Between-friends similarity in adolescents’ social media motivations and habitual use

Friends are a central part of adolescents' social and emotional development, and social media affordances reflect and extend these dynamics by enabling continuous engagement with peers, including monitoring social interactions and managing online reputation. Despite the prominence of both friendships and social media in adolescent life, research examining their intersection remains limited. This cross-sectional study of 684 adolescents from three rural middle schools in the southeast United States (Mage = 15.32; SD = .649; 48.5% female) used linear network autocorrelation modeling to assess patterns of similarity in social media motivations and habitual use among friends. The findings indicated a significant positive relationship between an adolescent’s reported use of social media for social reputation, social surveillance, and habitual social media use, and the behaviors reported by their friends. These results underscore the presence of shared tendencies within adolescent peer networks, highlighting the relevance of social connections in understanding adolescent social media use.