Social networking site users were asked several questions about the personal experiences they have had on the sites and they overwhelmingly reported that good outcomes had outnumbered bad outcomes. In broad terms, adult users of SNS were just as likely as teen users to have good things happen to them and less likely to have unpleasant things happen to them. Some 76% of the SNS users said they had at least one of the positive outcomes we queried. Specifically: 

• 68% of adult SNS users said they had an experience on the site that made them feel good about themselves 
• 61% of adult SNS users said they had an experience that made them feel closer to another person

Interestingly enough, there were no notable demographic differences related to these positive outcomes. Among SNS users, women and men, blacks and whites and Hispanics, young and old, relatively well-off and relatively poor, highly educated and those with high school diplomas, rural and urban and suburban all reported similar levels of pro-social experiences.

On the negative side, 26% said they had experienced at least one of the bad outcomes that were queried in the survey. Again, adult experiences on SNS are less likely to be harmful than the teen experience: 41% of SNS-using teens reported they had at least one negative outcome. Specifically:

• 15% of adult SNS users said they had an experience on the site that ended their friendship with someone. That is somewhat less than the 22% of SNS-using teens who reported having this problem.
• 12% of adult SNS users had an experience that resulted in a face-to-face argument or confrontation with someone. Fully 25% of SNS-using teens said this had happened to them as a result of their using the site.
• 11% of adult SNS users had an experience that caused a problem with their family. Some 13% of SNS-using teens said their use of the sites had caused a problem with their parents.
• 3% of SNS-using adults said they had gotten into a physical fight with someone based on an experience they had on the site. Some 8% of SNS-using teens said they had gotten into a fight because of what happened on the site. 
• 3% of adult SNS users said their use of the site had gotten them in trouble at work. Some 6% of SNS-using teens said they had gotten into trouble at school because of things that had happened on the site.

Among adults, some of these anti-social experiences are most prevalent among SNS users in the Millennials generation. This cohort of those between the ages of 18 and 34 was twice as likely as its elders to report that a friendship had ended because of an SNS experience – 21% of SNS-using Millennials said that had happened to them, compared with 11% of all other SNS users.  In addition, 19% of SNS-using Millennials said an experience on the site had resulted in a face-to-face argument or confrontation, compared with 6% of other SNS users. Some 17% of Millennials said that they have had someone act in a mean or cruel way towards them personally on a social networking site in the previous 12 months, compared with 7% of other SNS users. And 6% of SNS-using Millennials said they had gotten into a physical fight because of an experience on the site, compared with 1% of other SNS users.

The same pattern holds for the most frequent users of social networking sites, who also happen to be relatively young. Those who use the sites multiple times a day are significantly more likely than less-frequent users to have had these negative experiences tied to their use of SNS: face-to-face confrontations, broken friendships, a problem in the family, gotten into trouble at work.

Just as we found among teens, SNS-using adults from lower-income households were more likely than better-off users to have had bad outcomes. For instance:

• 23% of SNS users living in households earning less than $30,000 had ended a friendship over something they experienced on a social networking site, compared with 12% of SNS users living in higher income households.
• 17% of SNS users living in households earning less than $30,000 had a face to face argument over something they experienced on a social networking site, compared with 9% of SNS users living in higher income households.
• 6% of SNS users living in households earning less than $30,000 had gotten into a physical fight over something they experienced on a social networking site, compared with 2% of SNS users living in higher income households.

Finally on the subject of negative experiences on social networking sites, 13% of adult SNS users said that someone had acted in a mean or cruel way towards them on the site in the past 12 months. This was the only question about a negative outcome where we included a timeframe in our question. Some 15% of SNS-using teens reported this problem.