positive and negative effects of social media research paper

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Pros & cons: impacts of social media on mental health

• Ágnes Zsila 1 , 2 &
• Marc Eric S. Reyes   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5280-1315 3  

BMC Psychology volume  11 , Article number:  201 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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The use of social media significantly impacts mental health. It can enhance connection, increase self-esteem, and improve a sense of belonging. But it can also lead to tremendous stress, pressure to compare oneself to others, and increased sadness and isolation. Mindful use is essential to social media consumption.

Social media has become integral to our daily routines: we interact with family members and friends, accept invitations to public events, and join online communities to meet people who share similar preferences using these platforms. Social media has opened a new avenue for social experiences since the early 2000s, extending the possibilities for communication. According to recent research [ 1 ], people spend 2.3 h daily on social media. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat have become increasingly popular among youth in 2022, and one-third think they spend too much time on these platforms [ 2 ]. The considerable time people spend on social media worldwide has directed researchers’ attention toward the potential benefits and risks. Research shows excessive use is mainly associated with lower psychological well-being [ 3 ]. However, findings also suggest that the quality rather than the quantity of social media use can determine whether the experience will enhance or deteriorate the user’s mental health [ 4 ]. In this collection, we will explore the impact of social media use on mental health by providing comprehensive research perspectives on positive and negative effects.

Social media can provide opportunities to enhance the mental health of users by facilitating social connections and peer support [ 5 ]. Indeed, online communities can provide a space for discussions regarding health conditions, adverse life events, or everyday challenges, which may decrease the sense of stigmatization and increase belongingness and perceived emotional support. Mutual friendships, rewarding social interactions, and humor on social media also reduced stress during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 4 ].

On the other hand, several studies have pointed out the potentially detrimental effects of social media use on mental health. Concerns have been raised that social media may lead to body image dissatisfaction [ 6 ], increase the risk of addiction and cyberbullying involvement [ 5 ], contribute to phubbing behaviors [ 7 ], and negatively affects mood [ 8 ]. Excessive use has increased loneliness, fear of missing out, and decreased subjective well-being and life satisfaction [ 8 ]. Users at risk of social media addiction often report depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem [ 9 ].

Overall, findings regarding the impact of social media on mental health pointed out some essential resources for psychological well-being through rewarding online social interactions. However, there is a need to raise awareness about the possible risks associated with excessive use, which can negatively affect mental health and everyday functioning [ 9 ]. There is neither a negative nor positive consensus regarding the effects of social media on people. However, by teaching people social media literacy, we can maximize their chances of having balanced, safe, and meaningful experiences on these platforms [ 10 ].

We encourage researchers to submit their research articles and contribute to a more differentiated overview of the impact of social media on mental health. BMC Psychology welcomes submissions to its new collection, which promises to present the latest findings in the emerging field of social media research. We seek research papers using qualitative and quantitative methods, focusing on social media users’ positive and negative aspects. We believe this collection will provide a more comprehensive picture of social media’s positive and negative effects on users’ mental health.

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Acknowledgements

Ágnes Zsila was supported by the ÚNKP-22-4 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Culture and Innovation from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.

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Ágnes Zsila

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Department of Psychology, College of Science, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, 1008, Philippines

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AZ conceived and drafted the Editorial. MESR wrote the abstract and revised the Editorial. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Zsila, Á., Reyes, M.E.S. Pros & cons: impacts of social media on mental health. BMC Psychol 11 , 201 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01243-x

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The relationships between social media use and factors relating to depression

Jacqui taylor-jackson, ahmed a moustafa.

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Social media is profoundly changing the way many people interact, and there are growing concerns that social media use is negatively affecting individual’s mental health. This chapter will review research which has correlated social media use to measures relating to depression, self-esteem, anxiety, and loneliness. Additionally, we review the reported benefits of using social media relating to mental health, such as enhanced self-expression, online support, and enhanced socializing capabilities. We then evaluate theories and models that have been proposed to explain the relationships between social media use and depression. In the final section, we highlight some methodological limitations with prior research and suggest future directions.

