Active and Passive Social Media Use and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depressed Mood Among Icelandic Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescent use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat has increased dramatically over the last decade and now pervades their everyday social lives. Active and passive social media use may impact emotional health differently, but little is known about whether and to what extent either type of social media use influences emotional distress among young people. We analyzed population survey data collected from Icelandic adolescents (N = 10,563) to document the prevalence of social media use and investigate the relationship of both active and passive social media use to self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood. A hierarchical linear regression model revealed that passive social media use was related to greater symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood among adolescents and active social media use was related to decreased symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood, even after controlling for time spent on social media. When adding known risk and protective factors, self-esteem, offline peer support, poor body image and social comparison to the model, active use was not related to emotional distress; however, passive use was still related to adolescent symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood. The effect of social media on emotional distress differed by gender, as time spent on social media had a stronger relationship with emotional distress among girls. In addition, passive use was more strongly related to symptoms of depressed mood among girls. Future research should include risk and protective factors as mediators of different types of social media use and adolescent emotional distress.

Longitudinal association between social media use and psychological distress among adolescents

“…In conclusion, although adolescent use of social media appears to confer some benefits (Anderson and Jiang, 2018;Seabrook et al, 2016;Thorisdottir et al, 2019), it is also a relatively new and prevalent factor in the lives of adolescents that our data show is positively related to increased levels of psychological distress, although the effects were weak to small.…”

“…For example, one important distinction is whether youth use social media actively (chatting with friends and posting content) or passively (scrolling, looking at content from others). A recent cross-sectional study of Icelandic adolescents found that using social media passively was positively associated with symptoms of emotional distress, while active social media use did not relate to emotional distress (Thorisdottir et al, 2019). Until the mechanisms are better understood, a careful presentation of the narrative is needed.…”

“…There are several limitations. First, we used a single question to examine average social media use and did not include measures on different platforms or different types of social media use, such as active or passive use, which along with time spent on social media, has been shown to be significantly associated with increased psychological distress (Thorisdottir et al, 2019). Self-report measures might not accurately reflect the time that adolescents spend on social media and this area of inquiry would benefit from designing multi-report studies that include ecological momentary assessment as well as reporting from parents.…”

“…As with in-person social interactions, social media experiences can be positive, negative, neutral, or mixed. Positive aspects include connecting with friends, increased social support, and greater levels of self-expression (Anderson and Jiang, 2018;Seabrook et al, 2016;Thorisdottir et al, 2019). However, possible negative aspects of social media may include upward social comparisons, cyberbullying, fewer inperson interactions (Anderson and Jiang, 2018;Thorisdottir et al, 2019), less family time, and more conflicts with parents (Williams and Merten, 2011).…”

“…The role of gender in social media and mental health relationship has also been inconclusive (McCrae et al, 2017). Where there are gender differences, the relationship between social media and worse mental health has either been stronger for girls than boys (Frison and Eggermont, 2016;Thorisdottir et al, 2019) or only exist for girls (Devine and Lloyd, 2012). A study on the relationship between social media and life satisfaction measured within six domains (i.e., friends, family, appearance, life, school work, and school) found that gender was important; within-person models were significant for two out of six domains for boys and five out of six domains for girls .…”