thesis social media effects

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Effects of social media use on psychological well-being: a mediated model.

$\nDragana Ostic&#x;$

1 School of Finance and Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
2 Research Unit of Governance, Competitiveness, and Public Policies (GOVCOPP), Center for Economics and Finance (cef.up), School of Economics and Management, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
3 Department of Business Administration, Sukkur Institute of Business Administration (IBA) University, Sukkur, Pakistan
4 CETYS Universidad, Tijuana, Mexico
5 Department of Business Administration, Al-Quds University, Jerusalem, Israel
6 Business School, Shandong University, Weihai, China

The growth in social media use has given rise to concerns about the impacts it may have on users' psychological well-being. This paper's main objective is to shed light on the effect of social media use on psychological well-being. Building on contributions from various fields in the literature, it provides a more comprehensive study of the phenomenon by considering a set of mediators, including social capital types (i.e., bonding social capital and bridging social capital), social isolation, and smartphone addiction. The paper includes a quantitative study of 940 social media users from Mexico, using structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings point to an overall positive indirect impact of social media usage on psychological well-being, mainly due to the positive effect of bonding and bridging social capital. The empirical model's explanatory power is 45.1%. This paper provides empirical evidence and robust statistical analysis that demonstrates both positive and negative effects coexist, helping to reconcile the inconsistencies found so far in the literature.

Introduction

The use of social media has grown substantially in recent years ( Leong et al., 2019 ; Kemp, 2020 ). Social media refers to “the websites and online tools that facilitate interactions between users by providing them opportunities to share information, opinions, and interest” ( Swar and Hameed, 2017 , p. 141). Individuals use social media for many reasons, including entertainment, communication, and searching for information. Notably, adolescents and young adults are spending an increasing amount of time on online networking sites, e-games, texting, and other social media ( Twenge and Campbell, 2019 ). In fact, some authors (e.g., Dhir et al., 2018 ; Tateno et al., 2019 ) have suggested that social media has altered the forms of group interaction and its users' individual and collective behavior around the world.

Consequently, there are increased concerns regarding the possible negative impacts associated with social media usage addiction ( Swar and Hameed, 2017 ; Kircaburun et al., 2020 ), particularly on psychological well-being ( Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ; Jiao et al., 2017 ; Choi and Noh, 2019 ; Chatterjee, 2020 ). Smartphones sometimes distract their users from relationships and social interaction ( Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ; Li et al., 2020a ), and several authors have stressed that the excessive use of social media may lead to smartphone addiction ( Swar and Hameed, 2017 ; Leong et al., 2019 ), primarily because of the fear of missing out ( Reer et al., 2019 ; Roberts and David, 2020 ). Social media usage has been associated with anxiety, loneliness, and depression ( Dhir et al., 2018 ; Reer et al., 2019 ), social isolation ( Van Den Eijnden et al., 2016 ; Whaite et al., 2018 ), and “phubbing,” which refers to the extent to which an individual uses, or is distracted by, their smartphone during face-to-face communication with others ( Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ; Jiao et al., 2017 ; Choi and Noh, 2019 ; Chatterjee, 2020 ).

However, social media use also contributes to building a sense of connectedness with relevant others ( Twenge and Campbell, 2019 ), which may reduce social isolation. Indeed, social media provides several ways to interact both with close ties, such as family, friends, and relatives, and weak ties, including coworkers, acquaintances, and strangers ( Chen and Li, 2017 ), and plays a key role among people of all ages as they exploit their sense of belonging in different communities ( Roberts and David, 2020 ). Consequently, despite the fears regarding the possible negative impacts of social media usage on well-being, there is also an increasing number of studies highlighting social media as a new communication channel ( Twenge and Campbell, 2019 ; Barbosa et al., 2020 ), stressing that it can play a crucial role in developing one's presence, identity, and reputation, thus facilitating social interaction, forming and maintaining relationships, and sharing ideas ( Carlson et al., 2016 ), which consequently may be significantly correlated to social support ( Chen and Li, 2017 ; Holliman et al., 2021 ). Interestingly, recent studies (e.g., David et al., 2018 ; Bano et al., 2019 ; Barbosa et al., 2020 ) have suggested that the impact of smartphone usage on psychological well-being depends on the time spent on each type of application and the activities that users engage in.

Hence, the literature provides contradictory cues regarding the impacts of social media on users' well-being, highlighting both the possible negative impacts and the social enhancement it can potentially provide. In line with views on the need to further investigate social media usage ( Karikari et al., 2017 ), particularly regarding its societal implications ( Jiao et al., 2017 ), this paper argues that there is an urgent need to further understand the impact of the time spent on social media on users' psychological well-being, namely by considering other variables that mediate and further explain this effect.

One of the relevant perspectives worth considering is that provided by social capital theory, which is adopted in this paper. Social capital theory has previously been used to study how social media usage affects psychological well-being (e.g., Bano et al., 2019 ). However, extant literature has so far presented only partial models of associations that, although statistically acceptable and contributing to the understanding of the scope of social networks, do not provide as comprehensive a vision of the phenomenon as that proposed within this paper. Furthermore, the contradictory views, suggesting both negative (e.g., Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ; Van Den Eijnden et al., 2016 ; Jiao et al., 2017 ; Whaite et al., 2018 ; Choi and Noh, 2019 ; Chatterjee, 2020 ) and positive impacts ( Carlson et al., 2016 ; Chen and Li, 2017 ; Twenge and Campbell, 2019 ) of social media on psychological well-being, have not been adequately explored.

Given this research gap, this paper's main objective is to shed light on the effect of social media use on psychological well-being. As explained in detail in the next section, this paper explores the mediating effect of bonding and bridging social capital. To provide a broad view of the phenomenon, it also considers several variables highlighted in the literature as affecting the relationship between social media usage and psychological well-being, namely smartphone addiction, social isolation, and phubbing. The paper utilizes a quantitative study conducted in Mexico, comprising 940 social media users, and uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to test a set of research hypotheses.

This article provides several contributions. First, it adds to existing literature regarding the effect of social media use on psychological well-being and explores the contradictory indications provided by different approaches. Second, it proposes a conceptual model that integrates complementary perspectives on the direct and indirect effects of social media use. Third, it offers empirical evidence and robust statistical analysis that demonstrates that both positive and negative effects coexist, helping resolve the inconsistencies found so far in the literature. Finally, this paper provides insights on how to help reduce the potential negative effects of social media use, as it demonstrates that, through bridging and bonding social capital, social media usage positively impacts psychological well-being. Overall, the article offers valuable insights for academics, practitioners, and society in general.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section Literature Review presents a literature review focusing on the factors that explain the impact of social media usage on psychological well-being. Based on the literature review, a set of hypotheses are defined, resulting in the proposed conceptual model, which includes both the direct and indirect effects of social media usage on psychological well-being. Section Research Methodology explains the methodological procedures of the research, followed by the presentation and discussion of the study's results in section Results. Section Discussion is dedicated to the conclusions and includes implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research.

Literature Review

Putnam (1995 , p. 664–665) defined social capital as “features of social life – networks, norms, and trust – that enable participants to act together more effectively to pursue shared objectives.” Li and Chen (2014 , p. 117) further explained that social capital encompasses “resources embedded in one's social network, which can be assessed and used for instrumental or expressive returns such as mutual support, reciprocity, and cooperation.”

Putnam (1995 , 2000) conceptualized social capital as comprising two dimensions, bridging and bonding, considering the different norms and networks in which they occur. Bridging social capital refers to the inclusive nature of social interaction and occurs when individuals from different origins establish connections through social networks. Hence, bridging social capital is typically provided by heterogeneous weak ties ( Li and Chen, 2014 ). This dimension widens individual social horizons and perspectives and provides extended access to resources and information. Bonding social capital refers to the social and emotional support each individual receives from his or her social networks, particularly from close ties (e.g., family and friends).

Overall, social capital is expected to be positively associated with psychological well-being ( Bano et al., 2019 ). Indeed, Williams (2006) stressed that interaction generates affective connections, resulting in positive impacts, such as emotional support. The following sub-sections use the lens of social capital theory to explore further the relationship between the use of social media and psychological well-being.

Social Media Use, Social Capital, and Psychological Well-Being

The effects of social media usage on social capital have gained increasing scholarly attention, and recent studies have highlighted a positive relationship between social media use and social capital ( Brown and Michinov, 2019 ; Tefertiller et al., 2020 ). Li and Chen (2014) hypothesized that the intensity of Facebook use by Chinese international students in the United States was positively related to social capital forms. A longitudinal survey based on the quota sampling approach illustrated the positive effects of social media use on the two social capital dimensions ( Chen and Li, 2017 ). Abbas and Mesch (2018) argued that, as Facebook usage increases, it will also increase users' social capital. Karikari et al. (2017) also found positive effects of social media use on social capital. Similarly, Pang (2018) studied Chinese students residing in Germany and found positive effects of social networking sites' use on social capital, which, in turn, was positively associated with psychological well-being. Bano et al. (2019) analyzed the 266 students' data and found positive effects of WhatsApp use on social capital forms and the positive effect of social capital on psychological well-being, emphasizing the role of social integration in mediating this positive effect.

Kim and Kim (2017) stressed the importance of having a heterogeneous network of contacts, which ultimately enhances the potential social capital. Overall, the manifest and social relations between people from close social circles (bonding social capital) and from distant social circles (bridging social capital) are strengthened when they promote communication, social support, and the sharing of interests, knowledge, and skills, which are shared with other members. This is linked to positive effects on interactions, such as acceptance, trust, and reciprocity, which are related to the individuals' health and psychological well-being ( Bekalu et al., 2019 ), including when social media helps to maintain social capital between social circles that exist outside of virtual communities ( Ellison et al., 2007 ).

Grounded on the above literature, this study proposes the following hypotheses:

H1a: Social media use is positively associated with bonding social capital.

H1b: Bonding social capital is positively associated with psychological well-being.

H2a: Social media use is positively associated with bridging social capital.

H2b: Bridging social capital is positively associated with psychological well-being.

Social Media Use, Social Isolation, and Psychological Well-Being

Social isolation is defined as “a deficit of personal relationships or being excluded from social networks” ( Choi and Noh, 2019 , p. 4). The state that occurs when an individual lacks true engagement with others, a sense of social belonging, and a satisfying relationship is related to increased mortality and morbidity ( Primack et al., 2017 ). Those who experience social isolation are deprived of social relationships and lack contact with others or involvement in social activities ( Schinka et al., 2012 ). Social media usage has been associated with anxiety, loneliness, and depression ( Dhir et al., 2018 ; Reer et al., 2019 ), and social isolation ( Van Den Eijnden et al., 2016 ; Whaite et al., 2018 ). However, some recent studies have argued that social media use decreases social isolation ( Primack et al., 2017 ; Meshi et al., 2020 ). Indeed, the increased use of social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter, among others, may provide opportunities for decreasing social isolation. For instance, the improved interpersonal connectivity achieved via videos and images on social media helps users evidence intimacy, attenuating social isolation ( Whaite et al., 2018 ).

Chappell and Badger (1989) stated that social isolation leads to decreased psychological well-being, while Choi and Noh (2019) concluded that greater social isolation is linked to increased suicide risk. Schinka et al. (2012) further argued that, when individuals experience social isolation from siblings, friends, family, or society, their psychological well-being tends to decrease. Thus, based on the literature cited above, this study proposes the following hypotheses:

H3a: Social media use is significantly associated with social isolation.

H3b: Social isolation is negatively associated with psychological well-being.

Social Media Use, Smartphone Addiction, Phubbing, and Psychological Well-Being

Smartphone addiction refers to “an individuals' excessive use of a smartphone and its negative effects on his/her life as a result of his/her inability to control his behavior” ( Gökçearslan et al., 2018 , p. 48). Regardless of its form, smartphone addiction results in social, medical, and psychological harm to people by limiting their ability to make their own choices ( Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ). The rapid advancement of information and communication technologies has led to the concept of social media, e-games, and also to smartphone addiction ( Chatterjee, 2020 ). The excessive use of smartphones for social media use, entertainment (watching videos, listening to music), and playing e-games is more common amongst people addicted to smartphones ( Jeong et al., 2016 ). In fact, previous studies have evidenced the relationship between social use and smartphone addiction ( Salehan and Negahban, 2013 ; Jeong et al., 2016 ; Swar and Hameed, 2017 ). In line with this, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H4a: Social media use is positively associated with smartphone addiction.

H4b: Smartphone addiction is negatively associated with psychological well-being.

While smartphones are bringing individuals closer, they are also, to some extent, pulling people apart ( Tonacci et al., 2019 ). For instance, they can lead to individuals ignoring others with whom they have close ties or physical interactions; this situation normally occurs due to extreme smartphone use (i.e., at the dinner table, in meetings, at get-togethers and parties, and in other daily activities). This act of ignoring others is called phubbing and is considered a common phenomenon in communication activities ( Guazzini et al., 2019 ; Chatterjee, 2020 ). Phubbing is also referred to as an act of snubbing others ( Chatterjee, 2020 ). This term was initially used in May 2012 by an Australian advertising agency to describe the “growing phenomenon of individuals ignoring their families and friends who were called phubbee (a person who is a recipients of phubbing behavior) victim of phubber (a person who start phubbing her or his companion)” ( Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2018 ). Smartphone addiction has been found to be a determinant of phubbing ( Kim et al., 2018 ). Other recent studies have also evidenced the association between smartphones and phubbing ( Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ; Guazzini et al., 2019 ; Tonacci et al., 2019 ; Chatterjee, 2020 ). Vallespín et al. (2017 ) argued that phubbing behavior has a negative influence on psychological well-being and satisfaction. Furthermore, smartphone addiction is considered responsible for the development of new technologies. It may also negatively influence individual's psychological proximity ( Chatterjee, 2020 ). Therefore, based on the above discussion and calls for the association between phubbing and psychological well-being to be further explored, this study proposes the following hypotheses:

H5: Smartphone addiction is positively associated with phubbing.

H6: Phubbing is negatively associated with psychological well-being.

Indirect Relationship Between Social Media Use and Psychological Well-Being

Beyond the direct hypotheses proposed above, this study investigates the indirect effects of social media use on psychological well-being mediated by social capital forms, social isolation, and phubbing. As described above, most prior studies have focused on the direct influence of social media use on social capital forms, social isolation, smartphone addiction, and phubbing, as well as the direct impact of social capital forms, social isolation, smartphone addiction, and phubbing on psychological well-being. Very few studies, however, have focused on and evidenced the mediating role of social capital forms, social isolation, smartphone addiction, and phubbing derived from social media use in improving psychological well-being ( Chen and Li, 2017 ; Pang, 2018 ; Bano et al., 2019 ; Choi and Noh, 2019 ). Moreover, little is known about smartphone addiction's mediating role between social media use and psychological well-being. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap in the existing literature by investigating the mediation of social capital forms, social isolation, and smartphone addiction. Further, examining the mediating influence will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of social media use on psychological well-being via the mediating associations of smartphone addiction and psychological factors. Therefore, based on the above, we propose the following hypotheses (the conceptual model is presented in Figure 1 ):

H7: (a) Bonding social capital; (b) bridging social capital; (c) social isolation; and (d) smartphone addiction mediate the relationship between social media use and psychological well-being.

Figure 1 . Conceptual model.

Research Methodology

Sample procedure and online survey.

This study randomly selected students from universities in Mexico. We chose University students for the following reasons. First, students are considered the most appropriate sample for e-commerce studies, particularly in the social media context ( Oghazi et al., 2018 ; Shi et al., 2018 ). Second, University students are considered to be frequent users and addicted to smartphones ( Mou et al., 2017 ; Stouthuysen et al., 2018 ). Third, this study ensured that respondents were experienced, well-educated, and possessed sufficient knowledge of the drawbacks of social media and the extreme use of smartphones. A total sample size of 940 University students was ultimately achieved from the 1,500 students contacted, using a convenience random sampling approach, due both to the COVID-19 pandemic and budget and time constraints. Additionally, in order to test the model, a quantitative empirical study was conducted, using an online survey method to collect data. This study used a web-based survey distributed via social media platforms for two reasons: the COVID-19 pandemic; and to reach a large number of respondents ( Qalati et al., 2021 ). Furthermore, online surveys are considered a powerful and authenticated tool for new research ( Fan et al., 2021 ), while also representing a fast, simple, and less costly approach to collecting data ( Dutot and Bergeron, 2016 ).

Data Collection Procedures and Respondent's Information

Data were collected by disseminating a link to the survey by e-mail and social network sites. Before presenting the closed-ended questionnaire, respondents were assured that their participation would remain voluntary, confidential, and anonymous. Data collection occurred from July 2020 to December 2020 (during the pandemic). It should be noted that, because data were collected during the pandemic, this may have had an influence on the results of the study. The reason for choosing a six-month lag time was to mitigate common method bias (CMB) ( Li et al., 2020b ). In the present study, 1,500 students were contacted via University e-mail and social applications (Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram). We sent a reminder every month for 6 months (a total of six reminders), resulting in 940 valid responses. Thus, 940 (62.6% response rate) responses were used for hypotheses testing.

Table 1 reveals that, of the 940 participants, three-quarters were female (76.4%, n = 719) and nearly one-quarter (23.6%, n = 221) were male. Nearly half of the participants (48.8%, n = 459) were aged between 26 and 35 years, followed by 36 to 35 years (21.9%, n = 206), <26 (20.3%, n = 191), and over 45 (8.9%, n = 84). Approximately two-thirds (65%, n = 611) had a bachelor's degree or above, while one-third had up to 12 years of education. Regarding the daily frequency of using the Internet, nearly half (48.6%, n = 457) of the respondents reported between 5 and 8 h a day, and over one-quarter (27.2%) 9–12 h a day. Regarding the social media platforms used, over 38.5 and 39.6% reported Facebook and WhatsApp, respectively. Of the 940 respondents, only 22.1% reported Instagram (12.8%) and Twitter (9.2%). It should be noted, however, that the sample is predominantly female and well-educated.

Table 1 . Respondents' characteristics.

Measurement Items

The study used five-point Likert scales (1 = “strongly disagree;” 5 = “strongly agree”) to record responses.

Social Media Use

Social media use was assessed using four items adapted from Karikari et al. (2017) . Sample items include “Social media is part of my everyday activity,” “Social media has become part of my daily life,” “I would be sorry if social media shut down,” and “I feel out of touch, when I have not logged onto social media for a while.” The adapted items had robust reliability and validity (CA = 783, CR = 0.857, AVE = 0.600).

Social Capital

Social capital was measured using a total of eight items, representing bonding social capital (four items) and bridging social capital (four items) adapted from Chan (2015) . Sample construct items include: bonging social capital (“I am willing to spend time to support general community activities,” “I interact with people who are quite different from me”) and bridging social capital (“My social media community is a good place to be,” “Interacting with people on social media makes me want to try new things”). The adapted items had robust reliability and validity [bonding social capital (CA = 0.785, CR = 0.861, AVE = 0.608) and bridging social capital (CA = 0.834, CR = 0.883, AVE = 0.601)].

Social Isolation

Social isolation was assessed using three items from Choi and Noh (2019) . Sample items include “I do not have anyone to play with,” “I feel alone from people,” and “I have no one I can trust.” This adapted scale had substantial reliability and validity (CA = 0.890, CR = 0.928, AVE = 0.811).

Smartphone Addiction

Smartphone addiction was assessed using five items taken from Salehan and Negahban (2013) . Sample items include “I am always preoccupied with my mobile,” “Using my mobile phone keeps me relaxed,” and “I am not able to control myself from frequent use of mobile phones.” Again, these adapted items showed substantial reliability and validity (CA = 903, CR = 0.928, AVE = 0.809).

