey questions

Businesses are always looking to satisfy their target audience’s needs. But sometimes even a well-informed business will have trouble coming up with the right new product or service to sell to its target audience. To stimulate ideas and mitigate the risk of investing in a product or service that might bomb in the marketplace, your business can ask its customers exactly what they want to see.

Here are some examples of new product idea social media survey questions:

If you could change this product in any way, how would you change it?
How would you suggest we improve this service?
If you could add a new product to this product line, what would it be?
What do you most want to see in this new product?
What product feature do you dislike the most and why?

Social media usage questions

If marketers are using social media as a way to learn more about their customers, then they also need to know how their customers use social media. For example, which platforms do the customers prefer, and how often do they use them?

Here are helpful social media usage questions to include:

Which social media platform do you use most often?
How much time do you spend on social media each day?
On which day do you spend the most time on social media?
Which social media platform do you use least often?
What time do you typically go on social media?

Regardless of which types of questions you include, it’s important not to make them all mandatory. “Give respondents the option of skipping questions if they wish,” says Griffith. “This allows them to answer only the questions they feel comfortable with and prevents them from becoming frustrated by difficult questions.”

Social media surveys and more with Jotform

When it comes to selecting a tool to help you create social media survey questions, Jotform is the easy choice. This survey builder comes with thousands of survey templates, all of which are easy to customize — right down to the finest details.

Griffith offers another helpful piece of advice for organizations who focus on the user experience: “Make sure your survey is mobile friendly so that it can be completed on any device.” Jotform makes that easy, too.

You can leverage the benefits we’ve covered in this article by using Jotform survey forms in posts or ads on social media platforms. All data gathered through the survey responses is highly secure. Plus, you can turn the raw data into actionable insights using Jotform Tables and Jotform Report Builder.

In addition to creating social media surveys, you can use Jotform for any other business process that requires forms, including invoicing, scheduling, and registrations.