Keywords: Social media, depression, Mental health, Self-esteem, Anxiety, Loneliness

Social media usage is increasing year on year, from 48% to 66% between 2012 to 2017 in the United Kingdom, and in Australia the number of active social media users increased from 58% of the population in 2015 to 69% in 2018 ( Statista, 2019 ). Social media use is set to increase and it is likely that technological features, such as the infinite scroll implemented on Facebook, are adding to their ‘addictive nature.’ Time spent on social media differs between countries, which is likely to be driven by age demographics. For example, during a typical day in Japan, people, on average, spend less than an hour on social media (but Japan has one of the oldest average age in the world); while individuals in the United Kingdom and the United States spent closer to 2 h/day engaging with social media. Individuals in developing countries (with younger average ages) spend more time on social media: just over 4 h/day in the Philippines, and over 3 h/day in Nigeria, Mexico, and Turkey ( Statista, 2019 ).

According to Statista (2019) , in the US Snapchat is the most popular social media platform for all age groups between 12 to 24 years (46 million users), followed by Instagram (20 million users) and Facebook (2.6 million users). It is important to define the different types of social media platform and their specific features (e.g., whether they are based on text, static image, or video and whether messages are temporary or permanent, etc.). These features make different platforms more or less suitable for different types of interactions and affect the amount and way social media is used, and consequently their potential impact on mental health. Facebook allows users to connect with networks of people (up to 5000) and is often linked to existing offline networks (e.g., contacts, friends, family known face-to-face, and events and locations visited). While Instagram is similar to Facebook, the difference is that with Instagram users can only publish content with a picture or short video and a caption. Snapchat is like Instagram, in that it is designed mainly for posting images and talking via them. However, importantly the images disappear after seeing them and this temporary nature can affect the way it is used. For example, we suggest that due to the temporary nature of these single snaps and the fact that they take up the whole screen, they demand attention; consequently the fear of missing out is high, so the need to be always ready to open and interact with a snap makes Snapchat highly engaging. Further research is needed to confirm these suggestions. Twitter allows users to write and engage with many others (i.e., as many individuals who ‘follow’ them) and often the networks are very large, resembling an audience, and consist of contacts not known in the offline world. Twitter is fast-paced, less elaborate and quicker to send messages compared to Instagram, making it very effective for individuals to post instantly what they are thinking.

Prior to the widespread use of social media, social and emotional development occurred through face-to-face interactions, and it is unclear how the reliance on social media is affecting the socioemotional development of children and adolescents, for example, in terms of their ability to cope with adverse and ‘normal’ life events. Adolescent emotional development involves learning how to accurately perceive, express and regulate emotions, to promote emotional growth ( Salovey & Sluyter, 1997 ), which helps to achieve social competence and maintain positive relationships with others ( Rubin & Rose-Krasnor, 1992 ). According to the National Institute of Mental Health ( NIMH, 2017 ) in the United States, the prevalence of mental illness is increasing across all age groups, and in the past year 19% of the population were reported to experience ‘any anxiety disorder’; this increased to 26% of those between 18 to 29 years old reporting these experiences. NIMH estimates that in 2017, 17.3 million adults in the United States (7.1% of the population) had experienced at least one major depressive episode, and the prevalence was highest for those aged 18–25 (13.1%). It is these increases in mental health issues coming at the same time as increases in the use of social media that has led to growing concerns (e.g., the Royal Society for Public Health, 2017 ) relating using social media use to negative impacts on mental health.

Review of research relating social media use and mental health

The use of social media can be viewed as both a protective and a risk factor for mental health. For example, the support gained from social media may ameliorate feelings of loneliness or lack of offline social interaction, and help prevent the onset of mental health issues. While in other cases using social media can be responsible for the onset of or exacerbating existing mental health issues. However, it is still unclear whether these factors are causally related and in this section, we review research reporting potential negative and positive impacts of using social media on mental health.