Phubbing was assessed using four items from Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas (2018) . Sample items include: “I have conflicts with others because I am using my phone” and “I would rather pay attention to my phone than talk to others.” This construct also demonstrated significant reliability and validity (CA = 770, CR = 0.894, AVE = 0.809).

Psychological Well-Being

Psychological well-being was assessed using five items from Jiao et al. (2017) . Sample items include “I lead a purposeful and meaningful life with the help of others,” “My social relationships are supportive and rewarding in social media,” and “I am engaged and interested in my daily on social media.” This study evidenced that this adapted scale had substantial reliability and validity (CA = 0.886, CR = 0.917, AVE = 0.688).

Data Analysis

Based on the complexity of the association between the proposed construct and the widespread use and acceptance of SmartPLS 3.0 in several fields ( Hair et al., 2019 ), we utilized SEM, using SmartPLS 3.0, to examine the relationships between constructs. Structural equation modeling is a multivariate statistical analysis technique that is used to investigate relationships. Further, it is a combination of factor and multivariate regression analysis, and is employed to explore the relationship between observed and latent constructs.

SmartPLS 3.0 “is a more comprehensive software program with an intuitive graphical user interface to run partial least square SEM analysis, certainly has had a massive impact” ( Sarstedt and Cheah, 2019 ). According to Ringle et al. (2015) , this commercial software offers a wide range of algorithmic and modeling options, improved usability, and user-friendly and professional support. Furthermore, Sarstedt and Cheah (2019) suggested that structural equation models enable the specification of complex interrelationships between observed and latent constructs. Hair et al. (2019) argued that, in recent years, the number of articles published using partial least squares SEM has increased significantly in contrast to covariance-based SEM. In addition, partial least squares SEM using SmartPLS is more appealing for several scholars as it enables them to predict more complex models with several variables, indicator constructs, and structural paths, instead of imposing distributional assumptions on the data ( Hair et al., 2019 ). Therefore, this study utilized the partial least squares SEM approach using SmartPLS 3.0.

Common Method Bias (CMB) Test

This study used the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test to measure the sampling adequacy and ensure data suitability. The KMO test result was 0.874, which is greater than an acceptable threshold of 0.50 ( Ali Qalati et al., 2021 ; Shrestha, 2021 ), and hence considered suitable for explanatory factor analysis. Moreover, Bartlett's test results demonstrated a significance level of 0.001, which is considered good as it is below the accepted threshold of 0.05.

The term CMB is associated with Campbell and Fiske (1959) , who highlighted the importance of CMB and identified that a portion of variance in the research may be due to the methods employed. It occurs when all scales of the study are measured at the same time using a single questionnaire survey ( Podsakoff and Organ, 1986 ); subsequently, estimates of the relationship among the variables might be distorted by the impacts of CMB. It is considered a serious issue that has a potential to “jeopardize” the validity of the study findings ( Tehseen et al., 2017 ). There are several reasons for CMB: (1) it mainly occurs due to response “tendencies that raters can apply uniformity across the measures;” and (2) it also occurs due to similarities in the wording and structure of the survey items that produce similar results ( Jordan and Troth, 2019 ). Harman's single factor test and a full collinearity approach were employed to ensure that the data was free from CMB ( Tehseen et al., 2017 ; Jordan and Troth, 2019 ; Ali Qalati et al., 2021 ). Harman's single factor test showed a single factor explained only 22.8% of the total variance, which is far below the 50.0% acceptable threshold ( Podsakoff et al., 2003 ).

Additionally, the variance inflation factor (VIF) was used, which is a measure of the amount of multicollinearity in a set of multiple regression constructs and also considered a way of detecting CMB ( Hair et al., 2019 ). Hair et al. (2019) suggested that the acceptable threshold for the VIF is 3.0; as the computed VIFs for the present study ranged from 1.189 to 1.626, CMB is not a key concern (see Table 2 ). Bagozzi et al. (1991) suggested a correlation-matrix procedure to detect CMB. Common method bias is evident if correlation among the principle constructs is >0.9 ( Tehseen et al., 2020 ); however, no values >0.9 were found in this study (see section Assessment of Measurement Model). This study used a two-step approach to evaluate the measurement model and the structural model.

Table 2 . Common method bias (full collinearity VIF).

Assessment of Measurement Model

Before conducting the SEM analysis, the measurement model was assessed to examine individual item reliability, internal consistency, and convergent and discriminant validity. Table 3 exhibits the values of outer loading used to measure an individual item's reliability ( Hair et al., 2012 ). Hair et al. (2017) proposed that the value for each outer loading should be ≥0.7; following this principle, two items of phubbing (PHUB3—I get irritated if others ask me to get off my phone and talk to them; PHUB4—I use my phone even though I know it irritated others) were removed from the analysis Hair et al. (2019) . According to Nunnally (1978) , Cronbach's alpha values should exceed 0.7. The threshold values of constructs in this study ranged from 0.77 to 0.903. Regarding internal consistency, Bagozzi and Yi (1988) suggested that composite reliability (CR) should be ≥0.7. The coefficient value for CR in this study was between 0.857 and 0.928. Regarding convergent validity, Fornell and Larcker (1981) suggested that the average variance extracted (AVE) should be ≥0.5. Average variance extracted values in this study were between 0.60 and 0.811. Finally, regarding discriminant validity, according to Fornell and Larcker (1981) , the square root of the AVE for each construct should exceed the inter-correlations of the construct with other model constructs. That was the case in this study, as shown in Table 4 .

Table 3 . Study measures, factor loading, and the constructs' reliability and convergent validity.

Table 4 . Discriminant validity and correlation.

Hence, by analyzing the results of the measurement model, it can be concluded that the data are adequate for structural equation estimation.

Assessment of the Structural Model

This study used the PLS algorithm and a bootstrapping technique with 5,000 bootstraps as proposed by Hair et al. (2019) to generate the path coefficient values and their level of significance. The coefficient of determination ( R 2 ) is an important measure to assess the structural model and its explanatory power ( Henseler et al., 2009 ; Hair et al., 2019 ). Table 5 and Figure 2 reveal that the R 2 value in the present study was 0.451 for psychological well-being, which means that 45.1% of changes in psychological well-being occurred due to social media use, social capital forms (i.e., bonding and bridging), social isolation, smartphone addiction, and phubbing. Cohen (1998) proposed that R 2 values of 0.60, 0.33, and 0.19 are considered substantial, moderate, and weak. Following Cohen's (1998) threshold values, this research demonstrates a moderate predicting power for psychological well-being among Mexican respondents ( Table 6 ).

Table 5 . Summary of path coefficients and hypothesis testing.

Figure 2 . Structural model.

Table 6 . Strength of the model (Predictive relevance, coefficient of determination, and model fit indices).

Apart from the R 2 measure, the present study also used cross-validated redundancy measures, or effect sizes ( q 2 ), to assess the proposed model and validate the results ( Ringle et al., 2012 ). Hair et al. (2019) suggested that a model exhibiting an effect size q 2 > 0 has predictive relevance ( Table 6 ). This study's results evidenced that it has a 0.15 <0.29 <0.35 (medium) predictive relevance, as 0.02, 0.15, and 0.35 are considered small, medium, and large, respectively ( Cohen, 1998 ). Regarding the goodness-of-fit indices, Hair et al. (2019) suggested the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) to evaluate the goodness of fit. Standardized root mean square is an absolute measure of fit: a value of zero indicates perfect fit and a value <0.08 is considered good fit ( Hair et al., 2019 ). This study exhibits an adequate model fitness level with an SRMR value of 0.063 ( Table 6 ).

Table 5 reveals that all hypotheses of the study were accepted base on the criterion ( p -value < 0.05). H1a (β = 0.332, t = 10.283, p = 0.001) was confirmed, with the second most robust positive and significant relationship (between social media use and bonding social capital). In addition, this study evidenced a positive and significant relationship between bonding social capital and psychological well-being (β = 0.127, t = 4.077, p = 0.001); therefore, H1b was accepted. Regarding social media use and bridging social capital, the present study found the most robust positive and significant impact (β = 0.439, t = 15.543, p = 0.001); therefore, H2a was accepted. The study also evidenced a positive and significant association between bridging social capital and psychological well-being (β = 0.561, t = 20.953, p = 0.001); thus, H2b was accepted. The present study evidenced a significant effect of social media use on social isolation (β = 0.145, t = 4.985, p = 0.001); thus, H3a was accepted. In addition, this study accepted H3b (β = −0.051, t = 2.01, p = 0.044). Furthermore, this study evidenced a positive and significant effect of social media use on smartphone addiction (β = 0.223, t = 6.241, p = 0.001); therefore, H4a was accepted. Furthermore, the present study found that smartphone addiction has a negative significant influence on psychological well-being (β = −0.068, t = 2.387, p = 0.017); therefore, H4b was accepted. Regarding the relationship between smartphone addiction and phubbing, this study found a positive and significant effect of smartphone addiction on phubbing (β = 0.244, t = 7.555, p = 0.001); therefore, H5 was accepted. Furthermore, the present research evidenced a positive and significant influence of phubbing on psychological well-being (β = 0.137, t = 4.938, p = 0.001); therefore, H6 was accepted. Finally, the study provides interesting findings on the indirect effect of social media use on psychological well-being ( t -value > 1.96 and p -value < 0.05); therefore, H7a–d were accepted.

Furthermore, to test the mediating analysis, Preacher and Hayes's (2008) approach was used. The key characteristic of an indirect relationship is that it involves a third construct, which plays a mediating role in the relationship between the independent and dependent constructs. Logically, the effect of A (independent construct) on C (the dependent construct) is mediated by B (a third variable). Preacher and Hayes (2008) suggested the following: B is a construct acting as a mediator if A significantly influences B, A significantly accounts for variability in C, B significantly influences C when controlling for A, and the influence of A on C decreases significantly when B is added simultaneously with A as a predictor of C. According to Matthews et al. (2018) , if the indirect effect is significant while the direct insignificant, full mediation has occurred, while if both direct and indirect effects are substantial, partial mediation has occurred. This study evidenced that there is partial mediation in the proposed construct ( Table 5 ). Following Preacher and Hayes (2008) this study evidenced that there is partial mediation in the proposed construct, because the relationship between independent variable (social media use) and dependent variable (psychological well-being) is significant ( p -value < 0.05) and indirect effect among them after introducing mediator (bonding social capital, bridging social capital, social isolation, and smartphone addiction) is also significant ( p -value < 0.05), therefore it is evidenced that when there is a significant effect both direct and indirect it's called partial mediation.

The present study reveals that the social and psychological impacts of social media use among University students is becoming more complex as there is continuing advancement in technology, offering a range of affordable interaction opportunities. Based on the 940 valid responses collected, all the hypotheses were accepted ( p < 0.05).

H1a finding suggests that social media use is a significant influencing factor of bonding social capital. This implies that, during a pandemic, social media use enables students to continue their close relationships with family members, friends, and those with whom they have close ties. This finding is in line with prior work of Chan (2015) and Ellison et al. (2007) , who evidenced that social bonding capital is predicted by Facebook use and having a mobile phone. H1b findings suggest that, when individuals believe that social communication can help overcome obstacles to interaction and encourage more virtual self-disclosure, social media use can improve trust and promote the establishment of social associations, thereby enhancing well-being. These findings are in line with those of Gong et al. (2021) , who also witnessed the significant effect of bonding social capital on immigrants' psychological well-being, subsequently calling for the further evidence to confirm the proposed relationship.

The findings of the present study related to H2a suggest that students are more likely to use social media platforms to receive more emotional support, increase their ability to mobilize others, and to build social networks, which leads to social belongingness. Furthermore, the findings suggest that social media platforms enable students to accumulate and maintain bridging social capital; further, online classes can benefit students who feel shy when participating in offline classes. This study supports the previous findings of Chan (2015) and Karikari et al. (2017) . Notably, the present study is not limited to a single social networking platform, taking instead a holistic view of social media. The H2b findings are consistent with those of Bano et al. (2019) , who also confirmed the link between bonding social capital and psychological well-being among University students using WhatsApp as social media platform, as well as those of Chen and Li (2017) .

The H3a findings suggest that, during the COVID-19 pandemic when most people around the world have had limited offline or face-to-face interaction and have used social media to connect with families, friends, and social communities, they have often been unable to connect with them. This is due to many individuals avoiding using social media because of fake news, financial constraints, and a lack of trust in social media; thus, the lack both of offline and online interaction, coupled with negative experiences on social media use, enhances the level of social isolation ( Hajek and König, 2021 ). These findings are consistent with those of Adnan and Anwar (2020) . The H3b suggests that higher levels of social isolation have a negative impact on psychological well-being. These result indicating that, consistent with Choi and Noh (2019) , social isolation is negatively and significantly related to psychological well-being.

The H4a results suggests that substantial use of social media use leads to an increase in smartphone addiction. These findings are in line with those of Jeong et al. (2016) , who stated that the excessive use of smartphones for social media, entertainment (watching videos, listening to music), and playing e-games was more likely to lead to smartphone addiction. These findings also confirm the previous work of Jeong et al. (2016) , Salehan and Negahban (2013) , and Swar and Hameed (2017) . The H4b results revealed that a single unit increase in smartphone addiction results in a 6.8% decrease in psychological well-being. These findings are in line with those of Tangmunkongvorakul et al. (2019) , who showed that students with higher levels of smartphone addiction had lower psychological well-being scores. These findings also support those of Shoukat (2019) , who showed that smartphone addiction inversely influences individuals' mental health.

This suggests that the greater the smartphone addiction, the greater the phubbing. The H5 findings are in line with those of Chatterjee (2020) , Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas (2016) , Guazzini et al. (2019) , and Tonacci et al. (2019) , who also evidenced a significant impact of smartphone addiction and phubbing. Similarly, Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas (2018) corroborated that smartphone addiction is the main predictor of phubbing behavior. However, these findings are inconsistent with those of Vallespín et al. (2017 ), who found a negative influence of phubbing.

The H6 results suggests that phubbing is one of the significant predictors of psychological well-being. Furthermore, these findings suggest that, when phubbers use a cellphone during interaction with someone, especially during the current pandemic, and they are connected with many family members, friends, and relatives; therefore, this kind of action gives them more satisfaction, which simultaneously results in increased relaxation and decreased depression ( Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2018 ). These findings support those of Davey et al. (2018) , who evidenced that phubbing has a significant influence on adolescents and social health students in India.

The findings showed a significant and positive effect of social media use on psychological well-being both through bridging and bonding social capital. However, a significant and negative effect of social media use on psychological well-being through smartphone addiction and through social isolation was also found. Hence, this study provides evidence that could shed light on the contradictory contributions in the literature suggesting both positive (e.g., Chen and Li, 2017 ; Twenge and Campbell, 2019 ; Roberts and David, 2020 ) and negative (e.g., Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016 ; Jiao et al., 2017 ; Choi and Noh, 2019 ; Chatterjee, 2020 ) effects of social media use on psychological well-being. This study concludes that the overall impact is positive, despite some degree of negative indirect impact.

Theoretical Contributions

This study's findings contribute to the current literature, both by providing empirical evidence for the relationships suggested by extant literature and by demonstrating the relevance of adopting a more complex approach that considers, in particular, the indirect effect of social media on psychological well-being. As such, this study constitutes a basis for future research ( Van Den Eijnden et al., 2016 ; Whaite et al., 2018 ) aiming to understand the impacts of social media use and to find ways to reduce its possible negative impacts.

In line with Kim and Kim (2017) , who stressed the importance of heterogeneous social networks in improving social capital, this paper suggests that, to positively impact psychological well-being, social media usage should be associated both with strong and weak ties, as both are important in building social capital, and hence associated with its bonding and bridging facets. Interestingly, though, bridging capital was shown as having the greatest impact on psychological well-being. Thus, the importance of wider social horizons, the inclusion in different groups, and establishing new connections ( Putnam, 1995 , 2000 ) with heterogeneous weak ties ( Li and Chen, 2014 ) are highlighted in this paper.

Practical Contributions

These findings are significant for practitioners, particularly those interested in dealing with the possible negative impacts of social media use on psychological well-being. Although social media use is associated with factors that negatively impact psychological well-being, particularly smartphone addiction and social isolation, these negative impacts can be lessened if the connections with both strong and weak ties are facilitated and featured by social media. Indeed, social media platforms offer several features, from facilitating communication with family, friends, and acquaintances, to identifying and offering access to other people with shared interests. However, it is important to access heterogeneous weak ties ( Li and Chen, 2014 ) so that social media offers access to wider sources of information and new resources, hence enhancing bridging social capital.

Limitations and Directions for Future Studies

This study is not without limitations. For example, this study used a convenience sampling approach to reach to a large number of respondents. Further, this study was conducted in Mexico only, limiting the generalizability of the results; future research should therefore use a cross-cultural approach to investigate the impacts of social media use on psychological well-being and the mediating role of proposed constructs (e.g., bonding and bridging social capital, social isolation, and smartphone addiction). The sample distribution may also be regarded as a limitation of the study because respondents were mainly well-educated and female. Moreover, although Internet channels represent a particularly suitable way to approach social media users, the fact that this study adopted an online survey does not guarantee a representative sample of the population. Hence, extrapolating the results requires caution, and study replication is recommended, particularly with social media users from other countries and cultures. The present study was conducted in the context of mainly University students, primarily well-educated females, via an online survey on in Mexico; therefore, the findings represent a snapshot at a particular time. Notably, however, the effect of social media use is increasing due to COVID-19 around the globe and is volatile over time.

Two of the proposed hypotheses of this study, namely the expected negative impacts of social media use on social isolation and of phubbing on psychological well-being, should be further explored. One possible approach is to consider the type of connections (i.e., weak and strong ties) to explain further the impact of social media usage on social isolation. Apparently, the prevalence of weak ties, although facilitating bridging social capital, may have an adverse impact in terms of social isolation. Regarding phubbing, the fact that the findings point to a possible positive impact on psychological well-being should be carefully addressed, specifically by psychology theorists and scholars, in order to identify factors that may help further understand this phenomenon. Other suggestions for future research include using mixed-method approaches, as qualitative studies could help further validate the results and provide complementary perspectives on the relationships between the considered variables.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Jiangsu University. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

This study is supported by the National Statistics Research Project of China (2016LY96).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Abbas, R., and Mesch, G. (2018). Do rich teens get richer? Facebook use and the link between offline and online social capital among Palestinian youth in Israel. Inf. Commun. Soc. 21, 63–79. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2016.1261168

CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Adnan, M., and Anwar, K. (2020). Online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic: students' perspectives. J. Pedagog. Sociol. Psychol. 2, 45–51. doi: 10.33902/JPSP.2020261309

PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Ali Qalati, S., Li, W., Ahmed, N., Ali Mirani, M., and Khan, A. (2021). Examining the factors affecting SME performance: the mediating role of social media adoption. Sustainability 13:75. doi: 10.3390/su13010075

Bagozzi, R. P., and Yi, Y. (1988). On the evaluation of structural equation models. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 16, 74–94. doi: 10.1007/BF02723327

Bagozzi, R. P., Yi, Y., and Phillips, L. W. (1991). Assessing construct validity in organizational research. Admin. Sci. Q. 36, 421–458. doi: 10.2307/2393203

Bano, S., Cisheng, W., Khan, A. N., and Khan, N. A. (2019). WhatsApp use and student's psychological well-being: role of social capital and social integration. Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 103, 200–208. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.06.002

Barbosa, B., Chkoniya, V., Simoes, D., Filipe, S., and Santos, C. A. (2020). Always connected: generation Y smartphone use and social capital. Rev. Ibérica Sist. Tecnol. Inf. E 35, 152–166.

