Original Research Article

Psychological Reports
2023, Vol. 0(0) 1–15
The Role of Perfectionistic © The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/00332941231177245
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Problematic Instagram Use in
the Relationship Between
Self-Concept Clarity and Body
Disconnection: A Serial
Mediation Model

Alessia Musicò1 
1
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Firenze, Italy

Abstract
By combining authors who hypothesized that modern technology has greatly increased
people’s ability and people’s possibility to distance themselves from their embodied
awareness and those who have shown that communication through social media is more
congenial to people with a tendency towards perfectionistic self-presentation (PSP), this
study analyses the influence of self-concept clarity (SCC) in bodily dissociation (BD) and
hypothesizes that people with a low SCC are more prone to BD and that PSP and
problematic Instagram use (PIU) may play a serial mediating role in this relationship. Two
hundred and 19 women (Mage = 31.8 ± 11.25) completed an online survey that included the
Italian-validated versions of the Perfectionistic Self-Presentation Scale, the Scale of Body
Connection and the Bergen Facebook Scale modified for Instagram use. A Serial Mediation
Model (Hayes’s PROCESS Model 6) shows that both PSP and PIU significantly serially
mediate the association between SCC and BD (β = .025 SE = .011, 95% CI =
[-.0498, .0070]) and that there is a mediating effect of PIU between SCC and BD
(β = .04 SE = .020, 95% CI = [-.0865, .0098]), but no mediating effect of PSP between
SCC and BD was found (β = .052 SE = .031, 95% CI = [-.1184, +.0039]). A possible

Corresponding Author:
Alessia Musicò, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla
3, Firenze 50134, Italy.
Email: alessia.musico@unifi.it
2 Psychological Reports 0(0)

explanation is that people with low SCC try to avoid others noticing their imperfections
because they fail to integrate it into their self-concept and tend to use Instagram in a
problematic way because this tool allows them to largely control the information they
share. This use, in turn, alters their state of mind-body connection and this increases the
disconnection from one’s bodily sensations. The absence of mediation by the PSP between
SCC and BD and the presence of PIU mediation between SCC and BD underlines the
importance of technology in this relationship. The implications and limitations of this study
will be discussed.

Keywords
Behavioral addiction, body dissociation, self-concept clarity, Problematic Instagram
Use, Perfectionistic Self-Presentation

Introduction
Body Disconnection and Self-Concept Clarity
There has been increasing interest in recent years in the topic of bodily connection
(i.e., the perception of the self in the world through the senses and the ability to identify,
express and participate in emotions through interoceptive perception) and there is a
growing need to recognize the role and importance of embodied awareness, giving the
body-mind connection its rightful relevance to psychological well-being (e. g., Farb
et al., 2015; Hanley et al., 2017).
When individuals tend to avoid internal sensory information (e.g. tension or a
relaxed state) and to distract themselves from bodily experience (e.g., not connecting to
their emotions), they are dissociating a part of their experience. Chiu et al. (2017)
showed that proneness to dissociation is greater in those individuals with low self-
concept clarity (SCC; i.e., low temporal stability and internal coherence of people’s
self-concept content) and suggests that this may be due to the fact that they experience a
more conflicting view of self (incongruent or contradictory parts of oneself are
disassociated).
Given this evidence, it is likely that people with an inconsistent self-structure also
experience bodily dissociation (BD) - a specific type of dissociation which refers to the
tendency to be distracted by bodily experience that enables to identify and express
moods and emotions - to a greater extent than those with a stable self-view. In keeping
with this perspective, a recent experimental study (Krol et al., 2020) hypothesized that
people with low SCC are more likely to experience body illusions (i. e., perceiving parts
of the body as not being their own) and showed that a weak and unclear sense of self is
associated with a more flexible body self. This evidence could indicate that a low SCC
may be associated with a greater tendency to detach oneself from one’s bodily
perception.
Musicò 3

The current study aims to build upon these previous results by examining the
potential mediator factors in the link between low self-concept clarity, on the one hand,
and body dissociation, on the other hand.