Thank you for helping improve the Jotform Blog. 🎉

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COMMENTS

70 Must-Know Social Media Research Paper Topics
Some social issues research paper topics to explore are; The growth of cyberattacks and cyberstalking in social media. Social media and how it promotes an unrealistic idea of life. Social media and the many impacts it has on users and businesses. Social media detox: Importance of taking scheduled social media breaks.
300+ Social Media Research Topics
Social Media Research Topics are as follows: The effects of social media on mental health. The role of social media in political polarization. The impact of social media on relationships. The use of social media by businesses for marketing. The effects of social media on body image and self-esteem.
10 Research Question Examples to Guide your Research Project
The first question asks for a ready-made solution, and is not focused or researchable. The second question is a clearer comparative question, but note that it may not be practically feasible. For a smaller research project or thesis, it could be narrowed down further to focus on the effectiveness of drunk driving laws in just one or two countries.
Social Media Research Topics
Top 10 Social Media Research Paper Topics. 1. A Comparative Review of Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok as Primary Marketing Platforms for Small Businesses. A lot of small businesses have flocked to various social media sites to market their products and services.
234 Social Media Research Topics & Ideas
18 January 2024. last updated. Social media research encompasses a broad range of different topics that delve into the ever-evolving digital landscape. People investigate the impact of social platforms on society, exploring subjects, such as online identity formation, self-presentation, the psychology of virtual interactions, and others.
MRA Guide to the Top 16 Social Media Research Questions
The "Top 16 Questions" presented in this guide represent the core matters of importance to the research field with respect to social media research. They include issues of reliability, execution, interaction with other kinds of research, ethics and legal compliance, data quality, process, and outputs. Importantly, the 16 questions in this ...
Qualitative and Mixed Methods Social Media Research:
In-depth analysis of research outcomes, which are highly varied in this multidisciplinary review, is beyond the scope of this article. Prior literature reviews already have covered a great deal of ground in the analysis of research trends and outcomes related to specific disciplines or research questions in social media studies as shown in Table 1.
Social media research: Step-by-step tutorial with examples
Step 6: Aggregate & present your results. A crucial step involves consolidating your social media research results into a format that is easily understandable for others. For example, charts and visualisations can aggregate huge amount of data in an easily comprehensible graph that answers your research question.
The Complete Guide to Insightful Social Media Research
Ask interesting questions. The foundation for good social media research is asking the right questions. If you start with a bad question, you'll receive a bad answer. Start by forgetting any concerns about how you are going to conduct the research. Focus on the problems and questions you need to answer, without thinking about the methodology.
PDF Using social media in social research: Opportunities for enhancing
Social media users in the UK. In the UK, there were 45 million social media users in January 2019, representing 67% of the national population and the majority (39 million) access social media using a mobile device (6). The platforms with the most monthly active users2 (in millions) include: Facebook.
Social Media Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic
Social media are responsible for aggravating mental health problems. This systematic study summarizes the effects of social network usage on mental health. Fifty papers were shortlisted from google scholar databases, and after the application of various inclusion and exclusion criteria, 16 papers were chosen and all papers were evaluated for ...
How to Create a Social Media Research Question
Review existing literature. 3. Narrow down your topic. 4. Write your research question. 5. Evaluate your research question. 6. Refine your research question.
Research trends in social media addiction and problematic social media
These research questions will be answered using bibliometric analysis of the literature on social media addiction and problematic use. This will allow for an overview of the research that has been conducted in this area, including information on the most influential authors, journals, countries of publication, and subject areas of study.
232 questions with answers in SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH
Question. 1 answer. Aug 20, 2019. Social media research is gaining ground , so is the search for theories other than spawned by old media research in terms of media control, technology, audiences ...
83 Qualitative Research Questions & Examples
Qualitative research question example for understanding customer segments ‍♀️ Question: Which social media channels are you most active on? 邏 Insight sought: Formulate a social media strategy. Specifically, the social media channels most likely to succeed with a target audience.
Developing a Research Question
Start to turn that topic into a series of questions that you will attempt to answer the course of your research. Keep in mind that you will probably end up changing and adjusting the question (s) you have as you gather more information and synthesize it in your writing. However, having a clear line of inquiry can help you maintain a sense of ...
More Research Questions the "Social Media Hypothesis" of Mental Health
What Researchers Found. A research team in Norway recently published a study in which they tracked young people aged 10-16, and assessed them every 2 years. Each time, the researchers interviewed ...
How to Write a Research Question in 2024: Types, Steps, and Examples
The following research question examples can further guide researchers on properly constructing a research question. Example no. 1. Bad: How does social media affect people's behavior? Good: What effect does the daily use of YouTube have on the attention span of children aged under 16? The first research question is considered bad because of ...
Psychology Research Questions: 80 Ideas For Your Next Project
Below, you will find 80 research question examples across 16 branches of psychology. First, though, let's look at some tips to help you select a suitable research topic. ... For example, researching psychology topics related to social media use may be highly relevant today. 80 psychology research topics and questions. Psychology is a broad ...
Developing a Research Question
A good research question is clear, focused, and has an appropriate level of complexity. Developing a strong question is a process, so you will likely refine your question as you continue to research and to develop your ideas. Use the following guidelines to evaluate whether or your question will be appropriate for your assignment: Clarity.
Social Media Essay: Analyzing Social Dynamics [Topics and Example]
For instance, a social media essay example could examine how these platforms mold public opinion, revolutionize digital marketing strategies, or raise questions about data privacy ethics. Through a mix of thorough research, critical analysis, and personal reflections, these essays provide a layered understanding of one of today's most pivotal ...
Writing Strong Research Questions
A good research question is essential to guide your research paper, dissertation, or thesis. All research questions should be: Focused on a single problem or issue. Researchable using primary and/or secondary sources. Feasible to answer within the timeframe and practical constraints. Specific enough to answer thoroughly.
33 Social Media Survey Questionnaires
Surveys. 33 Social Media Survey Questionnaires. Nearly 45% of the world's population can be found on social media according to a recent research report. With such a huge human presence on multiple social platforms, there's definitely a lot of information you can gather from these platforms by carrying out a social media survey.
Social media survey questions: Examples and best practices
In this article, we'll look at what social media surveys are and how you can benefit from them, and we'll give examples of different types of social media survey questions. Social media surveys and their benefits. A social media survey, as the name implies, is a method of gathering opinion and observational data through a social media platform.