Google Scholar

Bekalu, M. A., McCloud, R. F., and Viswanath, K. (2019). Association of social media use with social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health: disentangling routine use from emotional connection to use. Health Educ. Behav. 46(2 Suppl), 69S−80S. doi: 10.1177/1090198119863768

Brown, G., and Michinov, N. (2019). Measuring latent ties on Facebook: a novel approach to studying their prevalence and relationship with bridging social capital. Technol. Soc. 59:101176. doi: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2019.101176

Campbell, D. T., and Fiske, D. W. (1959). Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Psychol. Bull. 56, 81–105. doi: 10.1037/h0046016

Carlson, J. R., Zivnuska, S., Harris, R. B., Harris, K. J., and Carlson, D. S. (2016). Social media use in the workplace: a study of dual effects. J. Org. End User Comput. 28, 15–31. doi: 10.4018/JOEUC.2016010102

Chan, M. (2015). Mobile phones and the good life: examining the relationships among mobile use, social capital and subjective well-being. New Media Soc. 17, 96–113. doi: 10.1177/1461444813516836

Chappell, N. L., and Badger, M. (1989). Social isolation and well-being. J. Gerontol. 44, S169–S176. doi: 10.1093/geronj/44.5.s169

Chatterjee, S. (2020). Antecedents of phubbing: from technological and psychological perspectives. J. Syst. Inf. Technol. 22, 161–118. doi: 10.1108/JSIT-05-2019-0089

Chen, H.-T., and Li, X. (2017). The contribution of mobile social media to social capital and psychological well-being: examining the role of communicative use, friending and self-disclosure. Comput. Hum. Behav. 75, 958–965. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.06.011

Choi, D.-H., and Noh, G.-Y. (2019). The influence of social media use on attitude toward suicide through psychological well-being, social isolation, and social support. Inf. Commun. Soc. 23, 1–17. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2019.1574860

Chotpitayasunondh, V., and Douglas, K. M. (2016). How “phubbing” becomes the norm: the antecedents and consequences of snubbing via smartphone. Comput. Hum. Behav. 63, 9–18. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.018

Chotpitayasunondh, V., and Douglas, K. M. (2018). The effects of “phubbing” on social interaction. J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 48, 304–316. doi: 10.1111/jasp.12506

Cohen, J. (1998). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioural Sciences . Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Davey, S., Davey, A., Raghav, S. K., Singh, J. V., Singh, N., Blachnio, A., et al. (2018). Predictors and consequences of “phubbing” among adolescents and youth in India: an impact evaluation study. J. Fam. Community Med. 25, 35–42. doi: 10.4103/jfcm.JFCM_71_17

David, M. E., Roberts, J. A., and Christenson, B. (2018). Too much of a good thing: investigating the association between actual smartphone use and individual well-being. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact. 34, 265–275. doi: 10.1080/10447318.2017.1349250

Dhir, A., Yossatorn, Y., Kaur, P., and Chen, S. (2018). Online social media fatigue and psychological wellbeing—a study of compulsive use, fear of missing out, fatigue, anxiety and depression. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 40, 141–152. doi: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.01.012

Dutot, V., and Bergeron, F. (2016). From strategic orientation to social media orientation: improving SMEs' performance on social media. J. Small Bus. Enterp. Dev. 23, 1165–1190. doi: 10.1108/JSBED-11-2015-0160

Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., and Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook “friends:” Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. J. Comput. Mediat. Commun. 12, 1143–1168. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x

Fan, M., Huang, Y., Qalati, S. A., Shah, S. M. M., Ostic, D., and Pu, Z. (2021). Effects of information overload, communication overload, and inequality on digital distrust: a cyber-violence behavior mechanism. Front. Psychol. 12:643981. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.643981

Fornell, C., and Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. J. Market. Res. 18, 39–50. doi: 10.1177/002224378101800104

Gökçearslan, S., Uluyol, Ç., and Sahin, S. (2018). Smartphone addiction, cyberloafing, stress and social support among University students: a path analysis. Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 91, 47–54. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.05.036

Gong, S., Xu, P., and Wang, S. (2021). Social capital and psychological well-being of Chinese immigrants in Japan. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 18:547. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18020547

Guazzini, A., Duradoni, M., Capelli, A., and Meringolo, P. (2019). An explorative model to assess individuals' phubbing risk. Fut. Internet 11:21. doi: 10.3390/fi11010021

Hair, J. F., Risher, J. J., Sarstedt, M., and Ringle, C. M. (2019). When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. Eur. Bus. Rev. 31, 2–24. doi: 10.1108/EBR-11-2018-0203

Hair, J. F., Sarstedt, M., Pieper, T. M., and Ringle, C. M. (2012). The use of partial least squares structural equation modeling in strategic management research: a review of past practices and recommendations for future applications. Long Range Plann. 45, 320–340. doi: 10.1016/j.lrp.2012.09.008

Hair, J. F., Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C. M., and Gudergan, S. P. (2017). Advanced Issues in Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Hajek, A., and König, H.-H. (2021). Social isolation and loneliness of older adults in times of the CoViD-19 pandemic: can use of online social media sites and video chats assist in mitigating social isolation and loneliness? Gerontology 67, 121–123. doi: 10.1159/000512793

Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., and Sinkovics, R. R. (2009). “The use of partial least squares path modeling in international marketing,” in New Challenges to International Marketing , Vol. 20, eds R.R. Sinkovics and P.N. Ghauri (Bigley: Emerald), 277–319.

Holliman, A. J., Waldeck, D., Jay, B., Murphy, S., Atkinson, E., Collie, R. J., et al. (2021). Adaptability and social support: examining links with psychological wellbeing among UK students and non-students. Fron. Psychol. 12:636520. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.636520

Jeong, S.-H., Kim, H., Yum, J.-Y., and Hwang, Y. (2016). What type of content are smartphone users addicted to? SNS vs. games. Comput. Hum. Behav. 54, 10–17. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.035

Jiao, Y., Jo, M.-S., and Sarigöllü, E. (2017). Social value and content value in social media: two paths to psychological well-being. J. Org. Comput. Electr. Commer. 27, 3–24. doi: 10.1080/10919392.2016.1264762

Jordan, P. J., and Troth, A. C. (2019). Common method bias in applied settings: the dilemma of researching in organizations. Austr. J. Manag. 45, 3–14. doi: 10.1177/0312896219871976

Karikari, S., Osei-Frimpong, K., and Owusu-Frimpong, N. (2017). Evaluating individual level antecedents and consequences of social media use in Ghana. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 123, 68–79. doi: 10.1016/j.techfore.2017.06.023

Kemp, S. (January 30, 2020). Digital 2020: 3.8 billion people use social media. We Are Social . Available online at: https://wearesocial.com/blog/2020/01/digital-2020-3-8-billion-people-use-social-media .

Kim, B., and Kim, Y. (2017). College students' social media use and communication network heterogeneity: implications for social capital and subjective well-being. Comput. Hum. Behav. 73, 620–628. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.03.033

Kim, K., Milne, G. R., and Bahl, S. (2018). Smart phone addiction and mindfulness: an intergenerational comparison. Int. J. Pharmaceut. Healthcare Market. 12, 25–43. doi: 10.1108/IJPHM-08-2016-0044

Kircaburun, K., Alhabash, S., Tosuntaş, S. B., and Griffiths, M. D. (2020). Uses and gratifications of problematic social media use among University students: a simultaneous examination of the big five of personality traits, social media platforms, and social media use motives. Int. J. Mental Health Addict. 18, 525–547. doi: 10.1007/s11469-018-9940-6

Leong, L.-Y., Hew, T.-S., Ooi, K.-B., Lee, V.-H., and Hew, J.-J. (2019). A hybrid SEM-neural network analysis of social media addiction. Expert Syst. Appl. 133, 296–316. doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2019.05.024

Li, L., Griffiths, M. D., Mei, S., and Niu, Z. (2020a). Fear of missing out and smartphone addiction mediates the relationship between positive and negative affect and sleep quality among Chinese University students. Front. Psychiatr. 11:877. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00877

Li, W., Qalati, S. A., Khan, M. A. S., Kwabena, G. Y., Erusalkina, D., and Anwar, F. (2020b). Value co-creation and growth of social enterprises in developing countries: moderating role of environmental dynamics. Entrep. Res. J. 2020:20190359. doi: 10.1515/erj-2019-0359

Li, X., and Chen, W. (2014). Facebook or Renren? A comparative study of social networking site use and social capital among Chinese international students in the United States. Comput. Hum. Behav . 35, 116–123. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2014.02.012

Matthews, L., Hair, J. F., and Matthews, R. (2018). PLS-SEM: the holy grail for advanced analysis. Mark. Manag. J. 28, 1–13.

Meshi, D., Cotten, S. R., and Bender, A. R. (2020). Problematic social media use and perceived social isolation in older adults: a cross-sectional study. Gerontology 66, 160–168. doi: 10.1159/000502577

Mou, J., Shin, D.-H., and Cohen, J. (2017). Understanding trust and perceived usefulness in the consumer acceptance of an e-service: a longitudinal investigation. Behav. Inf. Technol. 36, 125–139. doi: 10.1080/0144929X.2016.1203024

Nunnally, J. (1978). Psychometric Methods . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Oghazi, P., Karlsson, S., Hellström, D., and Hjort, K. (2018). Online purchase return policy leniency and purchase decision: mediating role of consumer trust. J. Retail. Consumer Serv. 41, 190–200.

Pang, H. (2018). Exploring the beneficial effects of social networking site use on Chinese students' perceptions of social capital and psychological well-being in Germany. Int. J. Intercult. Relat. 67, 1–11. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2018.08.002

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J.-Y., and Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. J. Appl. Psychol. 88, 879–903. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879

Podsakoff, P. M., and Organ, D. W. (1986). Self-reports in organizational research: problems and prospects. J. Manag. 12, 531–544. doi: 10.1177/014920638601200408

Preacher, K. J., and Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behav Res. Methods 40, 879–891. doi: 10.3758/brm.40.3.879

Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Sidani, J. E., Whaite, E. O., yi Lin, L., Rosen, D., et al. (2017). Social media use and perceived social isolation among young adults in the US. Am. J. Prev. Med. 53, 1–8. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2017.01.010

Putnam, R. D. (1995). Tuning in, tuning out: the strange disappearance of social capital in America. Polit. Sci. Polit. 28, 664–684. doi: 10.2307/420517

Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community . New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

Qalati, S. A., Ostic, D., Fan, M., Dakhan, S. A., Vela, E. G., Zufar, Z., et al. (2021). The general public knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding COVID-19 during the lockdown in Asian developing countries. Int. Q. Commun. Health Educ. 2021:272684X211004945. doi: 10.1177/0272684X211004945

Reer, F., Tang, W. Y., and Quandt, T. (2019). Psychosocial well-being and social media engagement: the mediating roles of social comparison orientation and fear of missing out. New Media Soc. 21, 1486–1505. doi: 10.1177/1461444818823719

Ringle, C., Wende, S., and Becker, J. (2015). SmartPLS 3 [software] . Bönningstedt: SmartPLS.

Ringle, C. M., Sarstedt, M., and Straub, D. (2012). A critical look at the use of PLS-SEM in “MIS Quarterly.” MIS Q . 36, iii–xiv. doi: 10.2307/41410402

Roberts, J. A., and David, M. E. (2020). The social media party: fear of missing out (FoMO), social media intensity, connection, and well-being. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact. 36, 386–392. doi: 10.1080/10447318.2019.1646517

Salehan, M., and Negahban, A. (2013). Social networking on smartphones: when mobile phones become addictive. Comput. Hum. Behav. 29, 2632–2639. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.07.003

Sarstedt, M., and Cheah, J.-H. (2019). Partial least squares structural equation modeling using SmartPLS: a software review. J. Mark. Anal. 7, 196–202. doi: 10.1057/s41270-019-00058-3

Schinka, K. C., VanDulmen, M. H., Bossarte, R., and Swahn, M. (2012). Association between loneliness and suicidality during middle childhood and adolescence: longitudinal effects and the role of demographic characteristics. J. Psychol. Interdiscipl. Appl. 146, 105–118. doi: 10.1080/00223980.2011.584084

Shi, S., Mu, R., Lin, L., Chen, Y., Kou, G., and Chen, X.-J. (2018). The impact of perceived online service quality on swift guanxi. Internet Res. 28, 432–455. doi: 10.1108/IntR-12-2016-0389

Shoukat, S. (2019). Cell phone addiction and psychological and physiological health in adolescents. EXCLI J. 18, 47–50. doi: 10.17179/excli2018-2006

Shrestha, N. (2021). Factor analysis as a tool for survey analysis. Am. J. Appl. Math. Stat. 9, 4–11. doi: 10.12691/ajams-9-1-2

Stouthuysen, K., Teunis, I., Reusen, E., and Slabbinck, H. (2018). Initial trust and intentions to buy: The effect of vendor-specific guarantees, customer reviews and the role of online shopping experience. Electr. Commer. Res. Appl. 27, 23–38. doi: 10.1016/j.elerap.2017.11.002

Swar, B., and Hameed, T. (2017). “Fear of missing out, social media engagement, smartphone addiction and distraction: moderating role of self-help mobile apps-based interventions in the youth ,” Paper presented at the 10th International Conference on Health Informatics (Porto).

Tangmunkongvorakul, A., Musumari, P. M., Thongpibul, K., Srithanaviboonchai, K., Techasrivichien, T., Suguimoto, S. P., et al. (2019). Association of excessive smartphone use with psychological well-being among University students in Chiang Mai, Thailand. PLoS ONE 14:e0210294. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210294

Tateno, M., Teo, A. R., Ukai, W., Kanazawa, J., Katsuki, R., Kubo, H., et al. (2019). Internet addiction, smartphone addiction, and hikikomori trait in Japanese young adult: social isolation and social network. Front. Psychiatry 10:455. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00455

Tefertiller, A. C., Maxwell, L. C., and Morris, D. L. (2020). Social media goes to the movies: fear of missing out, social capital, and social motivations of cinema attendance. Mass Commun. Soc. 23, 378–399. doi: 10.1080/15205436.2019.1653468

Tehseen, S., Qureshi, Z. H., Johara, F., and Ramayah, T. (2020). Assessing dimensions of entrepreneurial competencies: a type II (reflective-formative) measurement approach using PLS-SEM. J. Sustain. Sci. Manage. 15, 108–145.

Tehseen, S., Ramayah, T., and Sajilan, S. (2017). Testing and controlling for common method variance: a review of available methods. J. Manag. Sci. 4, 146–165. doi: 10.20547/jms.2014.1704202

Tonacci, A., Billeci, L., Sansone, F., Masci, A., Pala, A. P., Domenici, C., et al. (2019). An innovative, unobtrusive approach to investigate smartphone interaction in nonaddicted subjects based on wearable sensors: a pilot study. Medicina (Kaunas) 55:37. doi: 10.3390/medicina55020037

Twenge, J. M., and Campbell, W. K. (2019). Media use is linked to lower psychological well-being: evidence from three datasets. Psychiatr. Q. 90, 311–331. doi: 10.1007/s11126-019-09630-7

Vallespín, M., Molinillo, S., and Muñoz-Leiva, F. (2017). Segmentation and explanation of smartphone use for travel planning based on socio-demographic and behavioral variables. Ind. Manag. Data Syst. 117, 605–619. doi: 10.1108/IMDS-03-2016-0089

Van Den Eijnden, R. J., Lemmens, J. S., and Valkenburg, P. M. (2016). The social media disorder scale. Comput. Hum. Behav. 61, 478–487. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.03.038

Whaite, E. O., Shensa, A., Sidani, J. E., Colditz, J. B., and Primack, B. A. (2018). Social media use, personality characteristics, and social isolation among young adults in the United States. Pers. Indiv. Differ. 124, 45–50. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2017.10.030

Williams, D. (2006). On and off the'net: scales for social capital in an online era. J. Comput. Mediat. Commun. 11, 593–628. doi: 10.1016/j.1083-6101.2006.00029.x

Keywords: smartphone addiction, social isolation, bonding social capital, bridging social capital, phubbing, social media use

Citation: Ostic D, Qalati SA, Barbosa B, Shah SMM, Galvan Vela E, Herzallah AM and Liu F (2021) Effects of Social Media Use on Psychological Well-Being: A Mediated Model. Front. Psychol. 12:678766. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.678766

Received: 10 March 2021; Accepted: 25 May 2021; Published: 21 June 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Ostic, Qalati, Barbosa, Shah, Galvan Vela, Herzallah and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Sikandar Ali Qalati, sidqalati@gmail.com ; 5103180243@stmail.ujs.edu.cn ; Esthela Galvan Vela, esthela.galvan@cetys.mx

† ORCID: Dragana Ostic orcid.org/0000-0002-0469-1342 Sikandar Ali Qalati orcid.org/0000-0001-7235-6098 Belem Barbosa orcid.org/0000-0002-4057-360X Esthela Galvan Vela orcid.org/0000-0002-8778-3989 Feng Liu orcid.org/0000-0001-9367-049X

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Subscribe or renew today

Every print subscription comes with full digital access

Science News

Social media harms teens’ mental health, mounting evidence shows. what now.

Understanding what is going on in teens’ minds is necessary for targeted policy suggestions

A teen scrolls through social media alone on her phone.

Most teens use social media, often for hours on end. Some social scientists are confident that such use is harming their mental health. Now they want to pinpoint what explains the link.

Carol Yepes/Getty Images

Increasing rigor

Concerns over the effects of social media use in children have been circulating for years, resulting in a massive body of scientific literature. But those mostly correlational studies could not show if teen social media use was harming mental health or if teens with mental health problems were using more social media.

Moreover, the findings from such studies were often inconclusive, or the effects on mental health so small as to be inconsequential. In one study that received considerable media attention, psychologists Amy Orben and Andrew Przybylski combined data from three surveys to see if they could find a link between technology use, including social media, and reduced well-being. The duo gauged the well-being of over 355,000 teenagers by focusing on questions around depression, suicidal thinking and self-esteem.

Digital technology use was associated with a slight decrease in adolescent well-being , Orben, now of the University of Cambridge, and Przybylski, of the University of Oxford, reported in 2019 in Nature Human Behaviour . But the duo downplayed that finding, noting that researchers have observed similar drops in adolescent well-being associated with drinking milk, going to the movies or eating potatoes.

Holes have begun to appear in that narrative thanks to newer, more rigorous studies.

In one longitudinal study, researchers — including Orben and Przybylski — used survey data on social media use and well-being from over 17,400 teens and young adults to look at how individuals’ responses to a question gauging life satisfaction changed between 2011 and 2018. And they dug into how the responses varied by gender, age and time spent on social media.

Social media use was associated with a drop in well-being among teens during certain developmental periods, chiefly puberty and young adulthood, the team reported in 2022 in Nature Communications . That translated to lower well-being scores around ages 11 to 13 for girls and ages 14 to 15 for boys. Both groups also reported a drop in well-being around age 19. Moreover, among the older teens, the team found evidence for the Goldilocks Hypothesis: the idea that both too much and too little time spent on social media can harm mental health.

“There’s hardly any effect if you look over everybody. But if you look at specific age groups, at particularly what [Orben] calls ‘windows of sensitivity’ … you see these clear effects,” says L.J. Shrum, a consumer psychologist at HEC Paris who was not involved with this research. His review of studies related to teen social media use and mental health is forthcoming in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.