Self-Concept Clarity, Perfectionistic Self-Presentation, Problematic Instagram

Use and Body Dissociation
Literature has shown that people with poor SCC tend toward chronic self-analysis
(Campbell et al., 1996). The susceptibility to fluctuating views of oneself and the
tendency to judge one’s behavior in all circumstances may make it difficult to integrate
dissonant aspects of oneself. For example, while people with a clear sense of self can
accept that they can have negative aspects, imperfections, and making mistakes without
changing their general Self-Concept, people with a more flexible Self-Concept may
struggle to integrate unfavourable aspects of themselves and may try to conceal these
imperfections from others.
In particular, some research shows that are women - especially on image-based
SNSs such as Instagram - more likely than men to seek to create a facade of perfection
through a show of their physical appearance (McGee et al., 2005). This is probably due
to the extreme importance that modern culture places on women’s appearance: not
matching expected standards of beauty will be perceived as a generalized shortcoming
of that person as a whole. Thus, in an attempt to conceal physical elements that they
don’t like or know how to integrate into their self-image (e.g. aspects to which they do
not know how to attribute meaning in their self-representation), women with a lack of
SCC, may tend towards hiding any kind of imperfection.
In support of this hypothesis, the authors of the concept of Perfectionistic Self-
Presentation (PSP; e.g. people who wish to appear perfect without necessarily wishing
to be so, promoting their perfect image and hiding or not admitting their mistakes,
Hewitt et al., 2003) also postulated that this construct reflects uncertainties about the
self: the attempt not to show others one’s imperfections stems from the fear of self-
rejection, whereas the tendency to emphasize one’s positive qualities is linked to a
strong desire for acceptance by others. Based on this assumption, an unclear self-
concept should be one of the reasons behind the tendency to present oneself in a
perfectionist manner, and women with low SCC could increase their tendency to
control the impression they make on the people around them, but, to our knowledge,
there are currently no studies investigating the correlation between lack of self-clarity
and PSP and this work represents a novelty in this respect. Despite this gap, there is
evidence that people with a less stable sense of self-report make greater use of online
self-presentation and prefer this to offline self-presentation (Fullwood et al., 2016),
presenting greater discrepancies between the self which is presented offline and the one
presented online (Strimbu & O’Connell, 2019) and some studies concerning the use of
video games have shown that individuals with low self-clarity tend to identify more
with the virtual avatar than people with high self-clarity (Servidio et al., 2023).
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Furthermore, recent studies (Casale et al., 2015) show that a strong need not to
display imperfections and mistakes leads to a preference for online communication, as
this allows more control over the elements they share through the reduction of non-
verbal clues and greater temporal flexibility that is not possible to have in face-to-face
communication. Conveying an idealized idea of self is easier through images. Recent
research has shown that there is a halo effect whereby users with aesthetically pleasing
accounts on Instagram are attributed particularly positive personality traits (Harris &
Bardey, 2019). For these reasons, the virtual environment of Instagram might be
particularly conducive to women with a tendency towards PSP. In this regard, some
research (Chen & Kim, 2013) has shown that the gratification connected with online
self-presentation is a contributing factor to problematic SNS use (i.e. a use that is linked
to fundamental components of dependencies such as abstinence, tolerance, salience,
conflicts, mood modification, and relapse; Griffiths, 2005, 2015) and some authors
have also pointed out the existence of significant differences between internet-
dependent users and healthy controls in self-concept-related characteristics
(Lémenager et al., 2018). So, women with PSP may therefore start using social
networks in a problematic way because, through these virtual environments, they
receive gratification from being able to convey the self-image they desire. Indeed,
although there is still no clear answer in the literature explaining the relationship
between SCC and Internet use, in general, research shows that people with low SCC
tend to spend more time on the Internet than people with a clear sense of self (Petre,
2021). In particular, there also seems to be a negative correlation between the intensity
of SNSs use and SCC (Yang et al., 2022).
For these reasons, this study combines these strands of research, proposing a serial
mediation path from SCC to the problematic use of Instagram, via PSP.
Furthermore, building on the above reflections, which highlight that in the SNSs
world, women tend to create ‘virtual prostheses’ of themselves that do not correspond
to their offline selves – this study also sets out to investigate whether Problematic
Instagram Use (PIU) can be linked to body dissociation (BD).
In doing so, it keeps in mind the theoretical considerations of some psychodynamic
authors who hypothesise that modern technology has greatly increased people’s ability
to move away from their embodied awareness (e.g. Goldberg, 2021) and some studies
that have already associated other types of problematic use of technology, such as
problematic use of video games, with physical self-concept deficits (Leménager et al.,
2014) and body dissociation (Casale et al., 2022).
In fact, SNSs, like other types of technological tools, could facilitate this process in
many ways, allowing us to alter our states of embodiment and helping the self to feel
timeless and bodiless, in an alternative and unchanging world of false certainties, away
from the real body and able to temporarily abandon its constraints (Goldberg, 2020). In
a similar perspective, Schimmenti & Caretti (2010, 2017) suggest that the new
technologies, due to their highly interactive characteristics, may favour an improper use
of psychic retreats (i.e. immersion in areas of the mind that are poorly connected to the
external world) leading to a total absorption that conceals painful states.
Musicò 5

