Social Media Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Associations with Social and Emotional Wellbeing (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the frequency of in-person social interactions. College students were highly impacted since many universities transferred curriculum from in-person to entirely online, physically separating students with little notice. With social distancing, college students’ use of social media likely fundamentally changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, possibly holding implications for wellbeing. OBJECTIVE The present study aimed to determine how (a) components of social media use (weekly frequency, time per day, habitual use, engagement, enjoyment, addiction, mood impact) changed from before to during COVID-19; (b) these changes in social media use were associated with pandemic-related social and emotional wellbeing; and (c) social media use and changes in use during the pandemic were associated with loneliness among college students. METHODS Participants (N = 176) were surveyed during the time their university campus was operating online. Participants completed the same social media use questionnaires twice, once with regard to the month preceding the onset of COVID-19, and again with regard to the month since this time. They also reported the extent to which they experienced perceived change in social support resulting from the pandemic, pandemic-related stress, and loneliness. RESULTS We found that, after the onset of COVID-19, participants showed an increase in daily time spent on social media, t(169) = 5.53, d = 0.42, p < .001, habitual use, t(173) = 3.60, d = 0.27, p < .001, and addiction, t(173) = 4.96, d = 0.38, p < .001; further, enjoyment on social media decreased, t(173) = -2.10, d = -0.16, p = .04; and the mood impact of social media activities became more negative, t(172) = -3.76, d = -0.29, p < .001. Increased perceived social support during COVID was associated with changes in frequency of social media use, time per day, addiction, and engagement (rs > .18). Pandemic-related stress was associated with changes in social media addiction and the extent to which one’s social media content was related to the pandemic (rs > .20). Loneliness was positively associated with social media addiction (r = .26) and negatively associated with social media engagement (r = -.19) during the pandemic. Loneliness was also negatively associated with changes in habit and engagement (rs < -.15). CONCLUSIONS Findings suggest that components of social media use are associated with both positive and negative pandemic-related social outcomes, but largely negative pandemic-related emotional outcomes. Further, some components of social media use are positively associated with loneliness (e.g., addiction) while others show a negative association (e.g., engagement). These findings provide a more nuanced picture of how social media use is associated with social and emotional wellbeing during the time of a global health crisis when in-person interactions are scarce.