Cause and effect

That longitudinal study hints at causation, researchers say. But one of the clearest ways to pin down cause and effect is through natural or quasi-experiments. For these in-the-wild experiments, researchers must identify situations where the rollout of a societal “treatment” is staggered across space and time. They can then compare outcomes among members of the group who received the treatment to those still in the queue — the control group.

That was the approach Makarin and his team used in their study of Facebook. The researchers homed in on the staggered rollout of Facebook across 775 college campuses from 2004 to 2006. They combined that rollout data with student responses to the National College Health Assessment, a widely used survey of college students’ mental and physical health.

The team then sought to understand if those survey questions captured diagnosable mental health problems. Specifically, they had roughly 500 undergraduate students respond to questions both in the National College Health Assessment and in validated screening tools for depression and anxiety. They found that mental health scores on the assessment predicted scores on the screenings. That suggested that a drop in well-being on the college survey was a good proxy for a corresponding increase in diagnosable mental health disorders.

Compared with campuses that had not yet gained access to Facebook, college campuses with Facebook experienced a 2 percentage point increase in the number of students who met the diagnostic criteria for anxiety or depression, the team found.

When it comes to showing a causal link between social media use in teens and worse mental health, “that study really is the crown jewel right now,” says Cunningham, who was not involved in that research.

A need for nuance

The social media landscape today is vastly different than the landscape of 20 years ago. Facebook is now optimized for maximum addiction, Shrum says, and other newer platforms, such as Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, have since copied and built on those features. Paired with the ubiquity of social media in general, the negative effects on mental health may well be larger now.

Moreover, social media research tends to focus on young adults — an easier cohort to study than minors. That needs to change, Cunningham says. “Most of us are worried about our high school kids and younger.”

And so, researchers must pivot accordingly. Crucially, simple comparisons of social media users and nonusers no longer make sense. As Orben and Przybylski’s 2022 work suggested, a teen not on social media might well feel worse than one who briefly logs on.

Researchers must also dig into why, and under what circumstances, social media use can harm mental health, Cunningham says. Explanations for this link abound. For instance, social media is thought to crowd out other activities or increase people’s likelihood of comparing themselves unfavorably with others. But big data studies, with their reliance on existing surveys and statistical analyses, cannot address those deeper questions. “These kinds of papers, there’s nothing you can really ask … to find these plausible mechanisms,” Cunningham says.

One ongoing effort to understand social media use from this more nuanced vantage point is the SMART Schools project out of the University of Birmingham in England. Pedagogical expert Victoria Goodyear and her team are comparing mental and physical health outcomes among children who attend schools that have restricted cell phone use to those attending schools without such a policy. The researchers described the protocol of that study of 30 schools and over 1,000 students in the July BMJ Open.

Goodyear and colleagues are also combining that natural experiment with qualitative research. They met with 36 five-person focus groups each consisting of all students, all parents or all educators at six of those schools. The team hopes to learn how students use their phones during the day, how usage practices make students feel, and what the various parties think of restrictions on cell phone use during the school day.

Talking to teens and those in their orbit is the best way to get at the mechanisms by which social media influences well-being — for better or worse, Goodyear says. Moving beyond big data to this more personal approach, however, takes considerable time and effort. “Social media has increased in pace and momentum very, very quickly,” she says. “And research takes a long time to catch up with that process.”

Until that catch-up occurs, though, researchers cannot dole out much advice. “What guidance could we provide to young people, parents and schools to help maintain the positives of social media use?” Goodyear asks. “There’s not concrete evidence yet.”

Should we use AI to resurrect digital ‘ghosts’ of the dead?

A photograph of the landscape in West Thumb Geyser Basin and Yellowstone Lake (in the photo's background)

A hidden danger lurks beneath Yellowstone

Tracking feature in Snapchat can make people feel excluded.

Online spaces may intensify teens’ uncertainty in social interactions

One yellow butterfly visits a purple flower while a second one flutters nearby. They are in focus while an area of wild grasses and flowers, with some buildigns visible behind them, is blurrier.

Want to see butterflies in your backyard? Try doing less yardwork

Eight individuals wearing beekeepers suit are surrounding two bee-hive boxes as they stand against a mountainous background. One of the people are holding a bee hive frame covered in bees, and everyone else seem to be paying attention to the frame.

Ximena Velez-Liendo is saving Andean bears with honey

A photograph of two female scientists cooking meet in a laboratory

‘Flavorama’ guides readers through the complex landscape of flavor

Rain Bosworth smiling and looking at a parent-child pair to her left. She has blonde hair and blue eyes and wearing blue button-up shirt. The parent is looking at an iPad, sitting in front of them on a round table. The iPad is displaying what appears to be a video with a person signing. The parent has black hair and wearing a navy polka dot shirt. The child is sitting on the parent's lap and staring at Bosworth.

Rain Bosworth studies how deaf children experience the world

A woman is pictured in front of three overlapping circles, representing the three stars of an alien star system, in an image from the Netflix show "3 Body Problem."

Separating science fact from fiction in Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.

Not a subscriber? Become one now .

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Publications
Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

Advanced Search
Journal List
Front Psychol

The effect of social media on the development of students’ affective variables

1 Science and Technology Department, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, China

2 School of Marxism, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

3 Government Enterprise Customer Center, China Mobile Group Jiangsu Co., Ltd., Nanjing, China

The use of social media is incomparably on the rise among students, influenced by the globalized forms of communication and the post-pandemic rush to use multiple social media platforms for education in different fields of study. Though social media has created tremendous chances for sharing ideas and emotions, the kind of social support it provides might fail to meet students’ emotional needs, or the alleged positive effects might be short-lasting. In recent years, several studies have been conducted to explore the potential effects of social media on students’ affective traits, such as stress, anxiety, depression, and so on. The present paper reviews the findings of the exemplary published works of research to shed light on the positive and negative potential effects of the massive use of social media on students’ emotional well-being. This review can be insightful for teachers who tend to take the potential psychological effects of social media for granted. They may want to know more about the actual effects of the over-reliance on and the excessive (and actually obsessive) use of social media on students’ developing certain images of self and certain emotions which are not necessarily positive. There will be implications for pre- and in-service teacher training and professional development programs and all those involved in student affairs.

Introduction

Social media has turned into an essential element of individuals’ lives including students in today’s world of communication. Its use is growing significantly more than ever before especially in the post-pandemic era, marked by a great revolution happening to the educational systems. Recent investigations of using social media show that approximately 3 billion individuals worldwide are now communicating via social media ( Iwamoto and Chun, 2020 ). This growing population of social media users is spending more and more time on social network groupings, as facts and figures show that individuals spend 2 h a day, on average, on a variety of social media applications, exchanging pictures and messages, updating status, tweeting, favoring, and commenting on many updated socially shared information ( Abbott, 2017 ).

Researchers have begun to investigate the psychological effects of using social media on students’ lives. Chukwuere and Chukwuere (2017) maintained that social media platforms can be considered the most important source of changing individuals’ mood, because when someone is passively using a social media platform seemingly with no special purpose, s/he can finally feel that his/her mood has changed as a function of the nature of content overviewed. Therefore, positive and negative moods can easily be transferred among the population using social media networks ( Chukwuere and Chukwuere, 2017 ). This may become increasingly important as students are seen to be using social media platforms more than before and social networking is becoming an integral aspect of their lives. As described by Iwamoto and Chun (2020) , when students are affected by social media posts, especially due to the increasing reliance on social media use in life, they may be encouraged to begin comparing themselves to others or develop great unrealistic expectations of themselves or others, which can have several affective consequences.

Considering the increasing influence of social media on education, the present paper aims to focus on the affective variables such as depression, stress, and anxiety, and how social media can possibly increase or decrease these emotions in student life. The exemplary works of research on this topic in recent years will be reviewed here, hoping to shed light on the positive and negative effects of these ever-growing influential platforms on the psychology of students.

Significance of the study

Though social media, as the name suggests, is expected to keep people connected, probably this social connection is only superficial, and not adequately deep and meaningful to help individuals feel emotionally attached to others. The psychological effects of social media on student life need to be studied in more depth to see whether social media really acts as a social support for students and whether students can use social media to cope with negative emotions and develop positive feelings or not. In other words, knowledge of the potential effects of the growing use of social media on students’ emotional well-being can bridge the gap between the alleged promises of social media and what it actually has to offer to students in terms of self-concept, self-respect, social role, and coping strategies (for stress, anxiety, etc.).

Exemplary general literature on psychological effects of social media

Before getting down to the effects of social media on students’ emotional well-being, some exemplary works of research in recent years on the topic among general populations are reviewed. For one, Aalbers et al. (2018) reported that individuals who spent more time passively working with social media suffered from more intense levels of hopelessness, loneliness, depression, and perceived inferiority. For another, Tang et al. (2013) observed that the procedures of sharing information, commenting, showing likes and dislikes, posting messages, and doing other common activities on social media are correlated with higher stress. Similarly, Ley et al. (2014) described that people who spend 2 h, on average, on social media applications will face many tragic news, posts, and stories which can raise the total intensity of their stress. This stress-provoking effect of social media has been also pinpointed by Weng and Menczer (2015) , who contended that social media becomes a main source of stress because people often share all kinds of posts, comments, and stories ranging from politics and economics, to personal and social affairs. According to Iwamoto and Chun (2020) , anxiety and depression are the negative emotions that an individual may develop when some source of stress is present. In other words, when social media sources become stress-inducing, there are high chances that anxiety and depression also develop.

Charoensukmongkol (2018) reckoned that the mental health and well-being of the global population can be at a great risk through the uncontrolled massive use of social media. These researchers also showed that social media sources can exert negative affective impacts on teenagers, as they can induce more envy and social comparison. According to Fleck and Johnson-Migalski (2015) , though social media, at first, plays the role of a stress-coping strategy, when individuals continue to see stressful conditions (probably experienced and shared by others in media), they begin to develop stress through the passage of time. Chukwuere and Chukwuere (2017) maintained that social media platforms continue to be the major source of changing mood among general populations. For example, someone might be passively using a social media sphere, and s/he may finally find him/herself with a changed mood depending on the nature of the content faced. Then, this good or bad mood is easily shared with others in a flash through the social media. Finally, as Alahmar (2016) described, social media exposes people especially the young generation to new exciting activities and events that may attract them and keep them engaged in different media contexts for hours just passing their time. It usually leads to reduced productivity, reduced academic achievement, and addiction to constant media use ( Alahmar, 2016 ).

The number of studies on the potential psychological effects of social media on people in general is higher than those selectively addressed here. For further insights into this issue, some other suggested works of research include Chang (2012) , Sriwilai and Charoensukmongkol (2016) , and Zareen et al. (2016) . Now, we move to the studies that more specifically explored the effects of social media on students’ affective states.

Review of the affective influences of social media on students

Vygotsky’s mediational theory (see Fernyhough, 2008 ) can be regarded as a main theoretical background for the support of social media on learners’ affective states. Based on this theory, social media can play the role of a mediational means between learners and the real environment. Learners’ understanding of this environment can be mediated by the image shaped via social media. This image can be either close to or different from the reality. In the case of the former, learners can develop their self-image and self-esteem. In the case of the latter, learners might develop unrealistic expectations of themselves by comparing themselves to others. As it will be reviewed below among the affective variables increased or decreased in students under the influence of the massive use of social media are anxiety, stress, depression, distress, rumination, and self-esteem. These effects have been explored more among school students in the age range of 13–18 than university students (above 18), but some studies were investigated among college students as well. Exemplary works of research on these affective variables are reviewed here.

In a cross-sectional study, O’Dea and Campbell (2011) explored the impact of online interactions of social networks on the psychological distress of adolescent students. These researchers found a negative correlation between the time spent on social networking and mental distress. Dumitrache et al. (2012) explored the relations between depression and the identity associated with the use of the popular social media, the Facebook. This study showed significant associations between depression and the number of identity-related information pieces shared on this social network. Neira and Barber (2014) explored the relationship between students’ social media use and depressed mood at teenage. No significant correlation was found between these two variables. In the same year, Tsitsika et al. (2014) explored the associations between excessive use of social media and internalizing emotions. These researchers found a positive correlation between more than 2-h a day use of social media and anxiety and depression.

Hanprathet et al. (2015) reported a statistically significant positive correlation between addiction to Facebook and depression among about a thousand high school students in wealthy populations of Thailand and warned against this psychological threat. Sampasa-Kanyinga and Lewis (2015) examined the relationship between social media use and psychological distress. These researchers found that the use of social media for more than 2 h a day was correlated with a higher intensity of psychological distress. Banjanin et al. (2015) tested the relationship between too much use of social networking and depression, yet found no statistically significant correlation between these two variables. Frison and Eggermont (2016) examined the relationships between different forms of Facebook use, perceived social support of social media, and male and female students’ depressed mood. These researchers found a positive association between the passive use of the Facebook and depression and also between the active use of the social media and depression. Furthermore, the perceived social support of the social media was found to mediate this association. Besides, gender was found as the other factor to mediate this relationship.

Vernon et al. (2017) explored change in negative investment in social networking in relation to change in depression and externalizing behavior. These researchers found that increased investment in social media predicted higher depression in adolescent students, which was a function of the effect of higher levels of disrupted sleep. Barry et al. (2017) explored the associations between the use of social media by adolescents and their psychosocial adjustment. Social media activity showed to be positively and moderately associated with depression and anxiety. Another investigation was focused on secondary school students in China conducted by Li et al. (2017) . The findings showed a mediating role of insomnia on the significant correlation between depression and addiction to social media. In the same year, Yan et al. (2017) aimed to explore the time spent on social networks and its correlation with anxiety among middle school students. They found a significant positive correlation between more than 2-h use of social networks and the intensity of anxiety.

Also in China, Wang et al. (2018) showed that addiction to social networking sites was correlated positively with depression, and this correlation was mediated by rumination. These researchers also found that this mediating effect was moderated by self-esteem. It means that the effect of addiction on depression was compounded by low self-esteem through rumination. In another work of research, Drouin et al. (2018) showed that though social media is expected to act as a form of social support for the majority of university students, it can adversely affect students’ mental well-being, especially for those who already have high levels of anxiety and depression. In their research, the social media resources were found to be stress-inducing for half of the participants, all university students. The higher education population was also studied by Iwamoto and Chun (2020) . These researchers investigated the emotional effects of social media in higher education and found that the socially supportive role of social media was overshadowed in the long run in university students’ lives and, instead, fed into their perceived depression, anxiety, and stress.

Keles et al. (2020) provided a systematic review of the effect of social media on young and teenage students’ depression, psychological distress, and anxiety. They found that depression acted as the most frequent affective variable measured. The most salient risk factors of psychological distress, anxiety, and depression based on the systematic review were activities such as repeated checking for messages, personal investment, the time spent on social media, and problematic or addictive use. Similarly, Mathewson (2020) investigated the effect of using social media on college students’ mental health. The participants stated the experience of anxiety, depression, and suicidality (thoughts of suicide or attempts to suicide). The findings showed that the types and frequency of using social media and the students’ perceived mental health were significantly correlated with each other.

The body of research on the effect of social media on students’ affective and emotional states has led to mixed results. The existing literature shows that there are some positive and some negative affective impacts. Yet, it seems that the latter is pre-dominant. Mathewson (2020) attributed these divergent positive and negative effects to the different theoretical frameworks adopted in different studies and also the different contexts (different countries with whole different educational systems). According to Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions ( Fredrickson, 2001 ), the mental repertoires of learners can be built and broadened by how they feel. For instance, some external stimuli might provoke negative emotions such as anxiety and depression in learners. Having experienced these negative emotions, students might repeatedly check their messages on social media or get addicted to them. As a result, their cognitive repertoire and mental capacity might become limited and they might lose their concentration during their learning process. On the other hand, it should be noted that by feeling positive, learners might take full advantage of the affordances of the social media and; thus, be able to follow their learning goals strategically. This point should be highlighted that the link between the use of social media and affective states is bi-directional. Therefore, strategic use of social media or its addictive use by students can direct them toward either positive experiences like enjoyment or negative ones such as anxiety and depression. Also, these mixed positive and negative effects are similar to the findings of several other relevant studies on general populations’ psychological and emotional health. A number of studies (with general research populations not necessarily students) showed that social networks have facilitated the way of staying in touch with family and friends living far away as well as an increased social support ( Zhang, 2017 ). Given the positive and negative emotional effects of social media, social media can either scaffold the emotional repertoire of students, which can develop positive emotions in learners, or induce negative provokers in them, based on which learners might feel negative emotions such as anxiety and depression. However, admittedly, social media has also generated a domain that encourages the act of comparing lives, and striving for approval; therefore, it establishes and internalizes unrealistic perceptions ( Virden et al., 2014 ; Radovic et al., 2017 ).

It should be mentioned that the susceptibility of affective variables to social media should be interpreted from a dynamic lens. This means that the ecology of the social media can make changes in the emotional experiences of learners. More specifically, students’ affective variables might self-organize into different states under the influence of social media. As for the positive correlation found in many studies between the use of social media and such negative effects as anxiety, depression, and stress, it can be hypothesized that this correlation is induced by the continuous comparison the individual makes and the perception that others are doing better than him/her influenced by the posts that appear on social media. Using social media can play a major role in university students’ psychological well-being than expected. Though most of these studies were correlational, and correlation is not the same as causation, as the studies show that the number of participants experiencing these negative emotions under the influence of social media is significantly high, more extensive research is highly suggested to explore causal effects ( Mathewson, 2020 ).

As the review of exemplary studies showed, some believed that social media increased comparisons that students made between themselves and others. This finding ratifies the relevance of the Interpretation Comparison Model ( Stapel and Koomen, 2000 ; Stapel, 2007 ) and Festinger’s (1954) Social Comparison Theory. Concerning the negative effects of social media on students’ psychology, it can be argued that individuals may fail to understand that the content presented in social media is usually changed to only represent the attractive aspects of people’s lives, showing an unrealistic image of things. We can add that this argument also supports the relevance of the Social Comparison Theory and the Interpretation Comparison Model ( Stapel and Koomen, 2000 ; Stapel, 2007 ), because social media sets standards that students think they should compare themselves with. A constant observation of how other students or peers are showing their instances of achievement leads to higher self-evaluation ( Stapel and Koomen, 2000 ). It is conjectured that the ubiquitous role of social media in student life establishes unrealistic expectations and promotes continuous comparison as also pinpointed in the Interpretation Comparison Model ( Stapel and Koomen, 2000 ; Stapel, 2007 ).

Implications of the study

The use of social media is ever increasing among students, both at school and university, which is partly because of the promises of technological advances in communication services and partly because of the increased use of social networks for educational purposes in recent years after the pandemic. This consistent use of social media is not expected to leave students’ psychological, affective and emotional states untouched. Thus, it is necessary to know how the growing usage of social networks is associated with students’ affective health on different aspects. Therefore, we found it useful to summarize the research findings in recent years in this respect. If those somehow in charge of student affairs in educational settings are aware of the potential positive or negative effects of social media usage on students, they can better understand the complexities of students’ needs and are better capable of meeting them.

Psychological counseling programs can be initiated at schools or universities to check upon the latest state of students’ mental and emotional health influenced by the pervasive use of social media. The counselors can be made aware of the potential adverse effects of social networking and can adapt the content of their inquiries accordingly. Knowledge of the potential reasons for student anxiety, depression, and stress can help school or university counselors to find individualized coping strategies when they diagnose any symptom of distress in students influenced by an excessive use of social networking.