In this framework, Instagram – one of the main image-based SNSs – becomes a

vehicle by which mind-body detachment is facilitated: many studies emphasize the
importance of presentation through SNSs, highlighting the extreme care with which the
pictures published on profiles are selected (Siibak, 2009) and the growing importance
that online impression management is acquiring (Krämer & Winter, 2008) but, to the
best of our knowledge, the link between PIU and BD has never been investigated and
tested with statistical methods.
This paper, therefore, is questioning whether women with low SCC who are so busy
managing their online image and place so much importance on not showing their
mistakes, implementing a PSP, maybe using Instagram in a more problematic way that
leads them away from the perception and awareness of their real bodies.

Hypothesis. Based on the previous considerations, the present study considers a sample
of women and sets the following hypotheses:

H1: Un unclear sense of self (i.e., low self-concept clarity) will be linked to a greater
bodily disconnection.
H2: Perfectionistic Self-Presentation and Problematic Instagram Use will play a
serial mediating role in linking self-concept clarity and bodily disconnectionH2:
Perfectionistic Self-Presentation and Problematic Instagram Use will play a serial
mediating role in linking self-concept clarity and bodily disconnection (the proposed
model is presented in Figure 1).

Method
Participants
A total of 219 women (Mage = 31.8 ± 11.25) took part in the study. The questionnaire,
which required about 15 minutes to complete, was administered online. Participants
were recruited by sharing the Google Forms link on social networks (Facebook and

Figure 1. Theoretical model. Note. SCC = self-concept clarity; PSP = perfectionistic self-
presentation; PIU = problematic Instagram use; BD = body dissociation.
6 Psychological Reports 0(0)

Instagram). The inclusion criteria for taking part in the questionnaire were: being
female, being over 18 years old and being an Instagram user. All participants agreed to
participate in the study and provided informed consent. The majority of the sample has
only one Instagram account (70.6%) and use Instagram more than 1 hour per day
(57.1%). More than half of the respondents had obtained at least a bachelor’s degree
(62.6%) and is in a romantic relationship (71.2%).

Measurements
Perfectionistic Self-Presentation. The Italian version (Borroni et al., 2016) of the Per-
fectionistic Self-Presentation Scale (PSPS; Hewitt et al., 2003) was used to evaluate this
form of self-presentation. The PSPS is a 27-item scale with supported reliability and
validity (Hewitt et al., 2003). This scale includes three subscales: Perfectionistic Self-
Promotion (10 items; an example of an item is: “I judge myself by the mistakes I make
in front of others”, item 2), Non-Display of Imperfection (10 items; an example of an
item is “I hate making mistakes in public”, item 20) and Non-Disclosure of Imper-
fection (7 items; an example of an item is “admitting a failure to others is the worst thing
possible”, item 19). Respondents reported the degree to which they agree with the items
on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). In the
current study, we used the total scale, with higher scores indicating greater perfec-
tionistic self-presentation. In this study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient for the total
scale score was .94, which indicated good internal consistency.

