Dinamika Pengalaman Perbandingan Sosial di Media Sosial dan Konstruksi Makna Qana'ah pada Generasi Z Muslim

Abstract

This study aimed to understand the dynamics of social comparison experiences on social media, the related emotional and cognitive responses, the construction of qana’ah, and the role of religious reflection among Muslim Generation Z. The study used a qualitative approach with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Six Muslim Generation Z participants who actively used social media were selected through purposive sampling based on inclusion criteria. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews, transcribed verbatim, and analysed through repeated reading, exploratory noting, experiential statements, personal experiential themes, and cross-case analysis to develop group experiential themes. NVivo 15 supported the documentation and traceability of the analytical process. Six main themes were identified. First, social media was experienced as an ambivalent everyday space that provided benefits while increasing exposure to other people’s lives. Second, idealised content triggered upward social comparison in financial achievement, productivity, education, worship, parenting, body image, relationships, and lifestyle. Third, comparison produced envy, inadequacy, inferiority, pressure, overthinking, and motivation to change. Fourth, participants developed critical distance and regulated exposure by scrolling, skipping, unfollowing, and limiting content. Fifth, qana’ah was constructed as active acceptance that combined contentment, gratitude, effort, personal goals, and acceptance of Allah’s decree. Sixth, religious reflection helped participants reinterpret envy, sustenance, blessings, and trials. The study concludes that qana’ah is not passive resignation, but a psychospiritual meaning-making process that helps Muslim Generation Z balance self-acceptance, effort, and the pressures of social comparison on social media.