Is Social Media Busting or Boosting Your Stress? | Everyday Health

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Getting Personal Tends to Be a Good Thing
Social media in some cases provides the social support we (as in all human beings) need, says  Christine McCauley Ohannessian, PhD , a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in Hartford.
A study published in the  July 2016 issue of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication and other research have 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.
A 2017 review article published in January in the journal Social Issues and Policy Review concluded that passive use of social media is what is actually problematic, leading to envy and negatively affecting well-being. Active use of social media, however, promotes well-being by increasing feelings of connectedness.
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Another review, published in  February 2018 in Current Directions in Psychological Science , proposes 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  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.
The survey data also found that younger adults attest to having more social interactions in total than older adults:
Among those ages 18 to 21, 76 percent reported they speak to their friends at least once a week — with 25 percent doing so at least daily. And 24 percent reported doing so less frequently than weekly.
For those 54 to 64, 62 percent say they speak to their friends at least once a week — with 12 percent reported doing so at least daily. And 38 percent said they did so less frequently than weekly.
It’s an interesting finding as some evidence suggests that among young adults and adolescents, social media may play a role in promoting connectedness, Ohannessian says. For example, a  2016 study conducted in the Netherlands and published 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.
The point should be made, however, that there’s no way to know from the Everyday Health survey data whether or not that higher frequency of contact necessarily means higher quality of contact. Other experts have told Everyday Health that young adults in particular tend to be very busy (and often alongside their peers), but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are building quality relationships in the process (and may actually be incredibly lonely  simultaneously).
And some 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 earlier this year 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).
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Social Media Benefits Diminish With User Time
With the evidence that social media has the potential for good comes evidence that it can do harm, too. The benefits seem to disappear when social media use 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 .
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“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.
The Everyday Health survey data does, indeed, suggest that younger individuals may struggle more with self-worth and identity than older individuals. Witness how different generations reported self-worth and purpose to be a regular source of stress:
39 percent of those ages 18 to 21
32 percent of those ages 22 to 31
26 percent of those ages 38 to 53
16 percent of those ages 54 to 64
“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 . Other data shows social media use is linked to more alcohol consumption, alcohol abuse, and drug use, according to a study published in January 2017 in the journal Emerging Adulthood .
Tips for Healthy Social Media Use
How can you keep your social media habits on the beneficial, stress-busting (rather than stress-inducing) side of the equation? Here’s what the experts suggest for staying connected in a smarter way:
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.
RELATED: Stressed by the News? Strategies to Help You Cope
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. This last approach, Weinstein says, tends to lead to less productive thoughts and evaluations of ourselves.
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.
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