Social media use and negative impacts on mental health

Many studies have used self-report responses to surveys. Woods and Scott (2016) used the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to assess anxiety and depression levels and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale ( Rosenberg, 1965 ) to assess trait self-esteem. A modified version of the Social Integration and Emotional Connection subscale of the Social Media Use Integration Scale ( Jenkins-Guarnieri, Wright, & Johnson, 2013 ), was used to assess emotional investment in social media. The sample consisted of 467 pupils at a secondary school in the United Kingdom, aged between 11 to 17 years. They found significant positive correlations between higher anxiety levels and greater social media use, and emotional investment in social media. Similarly, higher depression levels were also associated with increased social media use, and emotional investment in social media. The relationship between self-esteem and social media use was found to be negative, whereby lower self-esteem scores were associated with higher levels of social media use, and emotional investment in social media.

The Royal Society for Public Health ( RSPH, 2017 ) and the Young Health Movement sent an online survey to a sample of young people across the United Kingdom aged between 14 to 24 years and was completed by 1479 individuals. The findings showed that social media use was linked to increased incidence of depression, anxiety and poor sleep. Participant ratings overall scored Instagram as the worst social platform in terms of well-being issues (reduced satisfaction with body image and a higher need to stay connected), followed by Snapchat and Facebook. This could be due to the reliance of Instagram on images, and that unlike Snapchat they remain permanently, and thus allow for later reflection or comparison.

In contrast to the many surveys conducted, Fardouly, Diedrichs, Vartanian, and Halliwell (2015) conducted a small experimental study to assess the immediate effects of using Facebook on self-perceptions. Fardouly et al. randomly assigned 112 female participants aged between 17 to 25 years to one of three conditions: spending 10 min browsing their Facebook account, a magazine website, or an appearance-neutral control website (on home craft). Participants then completed state measures of mood, body dissatisfaction, appearance discrepancies (weight-related, and face, hair, and skin-related), and a trait measure of appearance comparison tendency. Females who spent their browsing time on Facebook gave more negative mood scores, compared to those who browsed the control website. Further, females high in appearance comparison tendency reported more facial, hair, and skin-related discrepancies after exposure to Facebook than to the control website.

A number of researchers have specifically focused on depression. For example, an early study by Steers, Wickham, and Acitelli (2014) found a correlation between the number of depressive symptoms experienced and increased amount of time using Facebook. Shensa, Sidani, Dew, Escobar-Viera, and Primack (2018) attempted to identify which patterns of social media use were associated with depression and anxiety symptoms, using an online survey of a nationally representative sample of 1730 US adults aged between 19 to 32 years. Depression and anxiety were measured using the Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) scale. Cluster analysis characterized participants into five types of social media user: wired, connected, diffuse dabblers, concentrated dabblers, and unplugged. Multivariable logistic regression models then assessed associations between cluster membership and depression and anxiety. They found that membership in two clusters (wired and connected) were associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. Interestingly, although not significant there were more females in the wired (57%) and connected (60%) clusters, and less females in the unplugged cluster (40%). Furthermore, those in the unplugged cluster were older (mean 26.4 years) and those in the connected cluster were younger (mean 23.8 years), compared with those in the other three clusters (mean 25 years). Although age and gender differences were not significant, these patterns may be worthy of future study.

Aalbers, McNally, Heeren, de Wit, and Fried (2019) collected measures relating to depression symptoms and social media use from 125 students, at seven times per day for 14 days. Using regression and time-series models, they found that spending more time on social media was associated with higher levels of loss of interest in offline activities, concentration problems, fatigue, and loneliness. Fatigue and loneliness predicted social media use across time, but social media use predicted neither depression symptoms or stress. Mean social media use was positively correlated with a depressed mood and feeling inferior, but these associations disappeared when controlling for all other variables. These correlations with loneliness are important, but it would be useful to know if individuals were lonely before using social media, or whether using social media led to loneliness. In a national UK survey called the ‘Loneliness Experiment’ ( BBC, 2018 ), individuals who reported feeling lonely were found to have more ‘online only’ Facebook friends.

