“Whatever you do, I can do too”: Disentangling the daily relations between exposure to positive social media content, can self, and pressure

The current 14-day diary study among 186 adolescents (56.1% boys; M _age = 15.62 years) examined how daily exposure to positive social media content (i.e., portrayals of individuals’ best possible selves) relates to their daily well-being. The results suggest that exposure to uncommon positive content (i.e., vacations and relationships) positively relates to adolescents’ beliefs about their potential to have a similar, successful lifestyle (i.e., “can self”). Such beliefs seem to turn into pressure to improve on days when adolescents feel that they are not as successful as they believe they should be (i.e., feelings of discrepancy). In conclusion, confident adolescents remain positive when they perceive such content as within reach, yet experience pressure when they perceive themselves as falling behind.