Degree Date
9-2026
Document Type
Dissertation - Public Access
Degree Name
DBA Doctorate in Business Administration
Academic Discipline
Business Administration
First Advisor
Dr. David SanFilipo
Second Advisor
Dr. Colleen Ramos
Third Advisor
Dr. Marguerite Chabau
Abstract
Existing research has treated voluntary social media abstinence as the absence of users rather than as a condition worth study. This mixed-methods study examined its psychological and occupational correlates. Adults aged 21 to 65 reporting abstinence from all major platforms for six months or more completed three validated instruments measuring mental well-being, work engagement, and perceived social isolation; a purposive subsample of 12 took part in semi-structured interviews. The analysis set comprised 120 participants, below the 128 indicated by the a priori power analysis. Research Question 1 could not be tested as approved, because no active-user comparison group was recruited; instead, sample means were compared against published reference values. All three comparisons proved uninterpretable. Well-being fell below its reference value, but country of residence and language of administration went unrecorded, so fit with the norming sample cannot be assessed. The work engagement comparison was withdrawn, its instrument having been administered in a response format other than the one its reference value assumes. No result is reported for perceived social isolation: that measure returned a negative reliability coefficient and data indistinguishable from random responding. The quantitative contribution rests on within-sample analyses, in which duration of abstinence predicted no outcome tested. The interviews described abstinence as graded rather than categorical and exit as defensive rather than aspirational, and identified the quieting of an internalized audience as the change participants valued most. Abstinence is better understood as boundary-setting than as treatment; its benefits are narrower than popular accounts suggest.
Recommended Citation
mantena, bhargava, "OFFLINE AND THRIVING: UNDERSTANDING THE PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL LIVES OF NON-SOCIAL MEDIA USERS IN A DIGITALLY DOMINANT ERA" (2026). Dissertations. 1028.
https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/diss/1028