Self-Concept Clarity. The Italian version (Scalas et al., 2013) of the Self Concept Clarity
Scale ( SCCS; Campbell et al., 1996; Campbell, 1990) was used to evaluate the degree
of stability and internal consistency of the contents of a person’s self-concept. The
SCCS is a 12-item scale with supported reliability and validity. Each item is measured
on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“strongly disagree”) to 5 (“strongly agree”).
An example of an item is: “I often have conflicting opinions about myself” (item 1). The
majority of items are expressed in a form that indicates a lack of self-clarity: to make
high scores correspond to high self-clarity, the rating of all items is to be inverted except
items 6 and 11. The total score is calculated by averaging the sum of the items. In this
study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient for the total scale score was .89, which indicated
good internal consistency.

Bodily Dissociation. BD was assessed through the Italian version (Morganti et al., 2020)
of the relative subscale of the Scale of Body Connection (SBC, Price & Thompson,
2007). This subscale includes 8 of the 20 items of the complete scale and measures the
degree to which the subject avoids internal experiential information (e.g., how much he
or she distracts from bodily experience), including difficulty identifying and expressing
emotions. Examples of items are: “it is difficult for me to identify my emotions” (item
2) or “I feel separated from my body” (item 10). Participants responded to the items
using a 5-point scale from 1 (“not at all”) to 5 (“always”). This subscale can be used as a
Musicò 7

stand-alone measure and there are no reverse items. To score the DB subscale, the
ratings of the individual items are added together and divided by the total number of
items. In this study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient for the total scale score was .75.

Problematic Instagram Use. As previous authors have already done (e.g. Ballarotto et al.,
2021; Monteiro et al., 2020), we evaluated PIU by using the Italian version (Monacis
et al., 2017) of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS; Andreassen et al.,
2016) modified by replacing the word “social network sites” with the word “Insta-
gram”. This scale comprises six items measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from
1 (“very rarely”) to 5 (“very often”). An example of an item is: “Have you felt the need
to use Instagram more and more?” (item 2). In this study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient
for the total scale score was .84.

Results
Statistical analysis
Data analyses were performed with SPSS v.28 software. First, descriptive statistics and
correlations between the variables of the study were calculated (see Table 1). Sub-
sequently, Hayes’s (2013) SPSS macro PROCESS 4.0 (Model 6) with 95% bias-
corrected confidence interval (CI) based on 10, 000 bootstrap samples were used to test
the proposed model. PROCESS is a logistic regression path analysis modelling tool. It
is widely used in the social and health sciences to estimate direct and indirect effects in
mediation models. Model 6, used in this study, tests the serial mediation of two
mediators between a predictor (X) and an outcome (Y).
As hypothesized, values presented in Table 1 indicate a negative significant rela-
tionship between SCC and PSP. Furthermore, a significant positive relationship was
found between PSP and PIU. BD, on the other hand, was significantly negatively
related to SCC and positively significantly related to PSP and PIU.
Subsequently, to examine the indirect effects of the SCC on BD through PSP and
PIU, the results (see Fig. 2) showed that low SCC predicted PSP (β = .47, p < .001)
and PIU (β = .20, p < .01). PSP was also found to have a positive effect on PIU (β =
Table 1. Descriptive Statistics and Correlations.

Variables Mean ± SD 1 2 3 4

1. SCC 3.13 ± 0.91

2. PSPS 96.4 ± 29.7 .47**
3. PIU 12.5 ± 5.2 .32** .34**
4. BD 2.33 ± 0.74 .49** .36** .37**

Note. SCC = Self-Concept Clarity; PSP = Perfectionistic Self-Presentation; PIU = Problematic Instagram Use;
BD = Body Dissociation.
**p < .01.
8 Psychological Reports 0(0)

Figure 2. Serial mediation model effects. Note. The Figure shows effects of SCC = Self-Concept
Clarity; PSP = Perfectionistic Self-Presentation; PIU = Problematic Instagram Use; (BD) = on
Body Dissociation. N = 219. Values shown are standardized coefficients. The Model explains
30.4% of BD variance. ***p < .001; **p < .01.