Admittedly, it is neither possible to discard the use of social media in today’s academic life, nor to keep students’ use of social networks fully controlled. Certainly, the educational space in today’s world cannot do without the social media, which has turned into an integral part of everybody’s life. Yet, probably students need to be instructed on how to take advantage of the media and to be the least affected negatively by its occasional superficial and unrepresentative content. Compensatory programs might be needed at schools or universities to encourage students to avoid making unrealistic and impartial comparisons of themselves and the flamboyant images of others displayed on social media. Students can be taught to develop self-appreciation and self-care while continuing to use the media to their benefit.

The teachers’ role as well as the curriculum developers’ role are becoming more important than ever, as they can significantly help to moderate the adverse effects of the pervasive social media use on students’ mental and emotional health. The kind of groupings formed for instructional purposes, for example, in social media can be done with greater care by teachers to make sure that the members of the groups are homogeneous and the tasks and activities shared in the groups are quite relevant and realistic. The teachers cannot always be in a full control of students’ use of social media, and the other fact is that students do not always and only use social media for educational purposes. They spend more time on social media for communicating with friends or strangers or possibly they just passively receive the content produced out of any educational scope just for entertainment. This uncontrolled and unrealistic content may give them a false image of life events and can threaten their mental and emotional health. Thus, teachers can try to make students aware of the potential hazards of investing too much of their time on following pages or people that publish false and misleading information about their personal or social identities. As students, logically expected, spend more time with their teachers than counselors, they may be better and more receptive to the advice given by the former than the latter.

Teachers may not be in full control of their students’ use of social media, but they have always played an active role in motivating or demotivating students to take particular measures in their academic lives. If teachers are informed of the recent research findings about the potential effects of massively using social media on students, they may find ways to reduce students’ distraction or confusion in class due to the excessive or over-reliant use of these networks. Educators may more often be mesmerized by the promises of technology-, computer- and mobile-assisted learning. They may tend to encourage the use of social media hoping to benefit students’ social and interpersonal skills, self-confidence, stress-managing and the like. Yet, they may be unaware of the potential adverse effects on students’ emotional well-being and, thus, may find the review of the recent relevant research findings insightful. Also, teachers can mediate between learners and social media to manipulate the time learners spend on social media. Research has mainly indicated that students’ emotional experiences are mainly dependent on teachers’ pedagogical approach. They should refrain learners from excessive use of, or overreliance on, social media. Raising learners’ awareness of this fact that individuals should develop their own path of development for learning, and not build their development based on unrealistic comparison of their competences with those of others, can help them consider positive values for their activities on social media and, thus, experience positive emotions.

At higher education, students’ needs are more life-like. For example, their employment-seeking spirits might lead them to create accounts in many social networks, hoping for a better future. However, membership in many of these networks may end in the mere waste of the time that could otherwise be spent on actual on-campus cooperative projects. Universities can provide more on-campus resources both for research and work experience purposes from which the students can benefit more than the cyberspace that can be tricky on many occasions. Two main theories underlying some negative emotions like boredom and anxiety are over-stimulation and under-stimulation. Thus, what learners feel out of their involvement in social media might be directed toward negative emotions due to the stimulating environment of social media. This stimulating environment makes learners rely too much, and spend too much time, on social media or use them obsessively. As a result, they might feel anxious or depressed. Given the ubiquity of social media, these negative emotions can be replaced with positive emotions if learners become aware of the psychological effects of social media. Regarding the affordances of social media for learners, they can take advantage of the potential affordances of these media such as improving their literacy, broadening their communication skills, or enhancing their distance learning opportunities.

A review of the research findings on the relationship between social media and students’ affective traits revealed both positive and negative findings. Yet, the instances of the latter were more salient and the negative psychological symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and stress have been far from negligible. These findings were discussed in relation to some more relevant theories such as the social comparison theory, which predicted that most of the potential issues with the young generation’s excessive use of social media were induced by the unfair comparisons they made between their own lives and the unrealistic portrayal of others’ on social media. Teachers, education policymakers, curriculum developers, and all those in charge of the student affairs at schools and universities should be made aware of the psychological effects of the pervasive use of social media on students, and the potential threats.

It should be reminded that the alleged socially supportive and communicative promises of the prevalent use of social networking in student life might not be fully realized in practice. Students may lose self-appreciation and gratitude when they compare their current state of life with the snapshots of others’ or peers’. A depressed or stressed-out mood can follow. Students at schools or universities need to learn self-worth to resist the adverse effects of the superficial support they receive from social media. Along this way, they should be assisted by the family and those in charge at schools or universities, most importantly the teachers. As already suggested, counseling programs might help with raising students’ awareness of the potential psychological threats of social media to their health. Considering the ubiquity of social media in everybody’ life including student life worldwide, it seems that more coping and compensatory strategies should be contrived to moderate the adverse psychological effects of the pervasive use of social media on students. Also, the affective influences of social media should not be generalized but they need to be interpreted from an ecological or contextual perspective. This means that learners might have different emotions at different times or different contexts while being involved in social media. More specifically, given the stative approach to learners’ emotions, what learners emotionally experience in their application of social media can be bound to their intra-personal and interpersonal experiences. This means that the same learner at different time points might go through different emotions Also, learners’ emotional states as a result of their engagement in social media cannot be necessarily generalized to all learners in a class.

As the majority of studies on the psychological effects of social media on student life have been conducted on school students than in higher education, it seems it is too soon to make any conclusive remark on this population exclusively. Probably, in future, further studies of the psychological complexities of students at higher education and a better knowledge of their needs can pave the way for making more insightful conclusions about the effects of social media on their affective states.

Suggestions for further research

The majority of studies on the potential effects of social media usage on students’ psychological well-being are either quantitative or qualitative in type, each with many limitations. Presumably, mixed approaches in near future can better provide a comprehensive assessment of these potential associations. Moreover, most studies on this topic have been cross-sectional in type. There is a significant dearth of longitudinal investigation on the effect of social media on developing positive or negative emotions in students. This seems to be essential as different affective factors such as anxiety, stress, self-esteem, and the like have a developmental nature. Traditional research methods with single-shot designs for data collection fail to capture the nuances of changes in these affective variables. It can be expected that more longitudinal studies in future can show how the continuous use of social media can affect the fluctuations of any of these affective variables during the different academic courses students pass at school or university.

As already raised in some works of research reviewed, the different patterns of impacts of social media on student life depend largely on the educational context. Thus, the same research designs with the same academic grade students and even the same age groups can lead to different findings concerning the effects of social media on student psychology in different countries. In other words, the potential positive and negative effects of popular social media like Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, etc., on students’ affective conditions can differ across different educational settings in different host countries. Thus, significantly more research is needed in different contexts and cultures to compare the results.

There is also a need for further research on the higher education students and how their affective conditions are positively and negatively affected by the prevalent use of social media. University students’ psychological needs might be different from other academic grades and, thus, the patterns of changes that the overall use of social networking can create in their emotions can be also different. Their main reasons for using social media might be different from school students as well, which need to be investigated more thoroughly. The sorts of interventions needed to moderate the potential negative effects of social networking on them can be different too, all requiring a new line of research in education domain.

Finally, there are hopes that considering the ever-increasing popularity of social networking in education, the potential psychological effects of social media on teachers be explored as well. Though teacher psychology has only recently been considered for research, the literature has provided profound insights into teachers developing stress, motivation, self-esteem, and many other emotions. In today’s world driven by global communications in the cyberspace, teachers like everyone else are affecting and being affected by social networking. The comparison theory can hold true for teachers too. Thus, similar threats (of social media) to self-esteem and self-worth can be there for teachers too besides students, which are worth investigating qualitatively and quantitatively.

Probably a new line of research can be initiated to explore the co-development of teacher and learner psychological traits under the influence of social media use in longitudinal studies. These will certainly entail sophisticated research methods to be capable of unraveling the nuances of variation in these traits and their mutual effects, for example, stress, motivation, and self-esteem. If these are incorporated within mixed-approach works of research, more comprehensive and better insightful findings can be expected to emerge. Correlational studies need to be followed by causal studies in educational settings. As many conditions of the educational settings do not allow for having control groups or randomization, probably, experimental studies do not help with this. Innovative research methods, case studies or else, can be used to further explore the causal relations among the different features of social media use and the development of different affective variables in teachers or learners. Examples of such innovative research methods can be process tracing, qualitative comparative analysis, and longitudinal latent factor modeling (for a more comprehensive view, see Hiver and Al-Hoorie, 2019 ).

Author contributions

Both authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

This study was sponsored by Wuxi Philosophy and Social Sciences bidding project—“Special Project for Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Workers in the New Form of Employment” (Grant No. WXSK22-GH-13). This study was sponsored by the Key Project of Party Building and Ideological and Political Education Research of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications—“Research on the Guidance and Countermeasures of Network Public Opinion in Colleges and Universities in the Modern Times” (Grant No. XC 2021002).

Conflict of interest

Author XX was employed by China Mobile Group Jiangsu Co., Ltd. The remaining author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Aalbers G., McNally R. J., Heeren A., de Wit S., Fried E. I. (2018). Social media and depression symptoms: A network perspective. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 148 1454–1462. 10.1037/xge0000528 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Abbott J. (2017). Introduction: Assessing the social and political impact of the internet and new social media in Asia. J. Contemp. Asia 43 579–590. 10.1080/00472336.2013.785698 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Alahmar A. T. (2016). The impact of social media on the academic performance of second year medical students at College of Medicine, University of Babylon, Iraq. J. Med. Allied Sci. 6 77–83. 10.5455/jmas.236927 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Banjanin N., Banjanin N., Dimitrijevic I., Pantic I. (2015). Relationship between internet use and depression: Focus on physiological mood oscillations, social networking and online addictive behavior. Comp. Hum. Behav. 43 308–312. 10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.013 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Barry C. T., Sidoti C. L., Briggs S. M., Reiter S. R., Lindsey R. A. (2017). Adolescent social media use and mental health from adolescent and parent perspectives. J. Adolesc. 61 1–11. 10.1016/j.adolescence.2017.08.005 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Chang Y. (2012). The relationship between maladaptive perfectionism with burnout: Testing mediating effect of emotion-focused coping. Pers. Individ. Differ. 53 635–639. 10.1016/j.paid.2012.05.002 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Charoensukmongkol P. (2018). The impact of social media on social comparison and envy in teenagers: The moderating role of the parent comparing children and in-group competition among friends. J. Child Fam. Stud. 27 69–79. 10.1007/s10826-017-0872-8 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Chukwuere J. E., Chukwuere P. C. (2017). The impact of social media on social lifestyle: A case study of university female students. Gender Behav. 15 9966–9981. [ Google Scholar ]
Drouin M., Reining L., Flanagan M., Carpenter M., Toscos T. (2018). College students in distress: Can social media be a source of social support? Coll. Stud. J. 52 494–504. [ Google Scholar ]
Dumitrache S. D., Mitrofan L., Petrov Z. (2012). Self-image and depressive tendencies among adolescent Facebook users. Rev. Psihol. 58 285–295. [ Google Scholar ]
Fernyhough C. (2008). Getting Vygotskian about theory of mind: Mediation, dialogue, and the development of social understanding. Dev. Rev. 28 225–262. 10.1016/j.dr.2007.03.001 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Festinger L. (1954). A Theory of social comparison processes. Hum. Relat. 7 117–140. 10.1177/001872675400700202 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Fleck J., Johnson-Migalski L. (2015). The impact of social media on personal and professional lives: An Adlerian perspective. J. Individ. Psychol. 71 135–142. 10.1353/jip.2015.0013 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Fredrickson B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Am. Psychol. 56 218–226. 10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Frison E., Eggermont S. (2016). Exploring the relationships between different types of Facebook use, perceived online social support, and adolescents’ depressed mood. Soc. Sci. Compu. Rev. 34 153–171. 10.1177/0894439314567449 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Hanprathet N., Manwong M., Khumsri J., Yingyeun R., Phanasathit M. (2015). Facebook addiction and its relationship with mental health among Thai high school students. J. Med. Assoc. Thailand 98 S81–S90. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Hiver P., Al-Hoorie A. H. (2019). Research Methods for Complexity Theory in Applied Linguistics. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 10.21832/HIVER5747 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Iwamoto D., Chun H. (2020). The emotional impact of social media in higher education. Int. J. High. Educ. 9 239–247. 10.5430/ijhe.v9n2p239 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Keles B., McCrae N., Grealish A. (2020). A systematic review: The influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. Int. J. Adolesc. Youth 25 79–93. 10.1080/02673843.2019.1590851 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Ley B., Ogonowski C., Hess J., Reichling T., Wan L., Wulf V. (2014). Impacts of new technologies on media usage and social behavior in domestic environments. Behav. Inform. Technol. 33 815–828. 10.1080/0144929X.2013.832383 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Li J.-B., Lau J. T. F., Mo P. K. H., Su X.-F., Tang J., Qin Z.-G., et al. (2017). Insomnia partially mediated the association between problematic Internet use and depression among secondary school students in China. J. Behav. Addict. 6 554–563. 10.1556/2006.6.2017.085 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Mathewson M. (2020). The impact of social media usage on students’ mental health. J. Stud. Affairs 29 146–160. [ Google Scholar ]
Neira B. C. J., Barber B. L. (2014). Social networking site use: Linked to adolescents’ social self-concept, self-esteem, and depressed mood. Aus. J. Psychol. 66 56–64. 10.1111/ajpy.12034 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
O’Dea B., Campbell A. (2011). Online social networking amongst teens: Friend or foe? Ann. Rev. CyberTher. Telemed. 9 108–112. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Radovic A., Gmelin T., Stein B. D., Miller E. (2017). Depressed adolescents positive and negative use of social media. J. Adolesc. 55 5–15. 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.12.002 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Sampasa-Kanyinga H., Lewis R. F. (2015). Frequent use of social networking sites is associated with poor psychological functioning among children and adolescents. Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Network. 18 380–385. 10.1089/cyber.2015.0055 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Sriwilai K., Charoensukmongkol P. (2016). Face it, don’t Facebook it: Impacts of social media addiction on mindfulness, coping strategies and the consequence on emotional exhaustion. Stress Health 32 427–434. 10.1002/smi.2637 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Stapel D. A. (2007). “ In the mind of the beholder: The interpretation comparison model of accessibility effects ,” in Assimilation and Contrast in Social Psychology , eds Stapel D. A., Suls J. (London: Psychology Press; ), 143–164. [ Google Scholar ]
Stapel D. A., Koomen W. (2000). Distinctiveness of others, mutability of selves: Their impact on self-evaluations. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 79 1068–1087. 10.1037//0022-3514.79.6.1068 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Tang F., Wang X., Norman C. S. (2013). An investigation of the impact of media capabilities and extraversion on social presence and user satisfaction. Behav. Inform. Technol. 32 1060–1073. 10.1080/0144929X.2013.830335 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Tsitsika A. K., Tzavela E. C., Janikian M., Ólafsson K., Iordache A., Schoenmakers T. M., et al. (2014). Online social networking in adolescence: Patterns of use in six European countries and links with psychosocial functioning. J. Adolesc. Health 55 141–147. 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.11.010 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Vernon L., Modecki K. L., Barber B. L. (2017). Tracking effects of problematic social networking on adolescent psychopathology: The mediating role of sleep disruptions. J. Clin. Child Adolesc. Psychol. 46 269–283. 10.1080/15374416.2016.1188702 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Virden A., Trujillo A., Predeger E. (2014). Young adult females’ perceptions of high-risk social media behaviors: A focus-group approach. J. Commun. Health Nurs. 31 133–144. 10.1080/07370016.2014.926677 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Wang P., Wang X., Wu Y., Xie X., Wang X., Zhao F., et al. (2018). Social networking sites addiction and adolescent depression: A moderated mediation model of rumination and self-esteem. Pers. Individ. Differ. 127 162–167. 10.1016/j.paid.2018.02.008 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Weng L., Menczer F. (2015). Topicality and impact in social media: Diverse messages, focused messengers. PLoS One 10 : e0118410 . 10.1371/journal.pone.0118410 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Yan H., Zhang R., Oniffrey T. M., Chen G., Wang Y., Wu Y., et al. (2017). Associations among screen time and unhealthy behaviors, academic performance, and well-being in Chinese adolescents. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 14 : 596 . 10.3390/ijerph14060596 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
Zareen N., Karim N., Khan U. A. (2016). Psycho-emotional impact of social media emojis. ISRA Med. J. 8 257–262. [ Google Scholar ]
Zhang R. (2017). The stress-buffering effect of self-disclosure on Facebook: An examination of stressful life events, social support, and mental health among college students. Comp. Hum. Behav. 75 527–537. 10.1016/j.chb.2017.05.043 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

Feb 15, 2023

6 Example Essays on Social Media | Advantages, Effects, and Outlines

Got an essay assignment about the effects of social media we got you covered check out our examples and outlines below.

Social media has become one of our society's most prominent ways of communication and information sharing in a very short time. It has changed how we communicate and has given us a platform to express our views and opinions and connect with others. It keeps us informed about the world around us. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn have brought individuals from all over the world together, breaking down geographical borders and fostering a genuinely global community.

However, social media comes with its difficulties. With the rise of misinformation, cyberbullying, and privacy problems, it's critical to utilize these platforms properly and be aware of the risks. Students in the academic world are frequently assigned essays about the impact of social media on numerous elements of our lives, such as relationships, politics, and culture. These essays necessitate a thorough comprehension of the subject matter, critical thinking, and the ability to synthesize and convey information clearly and succinctly.

But where do you begin? It can be challenging to know where to start with so much information available. Jenni.ai comes in handy here. Jenni.ai is an AI application built exclusively for students to help them write essays more quickly and easily. Jenni.ai provides students with inspiration and assistance on how to approach their essays with its enormous database of sample essays on a variety of themes, including social media. Jenni.ai is the solution you've been looking for if you're experiencing writer's block or need assistance getting started.

So, whether you're a student looking to better your essay writing skills or want to remain up to date on the latest social media advancements, Jenni.ai is here to help. Jenni.ai is the ideal tool for helping you write your finest essay ever, thanks to its simple design, an extensive database of example essays, and cutting-edge AI technology. So, why delay? Sign up for a free trial of Jenni.ai today and begin exploring the worlds of social networking and essay writing!

Want to learn how to write an argumentative essay? Check out these inspiring examples!

We will provide various examples of social media essays so you may get a feel for the genre.

6 Examples of Social Media Essays

Here are 6 examples of Social Media Essays:

The Impact of Social Media on Relationships and Communication

Introduction:.

The way we share information and build relationships has evolved as a direct result of the prevalence of social media in our daily lives. The influence of social media on interpersonal connections and conversation is a hot topic. Although social media has many positive effects, such as bringing people together regardless of physical proximity and making communication quicker and more accessible, it also has a dark side that can affect interpersonal connections and dialogue.

Positive Effects:

Connecting People Across Distances

One of social media's most significant benefits is its ability to connect individuals across long distances. People can use social media platforms to interact and stay in touch with friends and family far away. People can now maintain intimate relationships with those they care about, even when physically separated.

Improved Communication Speed and Efficiency

Additionally, the proliferation of social media sites has accelerated and simplified communication. Thanks to instant messaging, users can have short, timely conversations rather than lengthy ones via email. Furthermore, social media facilitates group communication, such as with classmates or employees, by providing a unified forum for such activities.

