Does Social Media Lead to Anxiety in Emerging Adults?
And If So, Should They Just Log Off?
We all know the tight chest, pit in your stomach feeling that is anxiety. If you don’t, then you likely know someone who does. (Also, tell us your secret!)
Social media critics often say it’s a breeding ground for comparison and cyberbullying, fueling a rise in anxiety and depression. Is it true? To get a definitive answer, we need longitudinal studies, which observe participants over time, and/or experimental studies, which randomly assign a “treatment” like smartphone-free evenings. These studies isolate how altering one variable affects another, which would help us draw conclusions about cause and effect.
To date, few of these types of studies have been conducted on the impact of social media on mental health. The bulk of the research we do have is cross-sectional, which essentially observes a group of participants at one point in time.
The sins of social media are numerous, but before we write off the platforms we need to weigh the positives as well. Facebook, Instagram, and their competitors can help people of all ages strengthen their sense of social support, which may boost psychological well-being. For teens and emerging adults (those aged 18-22), social networks also offer a space to negotiate important developmental tasks like maintaining relationships and distilling their identity.
This leads us to the question, does social media ultimately do more harm than good to young adults? And if so, what should we do?
In an American study published in 2017, researchers Anna Vannucci, Kaitlin Flannery, and Christine McCauley Ohannessian unveiled compelling information that gets us closer to answering these questions.
How Does Social Media Affect Emerging Adults?
The data for this study was gathered in 2014 and involved Vannucci’s team asking participants about how much time they spent on social media every day. The participants were a nationally representative sample of emerging adults, which meant that the findings could, in theory, apply to other 18 to 22-year-olds throughout the country.
Social media in this case included the usual platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat) as well as Vine, Tumblr, YouTube, and Google+. Participants were asked questions about their anxiety like, “In the past week, how often did you avoid situations, places, objects, or activities because of anxiety or fear?”.
The purpose of this survey was to assess whether emerging adults who used more social media experienced more symptoms of anxiety. Specifically, they were looking at two types of anxiety: dispositional anxiety and recent anxiety impairment. Dispositional anxiety refers to an acquired tendency to view a wide range of situations as threatening or nerve-wracking. The second type, recent anxiety impairment, captures the frequency and intensity of anxiety and the extent to which anxiety interferes with daily life.
In total, the study included 563 emerging adults, who spent an average of 6.63 hours on social media per day. Among the participants, men were online more than women, but social media use was not found to be related to age, race/ethnicity, or education level.
Vannucci’s team found that higher social media use was significantly associated with greater dispositional anxiety but not recent anxiety impairment. In addition, participants who spent more time scrolling were significantly more likely to exhibit symptoms consistent with an anxiety disorder.
Should We Just Delete Social Media?
Before you panic, know that correlation does not equal causation. What does this mean? It might be easiest to explain through an example:
On the one hand, it’s possible that social media leads to increased anxiety by provoking FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and comparison. On the other hand, it’s also possible that people with high anxiety turn to social media to cope (using it to validate their self-esteem or get around face-to-face communication, for example).
While Vannucci’s team demonstrated that social media and anxiety were correlated among their participants, we can’t make assumptions about the direction of the relationship based on the data. To reach a conclusion on this, we’d need to observe how anxiety changes over time due to varying levels of social media use. If the amount of social media use was randomly assigned, the evidence would be even more compelling.
What does this study tell us then? The authors came away with a few suggestions.
What Do We Do About This Social Dilemma?
As previously mentioned, Facebook, Instagram, and the like provide a context where identity formation and relationship building can play out. This is especially important when we can’t be together in person (we’re looking at you, COVID-19). According to previous research, this may enhance psychological well-being.
However, social media has the potential to serve as a source of stress and could even reinforce poor self-esteem. Plus, the attention-sucking algorithms make it all too easy to avoid problems and isolate yourself, both of which are unhealthy behaviours detrimental to mental health.
After considering their findings, Vannucci’s team suggested that the amount and manner of social media use be included in anxiety assessments for emerging adults. They also proposed that we develop anxiety treatments that promote the positive uses of social media while discouraging unhealthy behaviours online.
This study adds to the body of evidence pointing to a link between social media and anxiety. Whether more social network use leads to more anxiety or more anxiety leads to more social network use is still being debated. Regardless, the solution doesn't have to be scrapping social media altogether. We can (and according to the study’s authors, should) help people maximize the benefits they receive and minimize unhealthy use. By doing this and advocating for changes that reduce the downsides, we can build a better digital society.
If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, check out the following resources:
Study Objective & Methods
Social Media Use and Anxiety in Emerging Adults
Anna Vannucci, MS; Kaitlin M. Flannery, PhD; Christine McCauley Ohannession, PhD.
Published in Journal of Affective Disorders, 2017.
This study intended to evaluate the effect of time spent using social media on anxiety symptoms and severity in emerging adults. Participants were enrolled through Lightspeed GMI, a recruiting firm specializing in global market research. Invitations to complete the online survey were sent to 18 to 22-year-olds across the United States. 563 people completed it, who each received $5 for participating. The survey included the questions from the following scales: The Technology Use Questionnaire, the Beck Anxiety Inventory-Trait, and the Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale. Two hierarchical regression analyses were conducted in which the dependent variables were dispositional anxiety symptoms and recent anxiety impairment, respectively. The independent variable was the amount of time spent on social media each day. Age, gender, race/ethnicity, and education level were included in the analysis as covariates. A logistic regression model assessed whether social media was associated with the likelihood that someone’s anxiety exceeded the clinical threshold for a probable anxiety disorder.
Social Media and Well-Being Training
This research (and all our social media and well-being articles) have laid the foundation for our 3-course program designed for anyone wanting to approach social media and communications in a way that protects well-being and puts people first. Learn more here.