0.25, p < .001) but, despite the fact that both PSP and PIU significantly serially mediate
the association between SCC and BD (β = -.025, SE = .011, 95% CI =
[-.0498, .0070]), no mediating effect of PSP between SCC and BD was found. Only
two of the three indirect effects contain confidence intervals (CIs) that do not include
zero and are therefore statistically significant. The three indirect effects estimated as
products of regression coefficients linking SCC to BD (SCC→PSP→BD;
SCC→PIU→BD; SCC→PSP→PIU→BD) are shown in Table 2. In addition, the total
effect between SCC and BD is significant (β = .49, p < .001). This Theoretical Model
explain 30.4% of BD variance (F = 31.24, p < .001).
Additionally, to determine whether specific indirect effects of mediating variables
were stronger than others a pairwise comparison among the three indirect effects was
conducted. However, as all comparisons of the mediating effects were at a zero-point
estimate interval within the 95% confidence interval, the variables were not found to be
statistically different from each other concerning mediating power.

Discussion
This research was conducted to investigate the effects of low SCC on BD and, in
particular, to analyze the role of PSP and PIU in this relationship. The results showed a
partial mediation: as hypothesized (H1) low SCC also has a direct influence on poor
connection with one’s body. This agrees with studies showing that the tendency to
dissociate is greater in individuals with low SCC (Chiu et al., 2017). In fact, bodily
disconnection is a particular type of dissociation, which refers to the tendency to avoid
focusing on bodily and interoceptive sensations, dissociating a part of the experience.
People with an unstable, unclear, and internally inconsistent self-concept may find it
more difficult to integrate aspects of their bodily sensations and it may therefore be
more difficult for them to achieve bodily awareness. These results appear to be in
Musicò 9

Table 2. Total and Serial indirect standardized effects for Self-Concept Clarity on Body
Dissociation and bias-corrected 95% CI.

Pathway Indirect Effect SE LLCI ULCI

Total indirect effect .120 .037 .1984 .0509

SCC→PSP→BD .052 .031 .1184 .0039
SCC→PIU→BD .043 .020 .0865 .0098
SCC→PSP→PIU→BD .025 .011 .0498 .0070
Note. SCC = Self-Concept Clarity; PSP = Perfectionistic Self-presentation; BD = Body dissociation; PIU =
Problematic Instagram Use.

agreement with the experimental results of Krol and colleagues (2020), which show
greater malleability of the body self in persons with less SCC. Indeed, it may be
plausible that persons with less self-clarity are more likely to experience mind-body
disconnection, characterized by the avoidance of internal experience through dis-
traction or separation from bodily experience. Difficulties in defining oneself and
uncertainties about the self may represent painful thoughts and feelings that people
cope with by using bodily dissociation as a protective strategy (Price & Thompson,
2007).
Regarding the serial mediation, in line with our hypothesis, we found that those with
an unstable self-concept are more likely to tend to PSP, which in turn predicts PIU,
which in turn predicts DB (H2 is confirmed). Reading these results from a psycho-
dynamic perspective, this seems to confirm that women with low self-clearance cannot
integrate the fact that others can see their mistakes into their already precarious self-
concept and therefore tend not to show their imperfections, implementing a perfec-
tionist presentation style. Moreover, as confirmed by previous studies (Ahn & Han,
2019), this modality of presentation finds fertile ground on Instagram, leading these
women to use excessively this SNS. In fact, Instagram allows one to maintain greater
control over the information that others view, reinforcing their presentation mode and
this intrinsic property of these technological tools then leads to uncontrolled use that
proves detrimental to the individual’s daily life. This type of use alters the state of the
mind-body connection (Goldberg, 2021), as the ‘virtual’ environment makes the user
’bodiless’ and this increases the disconnection from one’s bodily sensations and body.
The results of the statistical analysis also show that PIU independently mediated the
relationship between SCC and BD. This agrees with results that highlight that SCC is a
key vulnerability factor to compulsive internet use and that people with a low level of
ego-clarity tend to be more involved in Internet over-use compared to those who have a
stable and clear concept of self (Israelashvili et al., 2012; Quinones & Kakabadse,
2015). Women with unclear self-concepts might in fact use Instagram to experiment
with alternative selves (sharing images of themselves that are far different from what
they experience) regardless of their self-presentation style. For example, sharing happy
pictures via Instagram while experiencing sadness or negative feelings could contribute
to distancing oneself from one’s embodied awareness, especially if one’s use of
10 Psychological Reports 0(0)