Negative Effects:

Decreased Face-to-Face Communication

The decline in in-person interaction is one of social media's most pernicious consequences on interpersonal connections and dialogue. People's reliance on digital communication over in-person contact has increased along with the popularity of social media. Face-to-face interaction has suffered as a result, which has adverse effects on interpersonal relationships and the development of social skills.

Decreased Emotional Intimacy

Another adverse effect of social media on relationships and communication is decreased emotional intimacy. Digital communication lacks the nonverbal cues and facial expressions critical in building emotional connections with others. This can make it more difficult for people to develop close and meaningful relationships, leading to increased loneliness and isolation.

Increased Conflict and Miscommunication

Finally, social media can also lead to increased conflict and miscommunication. The anonymity and distance provided by digital communication can lead to misunderstandings and hurtful comments that might not have been made face-to-face. Additionally, social media can provide a platform for cyberbullying , which can have severe consequences for the victim's mental health and well-being.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the impact of social media on relationships and communication is a complex issue with both positive and negative effects. While social media platforms offer many benefits, such as connecting people across distances and enabling faster and more accessible communication, they also have a dark side that can negatively affect relationships and communication. It is up to individuals to use social media responsibly and to prioritize in-person communication in their relationships and interactions with others.

The Role of Social Media in the Spread of Misinformation and Fake News

Social media has revolutionized the way information is shared and disseminated. However, the ease and speed at which data can be spread on social media also make it a powerful tool for spreading misinformation and fake news. Misinformation and fake news can seriously affect public opinion, influence political decisions, and even cause harm to individuals and communities.

The Pervasiveness of Misinformation and Fake News on Social Media

Misinformation and fake news are prevalent on social media platforms, where they can spread quickly and reach a large audience. This is partly due to the way social media algorithms work, which prioritizes content likely to generate engagement, such as sensational or controversial stories. As a result, false information can spread rapidly and be widely shared before it is fact-checked or debunked.

The Influence of Social Media on Public Opinion

Social media can significantly impact public opinion, as people are likelier to believe the information they see shared by their friends and followers. This can lead to a self-reinforcing cycle, where misinformation and fake news are spread and reinforced, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

The Challenge of Correcting Misinformation and Fake News

Correcting misinformation and fake news on social media can be a challenging task. This is partly due to the speed at which false information can spread and the difficulty of reaching the same audience exposed to the wrong information in the first place. Additionally, some individuals may be resistant to accepting correction, primarily if the incorrect information supports their beliefs or biases.

In conclusion, the function of social media in disseminating misinformation and fake news is complex and urgent. While social media has revolutionized the sharing of information, it has also made it simpler for false information to propagate and be widely believed. Individuals must be accountable for the information they share and consume, and social media firms must take measures to prevent the spread of disinformation and fake news on their platforms.

The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health and Well-Being

Social media has become an integral part of modern life, with billions of people around the world using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to stay connected with others and access information. However, while social media has many benefits, it can also negatively affect mental health and well-being.

Comparison and Low Self-Esteem

One of the key ways that social media can affect mental health is by promoting feelings of comparison and low self-esteem. People often present a curated version of their lives on social media, highlighting their successes and hiding their struggles. This can lead others to compare themselves unfavorably, leading to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem.

Cyberbullying and Online Harassment

Another way that social media can negatively impact mental health is through cyberbullying and online harassment. Social media provides a platform for anonymous individuals to harass and abuse others, leading to feelings of anxiety, fear, and depression.

Social Isolation

Despite its name, social media can also contribute to feelings of isolation. At the same time, people may have many online friends but need more meaningful in-person connections and support. This can lead to feelings of loneliness and depression.

Addiction and Overuse

Finally, social media can be addictive, leading to overuse and negatively impacting mental health and well-being. People may spend hours each day scrolling through their feeds, neglecting other important areas of their lives, such as work, family, and self-care.

In sum, social media has positive and negative consequences on one's psychological and emotional well-being. Realizing this, and taking measures like reducing one's social media use, reaching out to loved ones for help, and prioritizing one's well-being, are crucial. In addition, it's vital that social media giants take ownership of their platforms and actively encourage excellent mental health and well-being.

The Use of Social Media in Political Activism and Social Movements

Social media has recently become increasingly crucial in political action and social movements. Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have given people new ways to express themselves, organize protests, and raise awareness about social and political issues.

Raising Awareness and Mobilizing Action

One of the most important uses of social media in political activity and social movements has been to raise awareness about important issues and mobilize action. Hashtags such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, for example, have brought attention to sexual harassment and racial injustice, respectively. Similarly, social media has been used to organize protests and other political actions, allowing people to band together and express themselves on a bigger scale.

Connecting with like-minded individuals

A second method in that social media has been utilized in political activity and social movements is to unite like-minded individuals. Through social media, individuals can join online groups, share knowledge and resources, and work with others to accomplish shared objectives. This has been especially significant for geographically scattered individuals or those without access to traditional means of political organizing.

Challenges and Limitations

As a vehicle for political action and social movements, social media has faced many obstacles and restrictions despite its many advantages. For instance, the propagation of misinformation and fake news on social media can impede attempts to disseminate accurate and reliable information. In addition, social media corporations have been condemned for censorship and insufficient protection of user rights.

In conclusion, social media has emerged as a potent instrument for political activism and social movements, giving voice to previously unheard communities and galvanizing support for change. Social media presents many opportunities for communication and collaboration. Still, users and institutions must be conscious of the risks and limitations of these tools to promote their responsible and productive usage.

The Potential Privacy Concerns Raised by Social Media Use and Data Collection Practices

With billions of users each day on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, social media has ingrained itself into every aspect of our lives. While these platforms offer a straightforward method to communicate with others and exchange information, they also raise significant concerns over data collecting and privacy. This article will examine the possible privacy issues posed by social media use and data-gathering techniques.

Data Collection and Sharing

The gathering and sharing of personal data are significant privacy issues brought up by social media use. Social networking sites gather user data, including details about their relationships, hobbies, and routines. This information is made available to third-party businesses for various uses, such as marketing and advertising. This can lead to serious concerns about who has access to and uses our personal information.

Lack of Control Over Personal Information

The absence of user control over personal information is a significant privacy issue brought up by social media usage. Social media makes it challenging to limit who has access to and how data is utilized once it has been posted. Sensitive information may end up being extensively disseminated and may be used maliciously as a result.

Personalized Marketing

Social media companies utilize the information they gather about users to target them with adverts relevant to their interests and usage patterns. Although this could be useful, it might also cause consumers to worry about their privacy since they might feel that their personal information is being used without their permission. Furthermore, there are issues with the integrity of the data being used to target users and the possibility of prejudice based on individual traits.

Government Surveillance

Using social media might spark worries about government surveillance. There are significant concerns regarding privacy and free expression when governments in some nations utilize social media platforms to follow and monitor residents.

In conclusion, social media use raises significant concerns regarding data collecting and privacy. While these platforms make it easy to interact with people and exchange information, they also gather a lot of personal information, which raises questions about who may access it and how it will be used. Users should be aware of these privacy issues and take precautions to safeguard their personal information, such as exercising caution when choosing what details to disclose on social media and keeping their information sharing with other firms to a minimum.

The Ethical and Privacy Concerns Surrounding Social Media Use And Data Collection

Our use of social media to communicate with loved ones, acquire information, and even conduct business has become a crucial part of our everyday lives. The extensive use of social media does, however, raise some ethical and privacy issues that must be resolved. The influence of social media use and data collecting on user rights, the accountability of social media businesses, and the need for improved regulation are all topics that will be covered in this article.

Effect on Individual Privacy:

Social networking sites gather tons of personal data from their users, including delicate information like search history, location data, and even health data. Each user's detailed profile may be created with this data and sold to advertising or used for other reasons. Concerns regarding the privacy of personal information might arise because social media businesses can use this data to target users with customized adverts.

Additionally, individuals might need to know how much their personal information is being gathered and exploited. Data breaches or the unauthorized sharing of personal information with other parties may result in instances where sensitive information is exposed. Users should be aware of the privacy rules of social media firms and take precautions to secure their data.

Responsibility of Social Media Companies:

Social media firms should ensure that they responsibly and ethically gather and use user information. This entails establishing strong security measures to safeguard sensitive information and ensuring users are informed of what information is being collected and how it is used.

Many social media businesses, nevertheless, have come under fire for not upholding these obligations. For instance, the Cambridge Analytica incident highlighted how Facebook users' personal information was exploited for political objectives without their knowledge. This demonstrates the necessity of social media corporations being held responsible for their deeds and ensuring that they are safeguarding the security and privacy of their users.

Better Regulation Is Needed

There is a need for tighter regulation in this field, given the effect, social media has on individual privacy as well as the obligations of social media firms. The creation of laws and regulations that ensure social media companies are gathering and using user information ethically and responsibly, as well as making sure users are aware of their rights and have the ability to control the information that is being collected about them, are all part of this.

Additionally, legislation should ensure that social media businesses are held responsible for their behavior, for example, by levying fines for data breaches or the unauthorized use of personal data. This will provide social media businesses with a significant incentive to prioritize their users' privacy and security and ensure they are upholding their obligations.

In conclusion, social media has fundamentally changed how we engage and communicate with one another, but this increased convenience also raises several ethical and privacy issues. Essential concerns that need to be addressed include the effect of social media on individual privacy, the accountability of social media businesses, and the requirement for greater regulation to safeguard user rights. We can make everyone's online experience safer and more secure by looking more closely at these issues.

In conclusion, social media is a complex and multifaceted topic that has recently captured the world's attention. With its ever-growing influence on our lives, it's no surprise that it has become a popular subject for students to explore in their writing. Whether you are writing an argumentative essay on the impact of social media on privacy, a persuasive essay on the role of social media in politics, or a descriptive essay on the changes social media has brought to the way we communicate, there are countless angles to approach this subject.

However, writing a comprehensive and well-researched essay on social media can be daunting. It requires a thorough understanding of the topic and the ability to articulate your ideas clearly and concisely. This is where Jenni.ai comes in. Our AI-powered tool is designed to help students like you save time and energy and focus on what truly matters - your education. With Jenni.ai , you'll have access to a wealth of examples and receive personalized writing suggestions and feedback.

Whether you're a student who's just starting your writing journey or looking to perfect your craft, Jenni.ai has everything you need to succeed. Our tool provides you with the necessary resources to write with confidence and clarity, no matter your experience level. You'll be able to experiment with different styles, explore new ideas , and refine your writing skills.

So why waste your time and energy struggling to write an essay on your own when you can have Jenni.ai by your side? Sign up for our free trial today and experience the difference for yourself! With Jenni.ai, you'll have the resources you need to write confidently, clearly, and creatively. Get started today and see just how easy and efficient writing can be!

Try Jenni for free today

Create your first piece of content with Jenni today and never look back

Social media use can be positive for mental health and well-being

January 6, 2020— Mesfin Awoke Bekalu , research scientist in the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discusses a new study he co-authored on associations between social media use and mental health and well-being.

What is healthy vs. potentially problematic social media use?

Our study has brought preliminary evidence to answer this question. Using a nationally representative sample, we assessed the association of two dimensions of social media use—how much it’s routinely used and how emotionally connected users are to the platforms—with three health-related outcomes: social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health.

We found that routine social media use—for example, using social media as part of everyday routine and responding to content that others share—is positively associated with all three health outcomes. Emotional connection to social media—for example, checking apps excessively out of fear of missing out, being disappointed about or feeling disconnected from friends when not logged into social media—is negatively associated with all three outcomes.

In more general terms, these findings suggest that as long as we are mindful users, routine use may not in itself be a problem. Indeed, it could be beneficial.

For those with unhealthy social media use, behavioral interventions may help. For example, programs that develop “effortful control” skills—the ability to self-regulate behavior—have been widely shown to be useful in dealing with problematic Internet and social media use.

We’re used to hearing that social media use is harmful to mental health and well-being, particularly for young people. Did it surprise you to find that it can have positive effects?

The findings go against what some might expect, which is intriguing. We know that having a strong social network is associated with positive mental health and well-being. Routine social media use may compensate for diminishing face-to-face social interactions in people’s busy lives. Social media may provide individuals with a platform that overcomes barriers of distance and time, allowing them to connect and reconnect with others and thereby expand and strengthen their in-person networks and interactions. Indeed, there is some empirical evidence supporting this.

On the other hand, a growing body of research has demonstrated that social media use is negatively associated with mental health and well-being, particularly among young people—for example, it may contribute to increased risk of depression and anxiety symptoms.

Our findings suggest that the ways that people are using social media may have more of an impact on their mental health and well-being than just the frequency and duration of their use.

What disparities did you find in the ways that social media use benefits and harms certain populations? What concerns does this raise?

My co-authors Rachel McCloud , Vish Viswanath , and I found that the benefits and harms associated with social media use varied across demographic, socioeconomic, and racial population sub-groups. Specifically, while the benefits were generally associated with younger age, better education, and being white, the harms were associated with older age, less education, and being a racial minority. Indeed, these findings are consistent with the body of work on communication inequalities and health disparities that our lab, the Viswanath lab , has documented over the past 15 or so years. We know that education, income, race, and ethnicity influence people’s access to, and ability to act on, health information from media, including the Internet. The concern is that social media may perpetuate those differences.

— Amy Roeder

Learning Tips
Exam Guides
School Life

Thesis Statements about Social Media: 21 Examples and Tips

by Judy Jeni
January 27, 2024

Writing Thesis Statements Based On Social Media

A thesis statement is a sentence in the introduction paragraph of an essay that captures the purpose of the essay. Using thesis statements about social media as an example, I will guide you on how to write them well.

It can appear anywhere in the first paragraph of the essay but it is mostly preferred when it ends the introduction paragraph. learning how to write a thesis statement for your essay will keep you focused.

A thesis statement can be more than one sentence only when the essay is on complex topics and there is a need to break the statement into two. This means, a good thesis statement structures an essay and tells the reader what an essay is all about.

A good social media thesis statement should be about a specific aspect of social media and not just a broad view of the topic.

The statement should be on the last sentence of the first paragraph and should tell the reader about your stand on the social media issue you are presenting or arguing in the essay.

Reading an essay without a thesis statement is like solving a puzzle. Readers will have to read the conclusion to at least grasp what the essay is all about. It is therefore advisable to craft a thesis immediately after researching an essay.

Throughout your entire writing, every point in every paragraph should connect to the thesis. In case it doesn’t then probably you have diverged from the main issue of the essay.

How to Write a Thesis Statement?

Writing a thesis statement is important when writing an essay on any topic, not just about social media. It is the key to holding your ideas and arguments together into just one sentence.

The following are tips on how to write a good thesis statement:

Start With a Question and Develop an Answer

If the question is not provided, come up with your own. Start by deciding the topic and what you would like to find out about it.

Secondly, after doing some initial research on the topic find the answers to the topic that will help and guide the process of researching and writing.

Consequently, if you write a thesis statement that does not provide information about your research topic, you need to construct it again.

Be Specific

The main idea of your essay should be specific. Therefore, the thesis statement of your essay should not be vague. When your thesis statement is too general, the essay will try to incorporate a lot of ideas that can contribute to the loss of focus on the main ideas.

Similarly, specific and narrow thesis statements help concentrate your focus on evidence that supports your essay. In like manner, a specific thesis statement tells the reader directly what to expect in the essay.

Make the Argument Clear

Usually, essays with less than one thousand words require the statement to be clearer. Remember, the length of a thesis statement should be a single sentence, which calls for clarity.

In these short essays, you do not have the freedom to write long paragraphs that provide more information on the topic of the essay.

Likewise, multiple arguments are not accommodated. This is why the thesis statement needs to be clear to inform the reader of what your essay is all about.

If you proofread your essay and notice that the thesis statement is contrary to the points you have focused on, then revise it and make sure that it incorporates the main idea of the essay. Alternatively, when the thesis statement is okay, you will have to rewrite the body of your essay.

Question your Assumptions

Before formulating a thesis statement, ask yourself the basis of the arguments presented in the thesis statement.

Assumptions are what your reader assumes to be true before accepting an argument. Before you start, it is important to be aware of the target audience of your essay.

Thinking about the ways your argument may not hold up to the people who do not subscribe to your viewpoint is crucial.

Alongside, revise the arguments that may not hold up with the people who do not subscribe to your viewpoint.

Take a Strong Stand

A thesis statement should put forward a unique perspective on what your essay is about. Avoid using observations as thesis statements.

In addition, true common facts should be avoided. Make sure that the stance you take can be supported with credible facts and valid reasons.

Equally, don’t provide a summary, make a valid argument. If the first response of the reader is “how” and “why” the thesis statement is too open-ended and not strong enough.

Make Your Thesis Statement Seen

The thesis statement should be what the reader reads at the end of the first paragraph before proceeding to the body of the essay. understanding how to write a thesis statement, leaves your objective summarized.

Positioning may sometimes vary depending on the length of the introduction that the essay requires. However, do not overthink the thesis statement. In addition, do not write it with a lot of clever twists.

Do not exaggerate the stage setting of your argument. Clever and exaggerated thesis statements are weak. Consequently, they are not clear and concise.

Good thesis statements should concentrate on one main idea. Mixing up ideas in a thesis statement makes it vague. Read on how to write an essay thesis as part of the steps to write good essays.

A reader may easily get confused about what the essay is all about if it focuses on a lot of ideas. When your ideas are related, the relation should come out more clearly.

21 Examples of Thesis Statements about Social Media

Recently, social media is growing rapidly. Ironically, its use in remote areas has remained relatively low.
Social media has revolutionized communication but it is evenly killing it by limiting face-to-face communication.
Identically, social media has helped make work easier. However,at the same time it is promoting laziness and irresponsibility in society today.
The widespread use of social media and its influence has increased desperation, anxiety, and pressure among young youths.
Social media has made learning easier but its addiction can lead to bad grades among university students.
As a matter of fact, social media is contributing to the downfall of mainstream media. Many advertisements and news are accessed on social media platforms today.
Social media is a major promoter of immorality in society today with many platforms allowing sharing of inappropriate content.
Significantly, social media promotes copycat syndrome that positively and negatively impacts the behavior adapted by different users.
In this affluent era, social media has made life easy but consequently affects productivity and physical strength.
The growth of social media and its ability to reach more people increases growth in today’s business world.
The freedom on social media platforms is working against society with the recent increase in hate speech and racism.
Lack of proper verification when signing up on social media platforms has increased the number of minors using social media exposing them to cyberbullying and inappropriate content.
The freedom of posting anything on social media has landed many in trouble making the need to be cautious before posting anything important.
The widespread use of social media has contributed to the rise of insecurity in urban centers
Magazines and journals have spearheaded the appreciation of all body types but social media has increased the rate of body shaming in America.
To stop abuse on Facebook and Twitter the owners of these social media platforms must track any abusive post and upload and ban the users from accessing the apps.
Social media benefits marketing by creating brand recognition, increasing sales, and measuring success with analytics by tracking data.
Social media connects people around the globe and fosters new relationships and the sharing of ideas that did not exist before its inception.
The increased use of social media has led to the creation of business opportunities for people through social networking, particularly as social media influencers.
Learning is convenient through social media as students can connect with education systems and learning groups that make learning convenient.
With most people spending most of their free time glued to social media, quality time with family reduces leading to distance relationships and reduced love and closeness.

