In part one of this article, we looked at some of the research on social media and its impact on relationships. In part two, we focus on social media and our well-being.
The question as to how social media affects psychological well-being—both for teens and adults—is a common one. While some studies have found associations between social media use and loneliness, depression, and poor life satisfaction, these associations don't necessarily mean that social media is to blame.
"This is a very, very hot topic," says Jeffrey Hall, PhD, director of the Relationships and Technology Lab at the University of Kansas. "Overwhelmingly, the literature says that if there is an effect, the effect is extremely small, and is likely not in the direction we expect." This means "that it's more likely that people who are depressed, lonely, and have poor quality of life are more likely to turn to social media to resolve those pre-existing lacks in their social world, than it is the case that people who use social media are causally becoming more unsatisfied with their life."
Asked how social media affects well-being, Nicole Ellisonopens in new window, PhD, professor of information at the University of Michigan says, "It's such a complicated beast." The question is complicated in part because there are so many different variables at play, including individual characteristics such as whether a person has high or low self-esteem and whether they are prone to depression, the strength of their offline social support networks, and how they engage with social media.
With teens and young adults, too, while some studies have found connections between social media usage and negative psychological outcomes such as anxietyopens in new window, depressionopens in new window and lonelinessopens in new window, the effects of social media may not be generic or generalizable.
"I think they really depend upon who the user is, how they use it, and their particular demographics," says Kaveri Subrahmanyam, PhD, a developmental psychologist, professor at Cal State LA, and associate director of the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angelesopens in new window. For example, she conducted a short-term longitudinal studyopens in new window that looked at the relationships between negative interactions on Facebook, depression and life satisfaction. This study found that there was a marginal relationship between adolescents having been victimized by peers on Facebook at the beginning of the study and reporting lower life satisfaction at the end of the study. However, the stronger effect was that adolescents who were more depressed at the beginning of the study were more likely to be victimized later.
She notes that while we tend to think that we all experience the same social media effects, "they seem to really depend on how somebody uses them [social media sites], as well as their own constellation of strengths and challenges."
One individual factor that may link social media use and psychological effects — especially for teens and young adults — is the extent to which someone is sensitive to different forms of digital stress. A new paperopens in new window by Hall and colleagues proposes four components of digital stress: fear of missing out (FOMO), communication overload (too many notifications), availability stress (feeling like you can't take a break), and approval anxiety (monitoring signs of approval such as comments and likes). By focusing on the type of distress and the ways in which a client uses social media, clinicians may be able to offer more targeted and nuanced recommendations. However, more research is sorely needed in this arena: "the literature limits the number and strength of the clinical recommendations that we can realistically provide," they write.
Healthier social media habits
While researchers are likely to continue to tease apart the relationships between social media use and well-being, early research suggests that there may be certain ways of using social media that are likely to amplify its benefits and decrease its harms.
One emerging theme is that so-called "active use (PDF, 181KB)"opens in new window of social media — posting content and engaging with other people's posts — may be healthier than simply scrolling and passively reading others' posts. "I think that evidence is building," says Hall. But he and Ellison both note that it can sometimes be difficult to make clear distinctions between active and passive use.
Hall also suggests that being deliberate about the time spent on social media may also be a good habit. "You're saying, 'Okay, I'm reserving this time for it, I'm using it, then I'm walking away from it,'" he says. "That's not the practice that many, many teens and young adults use, but I think it's probably a healthier practice, given the research evidence." Indeed, the Common Sense Media survey found that 16 percent of teens report using social media "almost constantly."
Controlling the amount of information disclosed over social media is important, especially when it comes to children and teens. However, reaching an appropriate balance can be very tricky for adolescents. "Self-disclosure, we know, is a key element of peer-to-peer relationships during adolescence. It's important for identity exploration," says Subrahmanyam. "However, too much self-disclosure is a problem when it occurs online, because, for one, the digital record never vanishes."
Besides encouraging children and teens to be selective in their privacy settings and what they share online, Subrahmanyam says there's another critical element to consider when it comes to the time adolescents spend on social media and digital devices in general: disrupted sleepopens in new window. She notes that not getting enough sleep is "not optimal for development" and is associated with decreased well-being, depression, truancy, substance use, car accidents, and poor academic performance.
"One of the recommendations that I give to parents is to have your children charge their phones outside their bedroom," says Subrahmanyam.
However, according to Subrahmanyam, it is time to move beyond the question of whether social media use is good or bad for us. "The genie is out of the bottle, right? We're not going to go back to a pre-social media world," she says. "I think it's here to stay. So to me, the more compelling question is: what are the circumstances?"
Nicole Ellisonopens in new window, PhD, professor of information at the University of Michigan agrees: "I think that there's a lot of potential for social media to make meaningful, positive changes in people's lives and we just need to better understand how that happens."