Instagram is very intensive and problematic. In addition, these results support existing
empirical evidence linking SCC to the problematic online behavior of different natures
(e. g. Green et al., 2021; Kong et al., 2021, Servidio et al., 2021).
Analyses also show that PSP did not independently mediate the relationship be-
tween SCC and BD; SCC had a negative effect on PSP, but PSP was not significantly
related to BD. Having an internally coherent and temporally stable self-concept de-
creases the tendency to not want to show mistakes, but this tendency has no direct effect
on bodily disconnection. These results seem to underline the importance of technology
in this relationship, indicating that, tending to self-presenting perfectly, per se, does not
increase disconnection from one’s body.
To explain this result, we could hypothesize that although women with low SCC
tend to present themselves as perfect and hide their mistakes from others, when this
happens in the offline world it does not cause a greater disconnection from their bodies.
This is probably due to the fact that, in face-to-face contexts, despite their tendency to
PSP, these women still manage to remain aware of their imperfections, without
identifying with the self-image they display to others. However, when PSP is enacted
through the use of SNSs, the imperfect version of themselves may become less tangible,
and this may distance them more from themselves. On Instagram, the image reflected in
one’s profile becomes a more concrete vicarious virtual self that can be observed,
edited, and controlled, and this may increase identification with this online version of
self, increasing disconnection from one’s physical body.
This study is the first to propose a model integrating self-clarity, Perfectionistic Self-
Presentation, Problematic Instagram Use, and Body Disconnection. The results un-
derscore the extreme importance of self-concept clarity, suggesting, as already reported
in other studies (Grieve & Watkinson, 2016; Wang et al., 2019), that an authentic
presentation can increase psychological well-being, personal satisfaction, and self-
esteem. These findings also underline the importance of balanced use of SNSs,
highlighting the role that problematic use of technology - and in this case Instagram -
can play in distancing people from an awareness of their bodies and senses. Since such
awareness is at the root of perceived well-being and vitality, it is essential to help people
make conscious use of social media.
This research certainly has limitations. First, the study only considers Instagram and
does not consider other SNS platforms. Therefore, future research should consider the
different types of SNSs in a detailed manner. Second, it might be interesting in the
future to carry out a similar study including a male sample, in order to experimentally
investigate possible gender differences. Third, this study is cross-sectional: it could be
interesting to carry out a longitudinal study to better understand the temporal trend of
the variables involved. Despite these limitations, the present study offers new insights
and can be informative for clinicians working with the Problematic Use of Social
Networking Sites, highlighting the potential importance of reflecting on one’s mental
state and clarity of self-concept and emphasizing the importance of one’s self-
presentation style in determining a dysfunctional use of Instagram. In the future,
given the presence of studies investigating the link between PSP and types of
Musicò 11

narcissism (Casale et al., 2016), it might be interesting to investigate whether the

massive use of Instagram as a means of satisfying narcissistic needs through per-
fectionistic image management might differ in grandiose and vulnerable narcissists by
examining the implications on body dissociation.
In clinical practice, the findings of this research emphasise that it may be useful to
work with patients on self-awareness and authenticity, also underlining how important
it is to maintain these aspects although the online environment allows us to easily
control what is shared.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.

ORCID iD
Alessia Musico  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0010-7946

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Author Biography
Dr. Alessia Musicò is a clinician Psychologist and Psychotherapist with analytical
interpersonal orientation. She graduated in psychology in 2015, in 2017 she obtained a
master of II level in forensic psychopathology and criminology; since 2020 she is
conducting a Ph.D. on the subject of behavioral addictions at the University of Florence
– Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine. Starting from the same year she
has collaborated in publications concerning problematic internet use (e.g. on internet
gaming disorder or problematic use of social networks).