Write my thesis
Thesis writers
Buy thesis papers
Bachelor thesis
Master's thesis
Thesis editing services
Thesis proofreading services
Buy a thesis online
Write my dissertation
Dissertation proposal help
Pay for dissertation
Custom dissertation
Dissertation help online
Buy dissertation online
Cheap dissertation
Dissertation editing services
Write my research paper
Buy research paper online
Pay for research paper
Research paper help
Order research paper
Custom research paper
Cheap research paper
Research papers for sale
Thesis subjects
How It Works

How to Write a Thesis Statement About Social Media

writing thesis statement about social media

Writing a thesis statement requires good research and creating a concise yet very informative point. Writing one about social media is no different. Due to the scope of the study, the information to gather and discuss is even more expansive.

What is a Social Media Thesis Statement?

Social Media Essay Outline

Social media essay titles, thesis on social media, argumentative essay on social media, social networking thesis statement, summing up the thesis statement.

Social media uses mobile technologies that are Internet-based to run communication across different parts of the world. It gives people worldwide the opportunity to communicate and socialize, unlike past means of communication which were only one-way.

The evolution of technology has made social media more efficient and prevalent than any other form of communication today. With technology’s continued evolution, social media will continue to evolve, and so will topics and thesis statements about it. A good thesis statement about social media must meet some requirements, and we will look through most of them.

What is a Social Media Thesis Statement Supposed to Look Like?

Before understanding how a thesis statement on social media should look like, we should familiarize ourselves with what thesis statements properly entail. A thesis statement is typically written in the introductory portion of a paper.

It provides an apt and rapid summary of the main point or aim of the research paper or thesis. As the name implies, it is a statement, mainly written in just one sentence.

A thesis statement briefly combines the topic and the main ideas of the paper. Usually, there are two types of thesis statements: indirect and direct. The indirect thesis statements do not mention the core areas or reason of the thesis like the direct statement does.

A direct statement mentions the main topic and discusses the reasons for the paper, while an indirect statement mentions the statement and points out three reasons for it.

For instance, an indirect social media thesis statement could go like this; “Effects of social media on youth and the reasons for its abuse.” Here the topic is clearly stated, along with the central claim of the thesis paper.

Thesis statements are created, backed up, and expatiated in the remaining parts of the paper by citing examples and bringing up other related topics that support their claim. Through this, the thesis statement then goes to help structure and develop the entire body of the writing piece.

A thesis about social media should contain a good thesis statement that would impact and organize the body of the thesis work. Thesis statements do not necessarily control the entire essay but complement it in numerous aspects.

In writing a social media essay, there is a wide variety of topics to talk about. The points are nearly endless, from information collection to technology, its impacts, and adverse effects to its evolution. Nevertheless, there is always a basic outline for an essay, and it will be structured to follow the same format.

Here is an outline for a social media essay;

Introduction

Here, you begin with the topic, state its objective, provide reasons to support its claims and finalize with a precise and accurate thesis statement.

Thesis statement

This statement should support and complement your main topic of discussion. It should provide a concise and cut-out message of the essay.

This section systematically lays out the arguments to support your topic while splitting them into paragraphs. This will gradually develop your points in a structured manner.

Each paragraph in this section must start with the topic sentence which relates directly to the thesis statement. Naturally, a paragraph should focus on one idea and be connected to the essay’s central argument.

Students must also conduct research and provide evidence to support the claims presented in the topic sentence. They can achieve this by using proper explanation methods to merge all their findings carefully.

In the conclusion of the social media essay , you restate your statement in a way that completely complements and brings all your previous arguments together. It must have a concluding paragraph that reiterates the main point discussed in the body of the content. It should also add a call to action to bring the essay into a logical closure that effortlessly lays bare all the ideas previously presented.

The social media field is continuously expanding, and there are various variations to how it can be operated and observed. Choosing a topic is easy, but choosing the right one may not be as unchallenging.

Before you begin writing an essay, the correct approach will be to review as many samples as you can. This way, you can easily understand the general concept and the adequate writing flow required to outline or develop your arguments carefully.

Picking the wrong titles can go on to make your thesis for a social media essay unnecessarily tricky to write. This can occur when you pick a topic too complex or choose one too vaguely and undervalued. This could make you get stuck when writing, so you should always pick titles that are easy to research, analyze and expand upon.

With all these in view, here are some social media essay titles;

Impact of social media on general education
Effects of using social media on businesses
Adverse effects of social media on personal relationships
The effect of government on social media and their potential restrictions
How a thesis about the effects of social media can positively impact society.

A thesis on social media should easily resemble other academic papers and concentrate on various topics in various subjects. Papers like this should take social media as their primary focus.

Keeping that in mind, a compelling social media thesis should contain specific parts like an introduction, thesis statement, body, and conclusion. Each part is essential and has its contribution and functions to the entire content of the thesis. Some students may find writing a thesis statement about social media difficult, so you can always ask our professional writers to “ write my thesis ” and we will be happy to help you.

The introduction usually contains a hook, a summary of the core points, and a concise thesis statement. The body section must carefully develop each argument and idea in a paragraph, while the conclusion should completely close all the arguments.

The tone, style, and approach to each argument should be precise and well laid out to quickly understand the general idea the thesis is trying to build upon. Depending on the level of education you are writing your thesis, you may need to conduct specific direct research on some points and be required to portray them in an encompassing manner.

Generally, thesis writing on any topic requires hard work, extensive research periods, and a good understanding of writing methods. Hence it should be approached with determination and passion. As a student in higher education, you should learn how to improve your writing skills.

An argumentative essay on social media is typically more engaging with active points of discussion and analysis. Communication is an integral aspect of human life when connecting and moving society as a whole forward. Now technology has upgraded communication to a social media age, which has become an advantage and disadvantage in many aspects of life.

An argumentative social media essay generally possesses a strong argument. The essay’s topic must be designed to prompt a person to pick a side or a discussion and provide the necessary support to back up their decision. This type of essay also requires one to research accurate facts for proper argumentative purposes.

Social media argumentative essays target the harmful effects of this brilliant innovation in communication and its uses worldwide. It is only natural as negative discussions might elicit a sense of debate and argumentation. Some examples of argumentative essay topics on social media include;

The negative effects of social media on education in different nations
Effects of social media and its impacts on the older and younger generation
How social media has taken over people
The adverse effects of social media and the digital space on our mental health
The pros and cons of social media in this society.

Social networking is an integral aspect of social media. It uses Internet-based social media sites to create connections and stay connected with friends, customers, family, and even business partners.

Social networking usually performs a primary purpose in communication with actual avenues like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. These sites and applications enable people to connect to develop relationships and share messages, ideas, and information.

Most social networking forms entail developing and maintaining relationships using communication technology, whether it is the relationship between clients, business partners, or even students.

For example, with the development of the Internet, most students can easily find services to help write dissertations on media space, or social media marketing. All you have to do is invite me to write my dissertation and they will immediately find the best service to solve their problem.

Writing is a social networking thesis statement similar to that of a social media thesis statement. They essentially involve rational discussion, and they can be approached in the same manner. The only slight difference will be the particular attention to social media relationships. How they are developed, what it takes to maintain them, and the various merits they could provide. These would typically form the structure of a social networking thesis statement.

Writing a good thesis statement on social media involves a good understanding of the topic chosen and an accurate idea of the reasons, factors, and discussions that impact the main idea of the thesis. With all these discussed, you should be well on your way to writing good thesis statements on social media.

Social-media influence on teen mental health goes beyond just cause and effect

Michael A. Spikes 0

Northwestern University Medill School, Evanston, Illinois, USA.

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

In her review of Jonathan Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation ( Nature 628 , 29–30; 2024 ), Candice Odgers focuses on whether there is a causal relationship between social-media use and poor social outcomes among young people. However, this gives an incomplete view of Haidt’s argument, which puts social-media use in a wider context.

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

24,99 € / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 51 print issues and online access

185,98 € per year

only 3,65 € per issue

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 629 , 757 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01488-5

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

See more letters to the editor

Can mathematicians help to solve social-justice problems?

Career Feature 22 MAY 24

Why role-playing games can spur climate action

World View 22 MAY 24

Internet use and teen mental health: it’s about more than just screen time

Correspondence 21 MAY 24

Software tools identify forgotten genes

Technology Feature 24 MAY 24

Guidelines for academics aim to lessen ethical pitfalls in generative-AI use

Nature Index 22 MAY 24

Interpersonal therapy can be an effective tool against the devastating effects of loneliness

Correspondence 14 MAY 24

Use fines from EU social-media act to fund research on adolescent mental health

Correspondence 09 APR 24

Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Warmly Welcomes Talents Abroad

“Qiushi” Distinguished Scholar, Zhejiang University, including Professor and Physician

No. 3, Qingchun East Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang (CN)

Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital Affiliated with Zhejiang University School of Medicine

Associate Editor, Nature Briefing

Associate Editor, Nature Briefing Permanent, full time Location: London, UK Closing date: 10th June 2024 Nature, the world’s most authoritative s...

London (Central), London (Greater) (GB)

Springer Nature Ltd

Professor, Division Director, Translational and Clinical Pharmacology

Cincinnati Children’s seeks a director of the Division of Translational and Clinical Pharmacology.

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati Children's Hospital & Medical Center

Data Analyst for Gene Regulation as an Academic Functional Specialist

The Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn is an international research university with a broad spectrum of subjects. With 200 years of his...

53113, Bonn (DE)

Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität

Recruitment of Global Talent at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOZ, CAS)

The Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is seeking global talents around the world.

Beijing, China

Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOZ, CAS)

Quick links

Explore articles by subject
Guide to authors
Editorial policies

Gen Z, Social Media, and Mental Health

A generation raised on the internet is feeling its effects, navigating algorithms, and forging community.

By Shelby Crosier

Years of growing youth mental health concerns came to a head during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children’s Hospital Association declared a National State of Emergency in Children’s Mental Health in 2021. However, a mental health crisis was beginning in young people long before the pandemic began.

“There was an inflection point starting between 2010 and 2012 where we started seeing spiking levels of everything,” says Benjamin Druss, MD , professor and Rosalynn Carter Chair in Mental Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management. “From reports of feeling lonely and left out, to depressive symptoms, to rising rates of diagnosed and treated anxiety and depression.”

Since 2011, the number of high school-aged youth (12- to 17-years-old) experiencing depressive symptoms—like sadness or hopelessness—considering suicide, and attempting suicide has gone up . In 2021, almost one third of high school students had experienced poor mental health within the past month. Concerningly, there are large disparities in this trend, with female, LGBTQ+, and racial and ethnic minority youth being more likely to experience poor mental health.

The youth mental health crisis has, in many ways, fallen onto the shoulders of Generation Z. Defined by Pew Research Center as anyone born between 1997 and roughly 2012 (putting them between 12 and 27 years old), this generation has almost always been exposed to mobile devices, high speed Wi-Fi, social media, and an internet landscape that allows for constant connectedness—for better or for worse.

Rising Time Online, Rising Mental Health Concerns

Overall use of all social media sites has risen in the last decade , and youth are the most likely to use YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. Members of Gen Z in particular are more likely than older generations to spend more time on social media daily , and a third of teenagers use at least one site almost constantly .

A growing body of research shows that this level of near-constant social media and internet use negatively impacts youth mental health. For example, one study showed that youth who spend over 3 hours each day on social media are at higher risk for mental health problems . According to a 2023 U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on social media and youth mental health , some of the major concerns that come with social media use are sleep loss, cyberbullying and harassment, body image issues and disordered eating behaviors, and depressive symptoms.

“A lot of youth say that social media is too much for them, but often this realization comes after significant negative experiences. They only see it once it’s really harmful to them,” says Dean M. Daniele Fallin, PhD . Some of this harm, according to the Surgeon General’s Advisory, could stem from exposure to harmful content, from influencers who encourage physical and social comparison, to violent and explicit material.

Algorithms and features built into digital platforms to maximize user engagement are another important factor in the mental health harms of social media. This fact is mentioned in the Surgeon General’s Advisory and emphasized by Janet Cummings, PhD , professor of health policy and management.

“These algorithms are developed to hold our attention and drive ad revenue,” says Cummings. “If what’s holding our attention online is something that creates or exacerbates loneliness, depression, or anxiety, those could get ramped up by increased engagement with these platforms.”

It is no wonder, then, that Gen Zers are more likely than their older counterparts to report feeling negative mental health effects from social media use.

“Social media is like a vector of contagion where things get magnified and amplified,” says Druss. “Once there is some bad feeling, it just tends to get bounced around and amplified in a way that it wouldn’t in real-life interactions.”

Finding Connection and Community Online

Social media can also have positive impacts on young people. It often provides an avenue for youth to find community and connection with others . This can be especially important for LGBTQ+ youth, who often use social media to connect with and support each other.

Some young people also find that online spaces positively affect their mental health by allowing them to be creative and build communities around their creative output. Sarah Timbie, an MPH student in global environmental health at Rollins and self-identified member of Gen Z, runs an online jewelry business and “does a lot of arts and crafts” in her free time.

“A huge positive impact [of social media] for me has been having an artistic community,” she shares. “Social media can be really helpful for people who are starting out in a new hobby or project. People can be super positive and encouraging about the growth of new artists, and they love giving tips.”

According to Druss, social media may also play a role in increasing conversations about mental health.

“Social media has helped facilitate more openness in discussing mental health problems among young people. That may help reduce stigma and get more people into treatment,” he says.

Where Do We Go from Here?

To improve youth mental health outcomes, especially as they relate to social media and internet usage, it is important to build a strong base of evidence about the impacts and potential solutions. However, there are currently several gaps in our knowledge.

“Many people have the sense that social media can be bad. And there has been some research, particularly around body image and girls that shows this to be true, but there is a lot of research that hasn’t been done,” says Fallin. “The [Surgeon General’s] report highlighted that some of the major social media companies have not been cooperative in sharing data with researchers, so it is very hard to do this research when you are limited by access. While we can work on that front to push for data access, we need also to think of other ways to get this kind of research done, because we simply don’t have a strong evidence base.”

There is also a need for research about what interventions may be the most effective in combatting the negative effects of social media. For Cummings, that means focusing on education and strategies to improve digital literacy.

“If this issue is going to be tackled, there needs to be an education component, and it needs to start young,” says Cummings. “We need an evidence base about how to do it well.”

Associated Topics:

Mental Health
Health Disparities
Health Policy and Management
Rollins News
In the Media
Rollins Experts

Donate to the Public health Preparedness and Research Fund

Social media is driving teen mental health crisis, surgeon general warns

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, long a proponent of mental health awareness, has issued a warning that social media use is a main contributor to depression, anxiety and other problems in the nation's teenagers.

The report, released Tuesday, calls attention to growing concerns about the effects of social media use on children and adolescent's mental health. The advisory urges policymakers and the companies that make the social media platforms to share with parents the burden of managing children's and adolescents’ social media use.

Murthy calls youth mental health “the defining public health issue of our time,” urging policymakers to help ensure strong safety standards to help protect adolescents and teens from exposure to harmful content and excessive use.

Up to 95% of teens between the ages of 13 and 17 say they use a social media platform, according to the report. About a third say they're scrolling, posting or otherwise engaged with social media "almost constantly."

"At this point, we do not have enough evidence to say with confidence that social media is sufficiently safe for our kids, Murthy said in an interview. "We have to now take action to make sure that we are protecting our kids."

The report pulls together research that links social media use and poor mental health in adolescents, such as a 2019 study that found teens who spent more than three hours a day on social media "faced double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes, including symptoms of depression and anxiety."

As of last year, students in grades eight and 10 who were surveyed said they spent even more time each day on these platforms: three hours and 30 minutes, on average.

Jim Steyer, founder of Common Sense Media, an organization that advocates for laws and policies to make media more child-friendly, said the advisory was "absolutely spot on" and "should be a clarion call to every parent in this country, every policymaker, that we need to put focus and resources into this effort."

The most popular social media platforms among teens are TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram, according to the Pew Research Center .

The surgeon general's warning about social media comes as the rates of teenage depression, sadness and hopelessness have skyrocketed over the past decade, especially among girls.

" Teen depression started to rise around 2012, a time that coincides with the popularity of smartphones," said Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and the author of "Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and Silents—and What They Mean for America’s Future."

It was also a time, Twenge said, that "'likes' on posts became common, and the algorithms started to become more sophisticated to keep people on social media for longer. That's clearly not a coincidence."

The surgeon general's report also blamed social media for perpetuating eating disorders , body dysmorphia and low self-esteem. Some evidence also suggests a possible link between excessive social media use and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in teens.

Twenge said social media can a ffect mental health in a variety of ways. Both sleep and face-to-face social interaction are beneficial to mental health, she said, but if kids are online when they should be in bed or spending time with friends, that's a problem.

Feeling left out and comparing oneself to others can also be damaging.

"Even if you know on an intellectual level that they may have taken 200 selfies to get the right one," Twenge said, "at an emotional level, that's not really processed."

What can be done?

The surgeon general's report outlines recommendations for both technology companies and lawmakers.

"Policymakers need to step up and help ensure that we have strong safety standards, to help protect our kids from exposure to harmful content, and to also protect them from excessive use," Murthy said. This includes enforcing age minimums.

Companies are advised to create better tools to protect teenagers, and loosen up on features that entice kids to stay online longer.

It's parents who are on the front lines now in trying to help teens navigate the online world. The report encourages caregivers to create "tech-free" zones in the home, and to talk with kids about how social media use makes them feel.

"It's really not fair to put the onus on parents alone. Why isn't the industry held responsible for creating the platforms and making the features that much more addictive?" Steyer of Common Sense Media said. "There has to be a major national discussion."

How old should kids be before using social media?

Most tech companies require users to be at least 13 years old. But nearly 40% of kids between the ages of 8 and 12 use social media, the report said.

Murthy said he believes even 13 is too young to be on social media but said there wasn't enough data to suggest which age would be appropriate.

Twenge suggested that the age minimum should be set at 16.

"Let's get some regulations in place now to help kids who are not yet on social media," Twenge said. "Maybe we can save the next generation."

Follow NBC HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook .

Erika Edwards is a health and medical news writer and reporter for NBC News and "TODAY."

Hallie Jackson is senior Washington correspondent for NBC News.

Age verification for social media would impact all of us. We asked parents and kids if they actually want it

Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultures, University of Sydney

Lecturer in Media and Communications, University of Sydney

Chair of Discipline, Media and Communications, University of Sydney

Lecturer in Digital Cultures, University of Sydney

Disclosure statement

Justine Humphry has received funding from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner under the Online Safety Grants Program.

Catherine Page Jeffery has received funding from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner under the Online Safety Grants Program. She is affiliated with Children and Media Australia.

Jonathon Hutchinson received funding from the eSafety Commissioner to conduct this research.

Olga Boichak received research funding from the eSafety Commissioner Online Safety Grants Program.

University of Sydney provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

This month the Australian government announced a A$6.5 million commitment to trial an age-verification program that will restrict children’s exposure to inappropriate online content, including pornography and potentially social media. The announcement came out of a National Cabinet meeting geared towards addressing gender-based violence in Australia.

Much has been said about age-checking technologies in the weeks since. Experts point out implementing these tools effectively (so they aren’t easily by-passed) will be complicated – and any such system could come with data security risk. Internet freedom groups have criticised the decision on account of its potential to erode privacy.

There is, however, an important dimension missing from these discussions: the voice of young people and parents. In our research into social media use and online harms affecting Australian teenagers, we asked young people and their parents what they themselves thought about age verification. We found mixed reactions from both groups.

Our findings suggest age verification is generally supported, but participants think it likely would not work. Instead, they said more safety education, face-to-face dialogue, and accountability from social media companies would be better approaches to keeping young people safe online.

