By Briar Anderson
Today, about 65% of adults use social media. Inevitably, social media use has affected different aspects of life like parenting and dating. It connects people around the globe. Many people actually to turn to social media as a stress reliever, as it can provide perceptions of social support.
In a study of 201 adults with Facebook accounts by Denq, Denq, and Hsu, participants were put under two conditions, either stress inducing or not stress inducing. They were then given a 10-minute break on their own computers and allowed to do whatever they wanted. The survey additionally asked questions pertaining to:
- How much stress they felt when certain events happened (e.g., “In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and stressed?”).
- Frequency of social media usage (e.g., “How often on average do you ‘like’ someone’s photos or status updates per week?”).
- Desirable and undesirable life events that range from common to uncommon of someone within the participant’s life. (e.g., if they knew someone who started a new job).
- Support-seeking behavior on Facebook (e.g., “I tried to get emotional support from friends or relatives on Facebook”).
- Individual’s perception of social support from family, friends, and significant others (e.g., “I get the emotional help and support I need from my family”).
- Positive and negative mood affectivity (e.g., “inspired” or “hostile”).
- Habits on Facebook (e.g., “I do without having to consciously remember”).
- Urge to use Facebook (e.g., “If it were possible, I probably would use Facebook now”).
- Feelings of sympathy and concern for others (e.g., “I would describe myself as a pretty softhearted person”).
- Active or passive usage of Facebook during the 10-minute break (e.g., “did you see only the pictures without reading the text?”).
- Importance of Facebook (e.g., “how important is your Facebook profile in regards to your happiness?”).
The results indicated that seeking social support may contribute to increased use of social media. Also, increased usage of social media is a gauge of both frequency and strength of inducing habitual behavior regardless of stress. However, the results do not reinforce that habit is a factor in predicting social media usage as a reaction to stress. It shows that a habit of using social media was a stronger indicator of social media usage than stress. This may occur because users with strong habits of using social media may use it regardless of being stressed or not.
This may not come as surprising to many who engage in social media. People naturally seek support from others during stressful times, and social media has become an easy, free, and useful place to do so. But, people’s natural inclination to use social media through both good and bad prevails. Social media is still such a new phenomenon; it will take a lot more time, learning and research to fully understand its effects when used as a stress relief or for social support, and if these harm or help.
Denq, B., Denq, W., & Hsu, W. (2019). Stress and Its Impact on Social Media Usage. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 49(2), 232–245. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047281618772076
Image by Geraint Rowland via Creative Commons