Social Media Use, Psychological Function, and Well-Being

The relationship between social media use and psychological functioning, especially anxiety and depression, has demonstrated varied results. Some studies have found that social media use has a positive impact on well-being by facilitating online social connections and/or enhancing physical (offline) interactions (Wellman, 2001). For example, Facebook use is associated with perceptions of online social support (Liu & Yu, 2013; Nabi et al., 2013). Such support seems to be related to one's number of Facebook friends, which, in turn, is associated with feelings of well-being and reduced stress (Nabi et al., 2013).

For people with lower levels of in-person social support, having a larger Twitter network and being more active in that network seems to be particularly helpful in alleviating depressive thoughts and symptoms (Cole et al., 2019). Relatedly, online self-disclosure seems to moderate the relationship between excessive smartphone use and stress and loneliness, with significant reductions in loneliness and stress reported for excessive smartphone users who communicate their feelings and anxieties online, but increased stress for those engaged in little online self-disclosure (Karsay et al., 2019).

The above studies point to the availability and use of existing resources as an important factor in the relationship between social media use and psychological functioning. This may relate to the finding of gender differences in large-scale studies (Hampton et al., 2015). For men, no relationship has been found between psychological stress and frequent use of social media, mobile phones, or the Internet more broadly. However, for women, tech use seems to be related to modestly lower levels of stress. Specifically, the more pictures women share through their phones, the more emails they send and receive, and the more frequently they use Twitter, the lower their reported stress. It may be that women’s higher levels of perceived social support through the use of technologies moderate reductions in stress.

Other studies have indicated a negative relationship between social media use and psychological functioning (Boers et al., 2019; Brooks, 2015; Kross et al., 2013; Lin et al., 2016; Vahedi & Saiphoo, 2018). A meta-analysis of the mental, physical, and social effects of social-media use found a weak-to-moderate association between smartphone use and stress and anxiety (Vahedi & Saiphoo, 2018). A significant association has also been found between social media use and increased depression across a range of ages, with significantly increased odds of depression and lower happiness for those in the highest quartile of use, relative to those in the lower quartile (Brooks, 2015; Erceg et al., 2018; Lin et al., 2016). Longitudinal effects have been demonstrated, with high mean levels of social media use among adolescents over time associated with increased depression (Boers et al., 2019). And interacting with media that promotes upward social comparison seems to be correlated with reductions in self-esteem and, in turn, increases in depressive symptoms (Boers et al., 2019).

Most digital device use, then, is positive. However, excessive use or misuse may become problematic for some, and negatively affect their educational, psychological, social, and/or physical well-being (Andreassen et al., 2016; Gentile et al., 2017; Hawi & Samaha, 2017; Lam, 2014). The proposed condition known as Internet addiction (IA) has been defined as an inability to inhibit Internet use that exerts an adverse impact on major life domains such as interpersonal relations and physical health. Many researchers assert IA is characterized by behaviors such as excessive use of certain applications and unregulated or pathologically problematic hours spent online (Frangos et al., 2011). Prevalence estimates for IA range from 0.7 percent to as high as 27.7 percent of the population (Poli, 2017).

It must be recognized that no widely agreed-upon diagnostic criteria exist for IA. But several instruments to assess it have been developed (e.g., Hawi et al., 2019; Shaw & Black, 2008) and different cutoffs have been used in various studies (Poli, 2017). A meta-analysis of people in 31 nations across seven world regions (Cheng & Li, 2014) demonstrates that IA prevalence is significantly related to quality of life, as measured by both subjective (life satisfaction) and objective (quality of environmental conditions) indicators. It's also been suggested that IA may be comorbid with mental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity, anxiety, alcohol abuse, and depression (Ho et al., 2014; Waldo, 2014). Younger age, male gender, early exposure to the internet, frequency of use, and availability of time have all been found to be statistically related to IA (Kawabe et al., 2016; Lam et al., 2009). Moreover, certain psychological attributes such as lower self-esteem, shyness, and loneliness are moderately-to-strongly associated with addictive social-network-site (SNS) usage (Bian & Leung, 2015; Mahapatra, 2019; Milošević-Đorđević & Žeželj, 2014).

Clearly, the relationship between internet use and psychological functioning is not simple and depends on factors such as how one uses it (i.e., what sites are visited) and who one interacts with (Bessière et al., 2008). A greater understanding of the directional influence of potentially problematic internet use and emotional states, including comorbidity, will allow for better diagnostic models and interventions. Research may benefit from more longitudinal research (Lam, 2014) and controlling for variables such as type of cyber use, purpose of use, personality characteristics, and level of offline social support. Future research may help pinpoint social and psychological factors that influence internet use among diverse individuals and groups, including frequency, sites accessed, and the ways in which individuals and groups present themselves online.