Key points
- Social media use is beneficial for providing connection, support, and information
- Excessive social media use can increase stress, depression, and anxiety
- Total abstinence from social media might worsen stress and feelings of loneliness
- Limiting social media exposure improves stress, depression, and anxiety
- Mindfulness activities can help to mitigate both social media use and social media-driven stress
Social media use is ubiquitous in society and offers a host of benefits ranging from greater connection, targeted news, support, and a platform for businesses to engage more directly with a larger audience. However, overuse of social media is also associated with a host of health problems [see the previous article here] and problematic behaviours.
The average person now spends around 6 hours per day accessing digital media
The average person now spends around 6 hours per day accessing digital media (according to a Kleiner Perkins report of 2018), with over 3 hours of that spent accessing digital media by phone. According to a 2017 survey by Deloitte, the average person also checks their phone more than 40 times per day, with younger people (under 24 years of age) checking their phones around double that.[1] Our obsessive drive to access information, entertainment, and distraction via social and streaming media, has a host of unwanted consequences ranging from increased rates of depression and anxiety, through to reduced sleep quality and duration with resultant effects on overall health and performance.
Of particular interest are the effects of social media on stress. Stress has a bidirectional relationship with sleep, the gut, nutrition, and in fact, all other lifestyle areas.
Social media and stress
The use of social media springs from a desire for connection, information, support, and as a means of distraction, and the evidence suggests that moderate use results in positive outcomes due to the importance of these (but social media overload to alleviate boredom might increase the propensity to become bored!1). Social media can also be a useful conduit for information and demonstrations of exercises and activities (like yoga) that can help to combat stress (and depression).2
Social media can also be a useful conduit for information
However, excessive usage results in problematic behaviours that lead to longer-term effects on health. It can lead to psychological effects due to the ‘fear of missing out’ and through bullying, trolling, and distorted views of others and self and social competition. Increasing levels of ‘technostress’ can reduce cognitive ability, affect multitasking abilities, and produce cognitive overload and addictive social media behaviours impact on efficiency, productivity, and task performance.3
Increasing levels of ‘technostress’ can reduce cognitive ability
Addictive and compulsive tendencies towards social media have the strongest effect on stress4 and excessive social media use can result in increased perceived stress (and depression and anxiety5, 6) and this effect is stronger in women,4 and is increased by time spent on social media and the number of platforms engaged with.7 These effects might even be strongest in those who initially benefit from (moderate) social media use, especially those seeking support, as this need and benefit evokes habitual social media use.8
However, in a recent trial, abstinence from social media resulted in a decline in life satisfaction, and an increase in loneliness.9 This confirms that there is likely to be an amount of social media use that is beneficial and healthy and that excessive use is unhealthy.
In a recent trial, abstinence from social media resulted in a decline in life satisfaction, and an increase in loneliness
Social media use and acute stress
In an interesting study, 92 Facebook users were randomised to either quiet reading or using Facebook immediately after an acute stressor (Trier social stress test). While Facebook users in this study reported that they thought Facebook helped them to feel less stressed, cortisol levels were sustained at greater levels in the Facebook group compared to the readers.10 Conversely, using Facebook before an acute stressor may buffer the effects of stress.10 However, in a study on club sport athletes at university, salivary cortisol levels were increased in anticipation of an event but in females but there was a significant decrease in cortisol concentration in the female athletes who engaged in a normal pre-game routine compared to those who used Facebook before the game.11
Social media and work-related stress
Results from studies on social media use and stress are mixed. There appears to be little absolute association between social media use overall and work-related stress. Social media use might slightly reduce work-related stress.12 However, increasing social media exposure is associated with increased work-stress.13
Increasing social media exposure is associated with increased work-stress
Social media and social responses
Political activism on social media is significantly associated with perceived stress.14
The effect of social media on sleep and stress
Sleep quality and duration is critical to overall health [see articles here]. In particular, stress and sleep go hand-in-hand. If you are overly stressed, your sleep will suffer, conversely, if you are sleeping poorly, your stress responses and modulation will be worsened, and you are likely to over-express stress hormones.
Social media use is linked to poorer sleep (and to depression and anxiety) in young adults,15 and adolescents, and this is strongest in those who used social media more and those more emotionally invested in the social media platform. Even after controlling for depression, anxiety, and self-esteem, night-time social media use predicted poorer sleep quality.16 Night-time social media use is associated with later bedtimes, increased pre-sleep arousal and alertness, and difficulty getting to sleep. This results in behavioural changes, delaying the habituated sleep-time and also arousal which reduces sleep length and quality, caused at least in part by the ‘fear of missing out’.17
How to limit the effects of social media on stress
While abstinence from social media has not been demonstrated to reduce stress and is more likely to increase it, moderation techniques can help to reduce social media-induced stress.
