The Increased Reliance on Social Media During COVID-19 Affects Individuals’ Mental Well-being

Abstract

With the surging development of technology and the omnipresence of online platforms, investigating how social media applications influences individuals’ mental well-being has become a major research area for many researchers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, policies limited face-to-face contacts, and individuals are more prone to choose social media as an alternative to relationship maintenance and informational exchange. The purpose of this paper is to examine the negative effects that growing reliance on social media during the COVID-19 epidemic has on individuals’ mental health. An overall negative association has been supported by previous empirical evidence, suggesting an increased use of social media would impair individuals’ mental well-being, including increased depressive symptoms and anxiety, decreased level of self-esteem and so on. Moreover, social comparison as well as passive social media use are two fundamental mechanisms that underlie such negative influence. Specifically, during the epidemic, increased reliance on social media use had caused an uptick in passive social media use and social comparison, resulting in an increased feeling of frustration, anxiety, depressive symptoms, stress, and fear. While such impact is exacerbated during the epidemic. This paper provides a reference for research in related fields.