Dogan (2019) reports that experiencing fear of missing out (FoMO) is becoming increasingly widespread among social media users and to avoid this ‘fear,’ users experience a strong desire, and exhibit behavior, to stay connected online. Fear of missing out (FoMO) is defined as an apprehension of being disconnected, absent or missing an experience which peers, friends or family might participate in or enjoy ( Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan, & Gladwell, 2013 ). Recent studies have linked FoMO with a variety of negative psychological and physiological conditions, including depression and other emotional problems ( Przybylski et al., 2013 ). Dhir, Yossatorn, Kaur, and Chen (2018) explored the relationships between psychosocial wellbeing (measured by levels of anxiety and depression) and factors relating to social media (using previously validated measures of compulsive media use, fear of missing out, and trigger fatigue). 2698 Adolescent social media users in India completed the survey and the results suggested that compulsive media use significantly triggered social media fatigue, which later result in elevated anxiety and depression. Fear of missing out indirectly predicted social media fatigue, through mediation of compulsive social media use.

Social media use and positive impacts on mental health

Despite the findings presented in “ Social media use and negative impacts on mental health ” section, other researchers ( Berryman, Ferguson, & Negy, 2018 ) have found no evidence for negative impacts, or they have found positive impacts of social media use on mental health (e.g., RSPH, 2017 found that higher use of social media was associated with positive effects on self-expression). Social media and other online resources can offer positive opportunities to engage and provide support for individuals with mental health issues. Allen, Ryan, Gray, McInerney, and Waters (2014) highlight that a key positive feature of social media is to enhance ‘social connectedness’ and this has become even more important now during times when individuals are unable to meet in person due to COVID-19 restrictions ( Taylor-Jackson et al., 2020 ). Rideout and Fox (2018) conducted a nationally representative survey of 1337 young people aged between 14 to 22 years. In addition to measures of online and social media behaviors, the survey also included the Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-8). They found that those individuals experiencing moderate to severe symptoms of depression were searching the internet for help, including researching mental health issues online (90%), accessing other people’s health stories through blogs, podcasts, and videos (75%), using mobile apps related to well-being (38%), and connecting with health providers through digital tools such as texting and video chat (32%).

Social media enables users to easily influence other individual’s perceptions, by manipulating online content about themself. Walther, Van Der Heide, Ramirez, Burgoon, and Peña (2015) associated this ability to add information about oneself with enhanced feelings of control and satisfaction with life. Further, by using multiple social media platforms, individuals can present themselves differently in each one, and in this way, they are able to experiment with different identities ( Toma & Hancock, 2012 ). From a developmental perspective, using social media can benefit the development of an individual’s identity and has been linked to positive impacts on psychosocial well-being. This can happen through various ways. For example, Facebook was found to increase self-awareness and self-esteem after viewing one’s own personal profile ( Gonzales & Hancock, 2010 ), and individuals with low self-esteem perceived improved feelings of self-worth through receiving ‘likes’ ( Attrill, 2015 ). Bland, Melton, Welle, and Bigham (2012) suggested that people may use social media as a way to alleviate stress, however, it is unclear whether using social media exacerbates stress for those individuals already suffering with anxiety. Other studies have shown that social media use can help create an online community that can support in the treatments of several disorders, such as drug abuse ( Bliuc, Best, & Moustafa, 2020 ) or depression ( Griffiths et al., 2012 ).

Explanatory theories and models

There have been two types of explanation to account for the relationship between social media use and the impacts on mental health, both relating to the asynchronous and ubiquitous features of social media. These features allow users the time to reflect on communications, images, profiles and to reflect upon their own sense of identity, or compare them self to others.

Identity development and impression management

Social media allows users to explore, manipulate and maintain their online identity and this can allow individuals to easily adjust their sense of self-worth. Because individuals can exhibit and withhold information to influence perceptions and manage impressions held by others this enables users to portray an ideal version of themselves that may be unachievable in real life. A number of researchers have expressed caution regarding potential mental health implications, with concerns of people placing less value on their ‘real world’ identity, resulting in individuals being more vulnerable to symptoms related to depression. In support of this view, Aiken (2016) also proposes that the action of portraying one’s ‘aspirational self’ online could have negative consequences on later self-perception and mental wellbeing.

