# Prolonged social media use is not fundamentally problematic in a Hungarian representative study

## TL;DR

This study finds that spending a lot of time on social media is not the same as having a problematic relationship with it, based on a representative sample of Hungarian adults.

## Contribution

The study provides new evidence on the distinct psychological factors associated with prolonged versus problematic social media use in a nationally representative adult sample.

## Key findings

- Active and passive social media use predict more time spent online, but not necessarily problematic use.
- Problematic use is more strongly linked to active use, social comparison, and psychological distress.
- Time spent on social media is explained by only 16% of the factors, while problematic use is explained by 58%.

## Abstract

Excessive time spent using social media is often considered a core characteristic of technology-related addictions; however, there is growing evidence that prolonged use may be only weakly associated with symptoms of problematic use. Studies on the divergent associations of psychological factors with prolonged and problematic social media use are still scarce, particularly in adult, representative samples. Based on self-report data, this study aims to address this gap by investigating possible divergent associations of prolonged and problematic social media use among active and passive use, and indicators of psychological distress in a nationally representative sample of adults. A hybrid data collection procedure was employed, including offline and online panelists. The sample comprised 807 Hungarian adults (53.41% women, Mage = 46.61 years, SD = 16.58). A structural equation model (SEM) was constructed. Both active and passive use predicted more time spent on social media, while problematic social media use symptom severity was predicted by active use, social comparison, and psychological distress. The explanatory power of these factors was notable in problematic social media use (58%) and modest for time spent on social media (16%). These findings provide further evidence that prolonged and problematic social media use may be different in their qualitative characteristics.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-026-36896-2.