Social Media Use and Subjective Well-Being of Visually Impaired Individuals in Beijing: A Mixed Methods Study

To explore the influences of social media dependence and social media use (SMU) behaviors on the subjective well-being of the visually impaired population and the mechanisms of action, this study surveyed 312 visually impaired young people in Beijing using a questionnaire and conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 6 visually impaired people. Correlation and regression analyses showed that (1) social media use dependence, passive SMU, and active SMU had significant positive correlations with the subjective well-being of visually impaired young people. (2) Social media use dependence and passive SMU could positively predict the subjective well-being of visually impaired young people. Still, the predictive effect of active SMU was insignificant (3). Social media dependence and passive SMU had interactive influences on the subjective well-being of visually impaired young people. The results of semi-structured reviews showed that the visually impaired young people interviewed attributed three symbolic functions to social media: to make themselves look like normal people, professionally recognized, and reflected in daily life; the use of social media has become a ritual of life, and this also provides a good path for the interpretation of quantitative results.