Social Identity Theory describes self-concept as developing from perceived group membership ( Turner & Oakes, 1986 ), which, due to the opportunity to build larger numbers of online networks, could lead to individuals experiencing conflict, as a result of needing to maintain impressions across different groups. The Hyperpersonal Model of Communication ( Walther et al., 2015 ) suggests that the different features of online communication, compared to traditional interaction, lead to interpersonal communication becoming extremely personal. Similarly, Suler’s (2004) Theory of Online Disinhibition proposes that when interactions take place online there is more self-disclosure, more detachment from real life, and trust develops more easily. An outcome of these impacts is that online communication can affect individuals more deeply and personally, and as a result negative self-perception can quickly develop.

Social comparison theory

Festinger’s (1954) social comparison theory proposes that individuals define their abilities and evaluate their sense of self-worth through comparison with others. Downward comparison involves comparing oneself to people perceived to be less fortunate, which may be used as a method of self-enhancement. The alternative, upward social comparison, occurs when comparing oneself with others who have positive characteristics that one may view as superior to their own ( Taylor & Lobel, 1989 ). When using social media, accessing information about other individuals (such as what they have been doing and where they have been) is more readily available, compared to offline interactions, therefore social comparison can occur more easily and more often ( Verduyn, Ybarra, Résibois, Jonides, & Kross, 2017 ). Also, many social media sites provide functions that allow individuals to easily connect with and become informed about others who post information that is similar to them; so it can be difficult to avoid comparing oneself with others on a similar topic.

Upward social comparison on social media has been related to a decline in levels of self-esteem. Vogel, Rose, Roberts, and Eckles (2014) suggest social media provide a platform for many comparison opportunities. In a series of studies, they found that participants who used Facebook more had lower self-esteem, compared with less frequent users. This was mediated by an increased exposure to profiles with positive content (such as those with active and healthy lifestyles), which offered upward social comparisons, and levels of self-assessments declined when exposed to these profiles. Similarly, Feinstein et al. (2013) related increasing use of Facebook with an increase in the number of depressive symptoms, and that the mediating factor was the number of negative comparisons when using Facebook. They also found that individuals who made more frequent social comparisons on social media reported a greater number of depressive symptoms. However, the causal relationship between negative comparisons on social media and an increase in the number of symptoms of depression cannot be assumed, as there is no consideration in this study of existing levels of self-esteem or depression (and individuals who are depressed may be more likely to engage in negative social comparisons). Idealized images on social media are likely to affect body satisfaction in a negative way through the process of social comparison and Brown and Tiggemann (2016) found that participants indicated increased body dissatisfaction following exposure to both celebrity and peer images, in comparison to control images. However, their findings were based on a female-only sample, and more research is required including all genders.

Methodological limitations and suggestions for further research

The majority of studies reviewed in this chapter use self-report methods, and consistent with the negativity bias ( Rozin & Royzman, 2001 ), negative experiences with social media are likely to be stored in memory or recalled more readily than positive experiences. Further, negative behavior or perceptions experienced while using social media escalate quickly and are viewed by more people, and, as a consequence, may influence perceptions more strongly ( Primack et al., 2018 ), compared to equivalent offline perceptions. The majority of studies reviewed in this chapter use a correlational design and caution is needed in assuming causal relationships.

