There is great debate among researchers as to whether social media use is beneficial or detrimental to our health and well-being, and finding this answer is particularly important in our current time as use of social media continues to be on the rise. Additionally, Bekalu et al. feel that previous research on this subject has been conducted too simply, as a basic “dose-effect model” has been assumed and examined. This model essentially sees the relation between social media use and related outcomes as being simply the frequency of everyday use (dose) directly leading to certain decreases or increases in well-being (effect). Bekalu et al. feel that further complexities must be considered such as how interactive one is with social media, and how socially connected one feels to the platform. 

1,027 American adults, ranging in age from 18 to over 60, were surveyed over the course of 2 months. Within social media use, the independent variable, two subscales were analyzed in particular, these being routine use of social media platforms and emotional connection to social media. Participants were also administered surveys that sought out to evaluate the dependent variables of social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health.  

After analysis, it was discovered that the two subcategories of social media use had opposite effects on the dependent variables. Routine use of social media was positively associated with all three of the measured outcomes, meaning participants who more regularly used and engaged with their social media had greater social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health. On the other hand, emotional connection to social media was negatively associated with social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health, in that those who felt more invested and greater connectedness to social media scored lower on all three dependent measures. Furthermore, it was discovered that these effects varied in their strength based on the social groups that participants belonged to (i.e., age, ethnicity, income, and education), for social well-being and self-rated health, but not positive mental health. For example, age and ethnicity moderated the relationship between routine use and social well-being. This is seen as the relationship between the variables was weaker for those above 60 years old, in comparison to those in the 18-24 age range, as well as for those identifying in the Hispanic and “other” ethnic groups, as opposed to those identifying in the White ethnic group.

It seems that the simple question of whether social media is good or bad for us is impossible to answer without saying “it depends”. These dependent factors appear to be how much social media use is integrated into one’s routine, how much emotional connection an individual feels towards their social media, and the age, ethnicity, education, and income groups a person belongs to. Therefore, it is offered by Bekalu et al. that the relationship between social media and overall well-being is much more complicated than how the literature has portrayed it in the past and that it cannot be considered a fully good thing nor a fully bad thing.

Source: Bekalu, M. A., McCloud, R. F., & Viswanath, K. (2019). Association of social media use with social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health: Disentangling routine use from emotional connection to use. Health Education & Behaviour, 46(2S), pp. 69S-80S. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198119863768