Scrolling Through Sadness? How Social Media Might Be Affecting Your Mood

 

College is a whirlwind of new experiences, but with all the excitement can come feelings of isolation and loneliness. Social media is a perfect solution, a way to connect and stay informed. But what is all that scrolling is making you feel worse? Recent studies suggest a link between heavy mobile social media use and depression, especially among young adults. This is concerning, considering how much time we spend glued to our phones (Yan et al., 2024).

Today's blog post discusses a new study that explores this connection. Yan and colleagues (2024) examined how college students use mobile social media intensively and how this relates to their depressive moods. They also looked at two factors that might explain this link: upward social comparison, constantly comparing yourself to others who seem to have it all, and cognitive overload(feeling overwhelmed by the constant stream of information and interactions).

The Study Breakdown:

1. Over 600 college students from various universities participated, with a good mix of freshmen, sophomores, and even master's students. There were roughly equal numbers of men and women and students from urban and rural areas.
2. Researchers used questionnaires to measure how much time students spent on social media, how often they compared themselves to others online, and how overwhelmed they felt by social media. They also assessed symptoms of depression.

The study found a clear connection: the more time students spent glued to their phones using social media, the more likely they were to experience depressive symptoms. But here's the exciting part: this link needed to be more direct. It seems that two other factors played a role (Yan et al., 2024):

1. Upward Social Comparison: The study suggests that constantly comparing yourself to others who seem to have it all together on social media can contribute to feelings of depression.
2. Cognitive Overload: Feeling overwhelmed by the constant barrage of information and interactions on social media can also be a downer.

The strongest effect came from a combination of these two factors, according to Yan and colleagues (2024). In other words, spending a lot of time comparing yourself to others online, which can lead to feeling overwhelmed, can ultimately contribute to depression

References

• Yan, Ne & Long, Ying & Yuan, Huiling & Zhou, Xiaofei & Xie, Bin & Wang, Ying. (2024). The Impact of Mobile Social Media Use on Depressive Mood Among College Students: A Chain Mediating Effect of Upward Social Comparison and Cognitive Overload. Psychology Research and Behavior Management. 17. 2111-2120. 10.2147/PRBM.S447372