There is a lack of research based on samples drawn from populations that are not Caucasian (White), Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD). Although in a study by Lin et al. (2016) , where increased social media use was significantly associated with increased depression, although this was based on an American sample, participants were sampled from a variety of ethnicities, providing some evidence of cross-cultural similarities. Many of the research findings are based on samples containing a majority of females, and in some studies only females took part ( Fardouly et al., 2015 ). Female adolescents tend to use social networking sites more than males ( Statista, 2018 ), have lower self-esteem ( Bachman, O'Malley, Freedman-Doan, Trzesniewski, & Donnellan, 2011 ), and experience higher levels of anxiety and depression ( Faravelli, Scarpato, Castellini, & Lo Sauro, 2013 ). These factors may have skewed the individual differences. Escobar-Viera et al. (2018) suggest that future research needs to also focus on collecting data regarding sexual orientation (heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) to enable further comparisons of findings. Escobar-Viera et al. (2018) state that so far, sexual minority participants have been identified inconsistently in research. They suggest that because these groups may be more socially active on social media and that rates of depression among LGBT are up to two times higher than heterosexual individuals, there may be a stronger relationship between social media use and depression, compared with heterosexuals. In many studies, age is not individually collected (often just the range of ages is stated), and this may also be a confounding factor in that relationships may not be shown or are weaker. For example, older adolescents tend to use computers more and experience higher levels of anxiety and depression than younger adolescents ( Kozina, 2014 ).

Personality needs to be considered as it may be a potential mediating factor influencing the likelihood of developing mental health issues as a result of increasing social media use. Attrill (2015) proposed that certain individuals are more susceptible to the negative or positive effects of social media; however, there has been little research to investigate personality. Paramboukis, Skues, and Wise (2016) explored the relationship between levels of narcissism and self-esteem with Instagram activity; however, only a weak correlation was found associating higher narcissism and lower self-esteem with more Instagram use. Similarly, anxious individuals are likely to be affected by increasing social media use differently than non-anxious individuals. It is important when conducting research to ensure that state and trait measures of mental health are clearly stated, as these are often not collected.

It is possible that whether positive or negative impacts on mental health are experienced depend on the type of social media platform used, as much as level of use. Indeed, Brailovskaia and Margraf (2018) provided some evidence that this may be the case. They investigated the relationship between mental health and social media use and found that relationships were mediated by the type of social media platform used. The use of platforms that are based on written interaction (e.g., Twitter and Tumblr) were negatively associated with positive mental health variables and positively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. While the use of social media platforms that focus on sharing photos (i.e., Instagram), led to positive correlations between social media use and positive mental health variables. These findings were in contrast the their hypotheses and previous research, showing Instagram to be associated with negative mental health. Social media as a class of communication varies widely and further research is needed to compare platforms and specifically identify the specific features of social media that exist when the research is conducted. For example, Facebook recently removed the feature where numbers of likes to a post could be seen by everyone, and this would influence the level of social comparison possible (i.e., which people or posts are liked the most or least). Much of the previous research is limited to exploring the effects of older platforms such as Facebook and there is less research exploring the impacts of Snapchat and Instagram. Moreover, different measures of social media activity are used (e.g., time spent online, frequency of pre-editing photos, visits per day, frequency of checking feedback, number of posts per month, and number of selfies posted per month). Relating to the findings reviewed earlier regarding loneliness, further research needs to examine changes to offline interpersonal interactions: increasing use of social media will naturally leave less time to engage in offline interpersonal interactions, e.g., Subramanian (2017) found a decline in family communication and the size of offline social networks; both important factors in developing and maintaining positive mental health.

In summary, understanding the psychological consequences of using social media is in the early stages of investigation. Evaluating and comparing the research results so far is difficult, due to the rapidly changing technologies, new platforms and new features leading to new ways of using social media. There is a complex relationship between the use of social media and symptoms linked to factors related to mental health and depression, and further research is needed before causal relationships can be confirmed. In summary, we would express caution regarding extravagant negative media headlines, such as the RSPH (2017) report claiming that social media is stimulating a global mental health crisis.

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CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS article

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.

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Keywords : affective variables, education, emotions, social media, post-pandemic, emotional needs

Citation: Chen M and Xiao X (2022) The effect of social media on the development of students’ affective variables. Front. Psychol. 13:1010766. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1010766

Received: 03 August 2022; Accepted: 25 August 2022; Published: 15 September 2022.

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Copyright © 2022 Chen and Xiao. 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: Miao Chen, [email protected] ; Xin Xiao, [email protected]

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.