Young Australians and social media

Young Australians use social media for a variety of reasons, from keeping in touch with friends and family, to seeking information and entertainment.

Our latest research found almost a quarter of young people 12 to 17 use WhatsApp daily. One in two are daily Snapchat users. Instagram and YouTube are the most frequently used platforms, used daily by 64% and 56% of young people respectively.

These patterns are especially significant for culturally and linguistically diverse Australians, who are more likely to use social media to socialise, maintain familial and cultural ties and learn about the world.

That said, social media and the internet more broadly do present risks to young people . These risks include online bullying, grooming and unsolicited contact, privacy breaches, misinformation and content that is pornographic, racist, sexist, homophobic and/or violent.

Studies have found associations between social media use and poor mental health and self-esteem , although direct causation is difficult to establish. It’s also important to note risk doesn’t equate with harm, and young people themselves commonly demonstrate skills, judgement and agency in negotiating online risks.

In an environment of heightened concern, decisions are now being made that will have significant impacts on both young people and their parents. These decisions are being fuelled by media brands, celebrities and ex-politicians seeking to influence discourse .

Elsewhere in the world, the UK’s Online Safety Bill is attempting to restrict young people’s access to online pornography, through either government-issued documents or biometrics . The UK regulator Ofcom is set to publish guidance on age-assurance compliance in early 2025 . France has also been testing a system to verify age based on a user intermediary , after it enacted a law in 2023 to restrict social media use for people under 15.

The details of the trial in Australia haven’t yet been released, but it could use one or a combination of approaches.

The missing perspective

Our research, which focused on Australian teenagers aged 12–17 and their parents, drew from focus groups and a national survey in 2022–23. Overall, the survey showed broad support for age verification. Specifically, 72% of young people and 86% of parents believed more effective age limits would improve online safety for young people.

But we also heard about several drawbacks. For instance, young people saw age verification as something that would benefit adults. One participant said:

I guess it benefits parents who want to be in the right mindset that their kids are safe on social media.

Another young person said:

I feel like in the case of lot of controlling parents it would be bad for the kid because then if the parents are controlling and they don’t have any social media to talk to people, I feel like that could negatively impact the kid. Maybe they’d get lonely, or they wouldn’t be able to use it as an outlet.

Some young people noted they could find ways around age-verification tools:

It would be simple just to get a VPN and change my country if it was going to create this obstacle.

They also pointed out such tools don’t account for evolving maturity levels and differing capabilities among young individuals.

Parents shared concerns about the burden of providing proof of their age and managing consent:

I mean depending on what kind of site it is would you be comfortable providing your passport information or your driver’s licence?

Both groups were worried about the risk of data breaches and leaks of sensitive information. As one parent told us:

Well, it certainly makes you think about it a lot more. What are they using that data for? Is it really just for age verification, or is it for something more nefarious?

Another young person also had privacy concerns:

But if I would say that I was OK with it, I think I’d be lying. Because, I’m a really private person, privacy really matters. And yeah, I do think to be safe, I think we really should be having our own privacy as well.

So what should be done?

Governments, parents, educators and platforms all have an important role to play in ensuring young people’s safety online.

Beyond age verification, there’s a growing consensus social media companies should be doing more to ensure users’ safety. Until that happens, the best approach is for parents and children to talk to each other to determine the appropriate age for a child to be on social media. By working together, families can develop guidelines and expectations for appropriate use.

Schools can also help by developing young people’s digital literacy and online safety skills.

Ultimately, if we want young people to thrive in online environments, we need to involve them in the decisions that will directly affect them.

Pornography censorship
social media banning
Social media use
children's online use

Research Fellow

Senior Research Fellow - Women's Health Services

Lecturer / Senior Lecturer - Marketing

Assistant Editor - 1 year cadetship

Executive Dean, Faculty of Health

Watch CBS News

Pope Francis says social media can be alienating, making young people live in "unreal world"

By Jennifer Earl

Updated on: May 21, 2024 / 2:21 AM EDT / CBS News

Pope Francis says hours spent consuming content every day, whether on smartphones or televisions, can take a toll on health — particularly for young people.

"What is social media doing to the world and our children?" CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell asked Francis during a recent sit-down interview .

Francis said there are some benefits of communication media because they "have a conscience," knowing how to report the news and also how to render criticism. That can help with development, he explained.

But, he admitted, there are also downsides.

"There are communication media that alienate young people, don't they? It makes them live in an unreal world, made up of fantasy, or in an aggressive world or a rosy world ... and so many things," Francis told O'Donnell.

The pontiff went on to say the media has a "serious responsibility" as an information source for people of all ages.

"A media outlet that only lives off propaganda — off gossip, off soiling others — is a dirty media outlet, and that soils the minds of the young and of the old as well," he said.

Francis then asked, "Today, how many hours does a person spend in front of the TV or on their little phones? How many hours?"

The impact of social media is one of the many topics the pontiff addressed in an hour-long interview with O'Donnell airing on Monday at 10 p.m. ET on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

During a Monday appearance on "CBS Mornings," O'Donnell said the prime-time special allows more time to discuss in-depth issues — like social media's impact on kids.

"You see a part of the pope that I think probably you haven't seen anywhere else," O'Donnell told "CBS Mornings."

Pope Francis

More from CBS News

More than 2,000 believed buried alive in Papua New Guinea landslide

Fire breaks out at amusement park in western India, at least 20 dead

National Park Service denies ordering removal of American flag

Best Buy is the most impersonated company by scammers, FTC says

Share full article

Supported by

E.U. Investigates Meta Over Addictive Social Media Effects on Children

The American tech giant’s platforms, Facebook and Instagram, may “exploit the weaknesses and inexperience of minors,” the European Commission said.

Thierry Breton, wearing a dark suit, gestures at a lectern during a news conference in front of a mostly blue screen displaying the E.U. flag.

By Adam Satariano

Adam Satariano, a technology correspondent based in London, covers digital policy.

European Union regulators on Thursday opened investigations into the American tech giant Meta for the potentially addictive effects Instagram and Facebook have on children, an action with far-reaching implications because it cuts to the core of how the company’s products are designed.

Meta’s products may “exploit the weaknesses and inexperience of minors” to create behavioral dependencies that threaten their mental well-being, the European Commission, the executive branch of the 27-member bloc, said in a statement. E.U. regulators could ultimately fine Meta up to 6 percent of its global revenue, which was $135 billion last year, as well as force other product changes.

The investigations are part of a growing effort by governments around the world to rein in services like Instagram and TikTok to protect minors. Meta has for years faced criticism that its products and recommendation algorithms are fine-tuned to hook children. In October, three dozen states in the United States sued Meta for using “psychologically manipulative product features” to lure children, in violation of consumer protection laws.

E.U. regulators said they had been in touch with U.S. counterparts about the investigations announced on Thursday. The regulators said Meta could be in violation of the Digital Services Act, a law approved in 2022 that requires large online services to more aggressively police their platforms for illicit content and have policies in place to mitigate risks toward children. People younger than 13 are not supposed to able to sign up for an account, but E.U. investigators said they would scrutinize the company’s age-verification tools as part of their investigation.

“We will now investigate in-depth the potential addictive and ‘rabbit hole’ effects of the platforms, the effectiveness of their age verification tools and the level of privacy afforded to minors in the functioning of recommender systems,” Thierry Breton, the European Union’s internal markets commissioner, who is overseeing the investigations, said in a statement. “We are sparing no effort to protect our children.”

On Thursday, Meta said its social media services were safe for young people, noting features that let parents and children set time limits on how much they use Instagram or Facebook. Teenagers are also defaulted into more restrictive content and recommendation settings. Advertisers are barred from showing targeted ads to underage users based on their activity on Meta’s apps.

“We want young people to have safe, age-appropriate experiences online and have spent a decade developing more than 50 tools and policies designed to protect them,” Meta said in a statement. “This is a challenge the whole industry is facing, and we look forward to sharing details of our work with the European Commission.”

E.U. officials did not give a timeline of how long the investigation would take. But the opening of a formal inquiry on Thursday gives regulators wide authority to gather evidence from Meta, including sending legal requests for information, interviewing company executives and conducting inspections of corporate offices. Investigations of Instagram and Facebook will be conducted separately.

E.U. regulators have taken aim at a number of companies since the Digital Services Act took effect. Last month, TikTok suspended a version of its app in the European Union after the authorities raised questions about an “addictive” feature that lets users earn rewards like gift cards for watching videos, liking content and following certain creators.

Meta is facing another investigation related to political advertising, while X, the social media site owned by Elon Musk, is facing an inquiry related to content moderation, risk management and advertising transparency.

Adam Satariano is a technology correspondent based in Europe, where his work focuses on digital policy and the intersection of technology and world affairs. More about Adam Satariano

IMAGES

≫ The Effects of Social Media on the Youth Free Essay Sample on
Thesis Effects Of Social Media
Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media Free Essay Example 639
(PDF) EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON YOUTH
Conceptual Framework on the effects of social media in facilitating
Effects of Social Media in the Academic Performance of Senior High

VIDEO

Social Media Effects Your Mental Health
social media effects 😭😭... This Act Directed By #kidzeepreschool Ex student's ...plz like, share
Social Media के मनोवैज्ञानिक असर 😳 #psychology
Literature Review 699-01 (Social Media Effects on College Athletics)
Social Media effects on Status #mrbeast
social media effects #motivation #sadrealityofmodernlife #motivational #sadrealityofourworld #deep

COMMENTS

Social Media Use and Its Impact on Relationships and Emotions
This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations by an ... negative effects of social media use on emotions were frustration, depression, and social comparison. The top three responses for negative effects of social media use on interpersonal
Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Adolescent Well-Being
Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Adolescent Well-Being. Katie Kennedy Minnesota State University, Mankato ... This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects at Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University ...
Social Media Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic
Impact on mental health. Mental health is defined as a state of well-being in which people understand their abilities, solve everyday life problems, work well, and make a significant contribution to the lives of their communities [].There is debated presently going on regarding the benefits and negative impacts of social media on mental health [9,10].
Frontiers
These findings support those of Davey et al. (2018), who evidenced that phubbing has a significant influence on adolescents and social health students in India. The findings showed a significant and positive effect of social media use on psychological well-being both through bridging and bonding social capital.
The Influences of Social Media: Depression, Anxiety, and Self-Concept
The current study examined correlations between social media use and its effects on depression, anxiety, and changes in self-concept through quantitative and qualitative data. Variables included in the analysis of Study 1 were depression, anxiety, time spent using social media, number of platforms used, perception of addiction, and type of use.
The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health: A Proposed Study
Excessive social media. use has the potential to increase vulnerability to the development of psychological disorders, specifically increasing psychological distress, decreasing self-esteem, and increasing depressive. symptoms. With social media use on the rise among people of all ages, it is important to.
PDF Influences of Social Media Use on Adolescent Psychosocial Well-Being
examine the relationship between adolescents' social media use and their psychosocial well-being. I conducted a survey and social browsing experiment (n=588), followed by semi-structured interviews with a purposeful sub-sample of youth (n=28). In Study 1, I present an architecture of emotional life infused with social technologies.
The Impact of Social Media on Society
cortisol, from heavy social media usage, over time causes damage to your gastrointestinal tract. (gut), which opens the door to an immuno-inflammatory response in the body and brain, leading. to depression anxiety.7 Another side effect of social media leading to depression is the experience of false.
Social Media's Impact on One's Mental, Physical, and Emotional Well-being
is a positive effect on their lives due to their active presence and increased involvement in. their social community when users utilize the apps in this manner. Furthermore, social media users can improve their mental, physical, and. emotional wellbeing while being active users of the medium. Individuals who take an.
PDF The Effects of Social Media and Social Networking Site Usage on The
Title: The Effects of Social Media and Social Networking Site Usage on the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Adolescents Approved: ----- Nicholas B. Allen ... First, I would like to thank my Primary Thesis Advisor Nick Allen from the Department of Psychology for all of his support and time helping me examine this
Social Media and Mental Health: Benefits, Risks, and Opportunities for
Introduction. Social media has become a prominent fixture in the lives of many individuals facing the challenges of mental illness. Social media refers broadly to web and mobile platforms that allow individuals to connect with others within a virtual network (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or LinkedIn), where they can share, co-create, or exchange various forms of digital ...
"Exploring the Effects of Social Media Use on the Mental Health of Youn
Strickland, Amelia, "Exploring the Effects of Social Media Use on the Mental Health of Young Adults" (2014). HIM 1990-2015. 1684. The intent of this thesis is to explore the relationship between social media use and mental health in the young adult population. Current research indicates that there is a connection between increased social media ...
University of Central Florida STARS
Numerous studies identify connections between social media use and negative outcomes. such as increased depression, anxiety, compulsive behavior, loneliness, and narcissism. The. burgeoning use of social media by young adults raises concerns about these possible negative. effects of its use.
(PDF) The Effect of Social Media on Society
Depression, anxiety, catfishing, bullying, terro rism, and. criminal activities are some of the negative side s of social media on societies. Generall y, when peoples use social. media for ...
Social media harms teens' mental health, mounting evidence shows. What now?
The effects of social media consumption on adolescent psychological well-being. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, in press, 2024. doi: 10.1086/728739.
The effect of social media on the development of students' affective
In recent years, several studies have been conducted to explore the potential effects of social media on students' affective traits, such as stress, anxiety, depression, and so on. The present paper reviews the findings of the exemplary published works of research to shed light on the positive and negative potential effects of the massive use ...
PDF IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON MENTAL HEALTH
Title of Bachelor´s thesis: Impacts of Social Media on Mental Health . Supervisor: Ilkka Mikkonen . Term and year of completion: Autumn 2018 Number of pages: 36 . Social media has become an integral part of human beings in the present era. It has influenced them in many ways. On the one hand, numerous benefits of social media such as online ...
The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health: a Mixed-methods Research
health clinicians to address the impact of heavy social media use on the clients' mental health. Social media's impact on mental health complicates social service delivery on the micro level due to the significant growth of mental health symptoms. As more individuals are presenting with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, etc.
PDF The impact of social media on students' lives
Title of the thesis The impact of social media on students' lives Case: LAB University of Applied Sciences Degree Business Information Technology Abstract Social media platforms are a ubiquitous part of modern society and the typical student spends many hours each day interacting with them. The purpose and research question
6 Example Essays on Social Media
Here are 6 examples of Social Media Essays: The Impact of Social Media on Relationships and Communication; Introduction: The way we share information and build relationships has evolved as a direct result of the prevalence of social media in our daily lives. The influence of social media on interpersonal connections and conversation is a hot topic.
Social media use can be positive for mental health
Routine social media use may compensate for diminishing face-to-face social interactions in people's busy lives. Social media may provide individuals with a platform that overcomes barriers of distance and time, allowing them to connect and reconnect with others and thereby expand and strengthen their in-person networks and interactions.
Thesis Statements about Social Media: 21 Examples and Tips
21 Examples of Thesis Statements about Social Media. Recently, social media is growing rapidly. Ironically, its use in remote areas has remained relatively low. Social media has revolutionized communication but it is evenly killing it by limiting face-to-face communication. Identically, social media has helped make work easier.
How to Write a Thesis Statement About Social Media
Writing a good thesis statement on social media involves a good understanding of the topic chosen and an accurate idea of the reasons, factors, and discussions that impact the main idea of the thesis. With all these discussed, you should be well on your way to writing good thesis statements on social media.
Social-media influence on teen mental health goes beyond just ...
Social-media influence on teen mental health goes beyond just cause and effect. By. Michael A. Spikes. In her review of Jonathan Haidt's book The Anxious Generation ( Nature 628, 29-30; 2024 ...
Gen Z, Social Media, and Mental Health
It is no wonder, then, that Gen Zers are more likely than their older counterparts to report feeling negative mental health effects from social media use. "Social media is like a vector of contagion where things get magnified and amplified," says Druss. "Once there is some bad feeling, it just tends to get bounced around and amplified in ...
How teens view social media's impact on their mental health
Ad Feedback. "Most conversations and headlines surrounding social media and youth mental (health) focus solely on the harms, portraying young people as passive consumers. This research shows ...
Social media is driving teen mental health crisis, surgeon general warns
May 23, 2023, 2:00 AM PDT. By Erika Edwards and Hallie Jackson. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, long a proponent of mental health awareness, has issued a warning that social media use is a main ...
Age verification for social media would impact all of us. We asked
Young Australians use social media for a variety of reasons, from keeping in touch with friends and family, to seeking information and entertainment. Our latest research found almost a quarter of ...
Pope Francis says social media can be alienating, making young people
The impact of social media is one of the many topics the pontiff addressed in an hour-long interview with O'Donnell airing on Monday at 10 p.m. ET on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
E.U. Investigates Meta Over Addictive Social Media Effects on Children
May 16, 2024. European Union regulators on Thursday opened investigations into the American tech giant Meta for the potentially addictive effects Instagram and Facebook have on children, an action ...

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Introduction

Literature Review

Social Media Use, Social Capital, and Psychological Well-Being

Social Media Use, Social Isolation, and Psychological Well-Being

Social Media Use, Smartphone Addiction, Phubbing, and Psychological Well-Being

Indirect Relationship Between Social Media Use and Psychological Well-Being

Research Methodology

Data Collection Procedures and Respondent's Information

Measurement Items

Social Media Use

Social Capital

Social Isolation

Smartphone Addiction

Psychological Well-Being

Data Analysis

Common Method Bias (CMB) Test

Assessment of Measurement Model

Assessment of the Structural Model

Theoretical Contributions

Practical Contributions

Limitations and Directions for Future Studies

Data Availability Statement

Ethics Statement

Author Contributions

Conflict of Interest

Subscribe or renew today

Science News

Share this:

Increasing rigor

Cause and effect

A need for nuance

More Stories from Science News on Science & Society

Should we use AI to resurrect digital ‘ghosts’ of the dead?

A hidden danger lurks beneath Yellowstone

Online spaces may intensify teens’ uncertainty in social interactions

Want to see butterflies in your backyard? Try doing less yardwork

Ximena Velez-Liendo is saving Andean bears with honey

‘Flavorama’ guides readers through the complex landscape of flavor

Rain Bosworth studies how deaf children experience the world

Separating science fact from fiction in Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’

The effect of social media on the development of students’ affective variables

Introduction

Significance of the study

Exemplary general literature on psychological effects of social media

Review of the affective influences of social media on students

Implications of the study

Suggestions for further research

Author contributions

Conflict of interest

Publisher’s note

6 Example Essays on Social Media | Advantages, Effects, and Outlines

Want to learn how to write an argumentative essay? Check out these inspiring examples!

6 Examples of Social Media Essays

The Impact of Social Media on Relationships and Communication

Positive Effects:

Negative Effects:

Conclusion:

The Role of Social Media in the Spread of Misinformation and Fake News

The Pervasiveness of Misinformation and Fake News on Social Media

The Influence of Social Media on Public Opinion

The Challenge of Correcting Misinformation and Fake News

The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health and Well-Being

Comparison and Low Self-Esteem

Cyberbullying and Online Harassment

Social Isolation

Addiction and Overuse

The Use of Social Media in Political Activism and Social Movements

Raising Awareness and Mobilizing Action

Connecting with like-minded individuals

Challenges and Limitations

The Potential Privacy Concerns Raised by Social Media Use and Data Collection Practices

Data Collection and Sharing

Lack of Control Over Personal Information

Personalized Marketing

Government Surveillance

The Ethical and Privacy Concerns Surrounding Social Media Use And Data Collection

Effect on Individual Privacy:

Responsibility of Social Media Companies:

Better Regulation Is Needed