In research conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, undergraduate students were limited to using three social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat) for a maximum of 10 minutes, per platform, per day. This ‘limited use’ group experienced significant reductions in loneliness and depression over three weeks compared to an unlimited use group. Interestingly both groups also exhibited significant reductions in anxiety and ‘fear of missing out’, which suggests a benefit from awareness and self-monitoring of social media use.18
Limiting social media use results in significant reductions in loneliness and depression
Self-esteem affects both social anxiety and stress, and this is purported to influence smartphone and social media use. In a study of the effect of mindfulness on these variables, it was found that mindfulness reduced smartphone use through a sequence of improved self-esteem resulting in reduced social anxiety and lessened phone use. This relationship is theorised to be cyclical with reductions in phone use being associated with improved self-esteem.19
Tactics to reduce social media-induced stress
- Limit the social media platforms you regularly engage in, to 3 or fewer
- Limit total time on your phone to less than 3 hours per day
- Consider blocking apps on your phone and instead access social media platforms in particular ‘blocks’ of time, on your computer, one or two times per day
- Limit total social media use per day to less than one hour (or even less than 30 min)
- Consider using a newsfeed blocker for Facebook and only check notifications
- Practice mindfulness every day [check out The Credo for more info on life-efficiency and mindfulness]
References
1. Whelan E, Islam AN, Brooks S. Is boredom proneness related to social media overload and fatigue? A stress–strain–outcome approach. Internet Research. 2020.
2. Revathy V, Aram I, Sharmila V. Social media as a means to overcome stress and depression among women. Journal of Media and Communication Studies. 2018;10(6):46-64.
3. Constantinides E, Dinkelbach H, de Vries SA, editors. Influence of social Media use on individuals’ stress and efficiency. European Marketing Academy Conference, EMAC 2017: Leaving Footprints; 2017.
4. Rödlund A. Social media and stress: A quantitative study of social media habits and stress in an adult population. 2020.
5. Carmichael H, Peko G, Tilvawala K, Chan J, Sundaram D, editors. Ameliorating Depression Anxiety and Stress Caused by Social Media Among Young Women: Procedural and Technological Responses2019; Cham: Springer International Publishing.
6. Malaeb D, Salameh P, Barbar S, Awad E, Haddad C, Hallit R, et al. Problematic social media use and mental health (depression, anxiety, and insomnia) among Lebanese adults: Any mediating effect of stress? Perspectives in Psychiatric Care.n/a(n/a).
7. Hughes S. Effects of social media on depression anxiety and stress. 2018.
8. Denq B, Denq W, Hsu W. Stress and Its Impact on Social Media Usage. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication. 2019;49(2):232-45.
9. Vally Z, D’Souza CG. Abstinence from social media use, subjective well-being, stress, and loneliness. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care. 2019;55(4):752-9.
10. Rus HM. Social Media Use and Stress: UC Merced; 2017.
11. Johnshoy Q. Stress and Social Media: Can Using Facebook Impact the Anticipatory Stress Response in Athletes? 2019.
12. Goodman CA. Stress and Social Media: Implications for Nurses’ Quality of Life. 2017.
13. KAP K, De Alwis A C. Social media engagement and occupational stress. International Journal Vallis Aurea. 2019;5(1):5-15.
14. Hisam A, Safoor I, Khurshid N, Aslam A, Zaid F, Muzaffar A. Is Political Activism on Social Media an initiator of Psychological Stress? Pak J Med Sci. 2017;33(6):1463-7.
15. Levenson JC, Shensa A, Sidani JE, Colditz JB, Primack BA. The association between social media use and sleep disturbance among young adults. Preventive Medicine. 2016;85:36-41.
16. Woods HC, Scott H. #Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Journal of Adolescence. 2016;51:41-9.
17. Scott H, Woods HC. Fear of missing out and sleep: Cognitive behavioural factors in adolescents’ nighttime social media use. Journal of Adolescence. 2018;68:61-5.
18. Hunt MG, Marx R, Lipson C, Young J. No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. 2018;37(10):751-68.
19. Mindfulness, Compulsive Mobile Social Media Use, and Derived Stress: The Mediating Roles of Self-Esteem and Social Anxiety. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 2019;22(6):388-96.
[1] https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/global-mobile-consumer-survey-us-edition.html
