The Never-Ending Hedonic Treadmill of Advertising in The Digital Age. An Empirical Study on The Effects of Social Media Advertising on Compulsive Buying, Customer Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction in Young Adults

Nowadays, young adults have become heavy digital media users, especially when it comes to social media. This is not surprising, since they belong to a generation that grew up with modern technology. As smartphones become increasingly popular, young adults spend more time on social media as it has become more accessible. The rise of digital media had led businesses and marketers to advance their marketing strategy and to put their focus on social media advertising to reach young adults. Although it is a good opportunity for businesses to flourish, there are also some repercussions. Extensive studies revealed various effects of advertising exposure, such as compulsive buying, customer satisfaction, and life satisfaction. The reasoning behind such effects can be explained through the cultivation theory. However, as social media, and in particular advertising, is relatively new, limited research has been done examining this phenomenon in relation to these effects. Therefore, this present study aims to answer the research question: “To what extent and how does social media advertising affect compulsive buying, customer satisfaction, and life satisfaction among young adults aged between 18 and 35 years old in the Netherlands nowadays?” By using a deductive approach, several hypotheses were formed to answer the research question. A questionnaire was developed to collect the data of respondents. The respondents were reached by using convenience and snowball sampling, in which they could fill in the self-report survey. This resulted in 152 valid respondents from young adults aged between 18 and 35 years old, who lived in the Netherlands, use social media, and have ever purchased something from social media advertisements. Then, various regression analyses (e.g., simple and multiple) were conducted to analyse the results. The results revealed social media advertising, which was measured by social media advertising exposure and social media advertising purchase likelihood, had a significant positive influence on compulsive buying. Moreover, while social media advertising exposure affected customer satisfaction positively, social media advertising purchase likelihood did not. Surprisingly, both social media advertising exposure and social media advertising purchase likelihood did not influence life satisfaction. Furthermore, this study examined the chain of events further between the effects (e.g., compulsive buying, customer satisfaction, and life satisfaction), it was found that only customer satisfaction affected life satisfaction positively. Moreover, gender did not moderate the relationship between social media advertising exposure and compulsive buying, customer satisfaction, and life satisfaction. Although not all relationships were found to be significant, some of these effects, e.g., this present study provides a steppingstone into the effects of social media advertising concerning the cultivation theory.