Facing Loneliness and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Isolation: The Role of Excessive Social Media Use in a Sample of Italian Adults

Abstract

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prompted people to face a distressing and unexpected situation. Uncertainty and social distancing changed people's behaviors, impacting on their feelings, daily habits, and social relationships, which are core elements in human well-being. In particular, restrictions due to the quarantine increased feelings of loneliness and anxiety. Within this context, the use of digital technologies has been recommended to relieve stress and anxiety and to decrease loneliness, even though the overall effects of social media consumption during pandemics still need to be carefully addressed. In this regard, social media use evidence risk and opportunities. In fact, according to a compensatory model of Internet-related activities, the online environment may be used to alleviate negative feelings caused by distressing life circumstances, despite potentially leading to negative outcomes. The present study examined whether individuals who were experiencing high levels of loneliness during the forced isolation for COVID-19 pandemic were more prone to feel anxious, and whether their sense of loneliness prompted excessive social media use. Moreover, the potentially mediating effect of excessive social media use in the relationship between perceived loneliness and anxiety was tested. A sample of 715 adults (71.5% women) aged between 18 and 72 years old took part in an online survey during the period of lockdown in Italy. The survey included self-report measures to assess perceived sense of loneliness, excessive use of social media, and anxiety. Participants reported that they spent more hours/day on social media during the pandemic than before the pandemic. We found evidence that perceived feelings of loneliness predicted both excessive social media use and anxiety, with excessive social media use also increasing anxiety levels. These findings suggest that isolation probably reinforced the individuals' sense of loneliness, strengthening the need to be part of virtual communities. However, the facilitated and prolonged access to social media during the COVID-19 pandemic risked to further increase anxiety, generating a vicious cycle that in some cases may require clinical attention.

The Effects of the Fear of Missing Out on People's Social Networking Sites Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Online Relational Closeness and Individuals' Online Communication Attitude

“…Our results only partially confirmed these hypotheses. As expected, participants declared they spent more time on SNSs during the pandemic, particularly women, thus supporting previous results showing an increase in the hours per day spent using social media during the pandemic ( 31 ). Furthermore, our findings are aligned with all the previous results concerning the association between FoMO and PSNSU [e.g., ( 41 , 46 )] as FoMO directly predicted PSNSU.…”

“…Accordingly, the positive central role of a recreational and needful use of videogames and SNSs in times of physical and social distancing, has been evidenced even though carefully addressed ( 27 , 28 ), also suggesting that an excessive use of SNSs might temporarily act as a coping strategy ( 29 , 30 ). However, some authors have recently argued that this coping mechanism might potentially lead to a longer-lasting threat (i.e., Problematic Social Networking Sites Use; PSNSU) in keeping with findings from a few recent studies ( 31 , 32 ).…”

“…Specifically, despite online communication may fulfill critical needs of social interactions, self-disclosure, and identity exploration in young people ( 77 ), this attitude has been associated with compulsive Internet use and a specific preference for online social interactions ( 56 ). Moreover, even though responding to the need of facing negative emotions and searching for social support ( 31 , 78 , 79 ), the preference for computer-mediated interactions may trigger risky psychosocial and relational outcomes ( 80 – 82 ). Particularly, attitude toward OSC has emerged as a significant positive predictor of social media use ( 83 ) and relational closeness across SNSs ( 55 ), likely a healthy, communicatively competent motivation for using online communication.…”

Factors Associated with Symptoms of Depression and Psychological Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Fourth, the amount of time spent daily on social media searching for and reading information on COVID-19 was associated with increases in psychological distress. A previous study reported that people spend more time on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to social media usage before the pandemic [50] and that people who excessively use social media for COVID-19 information are more likely to experience increases in feelings of fear and in symptoms of anxiety [40,50]. Social media is an easily accessible platform for information dissemination and acquisition, particularly during periods of social distancing and stay-at-home orders.…”

A Cross-Country Examination on the Fear of COVID-19 and the Sense of Loneliness during the First Wave of COVID-19 Outbreak

“…To date, the link between people’s experience of fear of COVID-19 and feelings of loneliness has received little research attention. Although physical distancing measures have been critical in containing the rate of infection, there is concern that limits on social activities and restrictions on in-person social contacts may increase feelings of loneliness [ 26 , 27 ]. Prior research on the experience of loneliness in response to the social restrictions due to the COVID-19-related quarantine reported mixed findings.…”