Is Social Media Busting or Boosting Your Stress?

Connecting with others is generally a good thing when it comes to our health and well-being. But can the same be said for our virtual interactions? The answer is a qualified “maybe,” according to psychologists and other experts who have studied the issue.

Even before COVID-19 sent many of us online for working, learning, and socializing in myriad new ways, there was evidence social media use has its advantages. There was research that suggested that the ability to connect with others via Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and other social media platforms, as well as text messages, can help strengthen social ties and keep us more attuned to our mental and physical health.

And then during the pandemic, being able to turn to technology saved many from isolation. “I think that the benefits of social media have become much more pronounced and noticeable for many of us,” says Christine McCauley Ohannessian, PhD, editor of the research journal Emerging Adulthood, whose own research from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Florida State University has focused on social media use and adolescent psychological development.

But there’s also evidence that in addition to its benefits, online interactions can also stifle human connectivity, lower our self-esteem, make us feel lonely and isolated, and stress us out, says Emily Weinstein, EdD, a senior researcher at Project Zero at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who studies the effects of social media on young adults. “For many of us, it’s both.”

The critical questions we all need to ask, she says, are: “How are we using it?” and “How can we tip the balance to amplify positives and lessen the negatives?”

Getting Personal Tends to Be a Good Thing

Social media in some cases provides the social support we (as in all human beings) need, Dr. Ohannessian says. And research — including from the pre-pandemic times — supports that.

A study published in the July 2016 issue of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, as well as other research, has found that when we receive targeted, personalized communications from people with whom we have strong ties — such as a direct message or comments on a photo we share — well-being tends to improve. By contrast, social media interactions with someone with whom we have a weaker tie (or an easy-to-produce or one-click interaction, such as “liking” a photo or viewing a friend’s photo or post) don’t tend to help our well-being.

This data comes from 1,910 Facebook users who self-reported measures of well-being for an optional survey designed for this study three times over the course of a three-month period in 2011. The responses were then matched to server logs of the participants’ Facebook activity from the month prior to the start of the survey to the month after the date of the last survey.

Another review, published in February 2018 in Current Directions in Psychological Science, proposed that a simpler framework still to understand the social media and well-being dynamic is looking at social media use as either connection-promoting (having direct exchanges with others or interacting with those you also interact with in real life) or non-connection-promoting (passively viewing feeds or lurking on strangers’ profiles). According to the researchers, existing evidence suggests connection-promoting social media use contributes to well-being, while the opposite can be damaging.

That potential of social media to better connect us is good news, considering the majority of people in the United States use it. A survey of 6,700 U.S. adults for Everyday Health's 2019 United States of Stress story, for example, found that most adults check social media tools daily, particularly young adults. Sixty-seven percent of respondents ages 18 to 21 say they check social media at least daily, as do 60 percent of those ages 22 to 37. Among those ages 38 to 53, 54 percent say they check on a daily basis, and of those ages 54 to 64, 53 percent do.

Some evidence suggests that among young adults and adolescents, social media may indeed play a role in promoting connectedness, Ohannessian says. For example, a study conducted in the Netherlands and published in October 2016 in the journal Computers in Human Behavior surveyed 942 individuals, ages 10 to 14, twice during a year. Those who used social media during that time improved their empathy skills during that period in terms of both being able to better understand others and being able to better share their own feelings.

However, in a scoping review published in December 2021 in the journal News Media & Society, researchers concluded that simple frameworks for understanding the effects of social media are likely insufficient. The content and individual senders and receivers need be considered, too, they noted.

Data suggests as many as 59 percent of teens report having had experienced cyberbullying (such as offensive name-calling, spreading of false rumors, or physical threats), according to a report published in September 2018 by the Pew Research Center.

Social Media Provides Community for Those With Mental Health and Chronic Conditions

When it comes to coping with personal challenges, such as chronic health conditions, mental health issues, or other medical and health problems, social media is increasingly a resource many people turn to.

A national survey of more than 1,300 teenagers and young adults published in 2018 reported that roughly 40 percent of teenagers and young adults said they’d used social media to find people with similar health conditions. The research was conducted by the Hopelab and NORC (formerly the National Opinion Research Center) at the University of Chicago, an independent research institution.

Data from the Everyday Health survey found that while 17 percent of all individuals reported checking email at least daily, that rate slightly increased among those who had a mental health condition (20 percent of those surveyed), as well as among those who had another chronic health condition (18 percent).

Social Media Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic

And let’s not forget the lifeline that social media and other digital tools provided us with when the COVID-19 pandemic, for many of us, shut down the in-person social lives we were so used to. From virtual work meetings to virtual education to virtual social gatherings, technology in many ways allowed us to stay connected.

One study published in April 2021 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, for example, found that average recreational screen time climbed by about three hours a week during the pandemic, driven mostly by streaming TV shows and movies and by more usage of social media. (The researchers surveyed a group of 718 people who had previously reported on various lifestyle behaviors and were based in Minnesota when they first joined the study.) The most common reasons people cited for spending more time on screens after the start of the COVID-19 health crisis were boredom and a desire to connect with others. About 1 in 20 people, however, said they felt this increased screen time had a negative impact on their mental health.

Another study, published in July 2021 in the JMIR Formative Research, focused specifically on social media usage among college students before and during the pandemic, found that average social media time climbed from 115 minutes a day before the pandemic to 196 minutes a day during the pandemic. The proportion of students reporting that they used social media for enjoyment and engagement with others climbed during the pandemic.

“Social media has been extremely valuable during this time because it has allowed us to still connect with one another when we have been unable to do so in person,” says Ohannessian, who wasn’t involved in this study.

But college students in the JMIR study also revealed a downside of pandemic increases in social media usage. During the pandemic, fewer students said that social media had a positive impact on their emotional well-being and more of them reported that they felt their behavior on social media was addictive.

Social Media Benefits Diminish With More Use

The benefits of social media use seem to disappear when it becomes excessive, says Anya Kamenetz, an education correspondent for NPR and the author of The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media and Real Life.

For example, a study published in the July 2017 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reported that using platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat for more than two hours a day is associated with feelings of social isolation among individuals between ages 19 and 32. Other data shows that the incidence of depression increases among young adults (also those ages 19 to 32) who use social media more often than their peers, according to research published in the April 2016 issue of the journal Anxiety and Depression.

“Young people tend to be at a stage in their lives where the perceived approval of peers is all-important, so the quest for a perfect image online may become all-consuming,” Kamenetz says. They might turn to social media as a way to explore self-expression and their emerging identity, only to find that they’ve begun to rely solely on feedback from others as their measure of self-worth, she says.

“Social media may increase stress if individuals receive undesirable feedback,” Ohannessian says, “such as receiving negative comments from a post or not receiving many ‘likes’ on a post. Or people who are active on social media may feel pressure to maintain their social network updates.” The sheer volume of information coming your way via social media sites may also stress out some people, she says.

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Ohannessian’s research, published in January 2017 in the Journal of Affective Disorders, has found that the more time young people spend using social media, the more anxiety symptoms they report experiencing and the more likely they are to experience an anxiety disorder.

“Social media may increase stress if individuals receive undesirable feedback,” Ohannessian says, “such as receiving negative comments from a post or not receiving many ‘likes’ on a post. Or people who are active on social media may feel pressure to maintain their social network updates.” The sheer volume of information coming your way via social media sites may also stress out some people, she says.

RELATED: Are the Stresses of Social Media Too Much for Teens and Young Adults?

Tips for Healthy Social Media Use

The fix isn’t just a matter of cutting back on the time we spend online, Dr. Weinstein says. Instead, we should be focus on how using social media makes us feel, and how it impacts our lives and our relationships. 

This means taking stock of our habits to help cultivate more mindful and intentional usage of social media, Weinstein says. “The pandemic forced a change in our screen habits, but we can now be intentional about rebooting as we move forward.”

Here are five steps to help you do so:

1. Track your use. The first step is diagnosing the problem, Ohannessian says. That means you need to know how much time you’re spending on social media. She suggests using an app to track your social media use for down-to-the-second results (and potentially one that can set time limits for you).

2. Be selective about who and what you follow. “Follow accounts that inspire, engage, and connect us to ideas and people we care about,” she suggests. Stop following accounts that make you feel insecure or upset.

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3. Browse with more awareness. Some people perceptively look at social media feeds conscious of the fact that people are selectively sharing what they choose to share, says Weinstein, whose Harvard research investigates social media's effects on the social, emotional, and civic lives of adolescents and young adults. Remember that social media feeds are the “highlight reels of others’ lives,” she explains. Don’t “browse with the sense that every image serves as evidence that others are happier and living better lives,” she adds. “If you notice that a certain account is routinely triggering feelings of insecurity, consider muting or unfollowing so that your feed gets closer to being filled with content that supports your mental health.”

4. Make time to disconnect. “Just like many things in life, moderation is key,” says Ohannessian. Pick a time in your day to actively not check social media. Keep your phone and other devices in another room to avoid the temptation to pick them up.

5. Use social media with intention. Using social media in a healthy way means using it in a way that supports the other parts of your life, such as family time, work, exercise, and other interests, says Kamenetz. That means expressing yourself authentically, thinking about what you want to say and who you want to say it to, and responding to others thoughtfully, she says. This has become even more important during the pandemic, Kamenetz adds. “Screens were a lifeline for socializing,” she says. “But they can also become a crutch.” Planning time in your day for unplugged activities with others can help you get some benefits from social media socializing while minimizing the downsides.

Additional reporting by Lisa Rapaport.