An estimated 50% of adult population in the United States are lonely. American were already lonelier before COVID-19, and the pandemic has only worsened the trend. A recent study by researchers at the the Oregon State University found that TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and similar platforms are apparently no antidote for the global loneliness epidemic. In fact they linked increase in social media use to the greater likelihood of feeling lonely among others. The findings of the study are published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
People are growing lonely, and social media is worsening it
To analyse deep about loneliness, the Jessica Gorman of the OSU College of Health, the researchers analysed more than 1,500 U.S. adults aged between 30 and 70. The study was led by Jessica Gorman of the OSU College of Health. It builds on a 2017 study by co-author Brian Primack that looked at young adults.The previous study looked at two different measures of social media use, time and frequency, each correlated with loneliness. Which means even the short ‘checks’ are linked to loneliness similar to a few long sessions.“I wasn’t sure if we would see as strong a relationship between social media and loneliness for 60-year-olds that we saw with 18-year-olds, but we did. Those who were in the upper 25% based on frequency of social media use, compared with those in the lower 25%, were more than twice as likely to test as lonely,” Primack said.The researchers has emphasized that these findings have important public health implications, given loneliness is high cost to society.
What is loneliness?
Loneliness is characterized by the subjective experience of insufficient social connections and resources. It is also linked to a range of negative health consequences, including cardiovascular disease, substance use, poor mental health, and intimate partner violence. The health impact of loneliness is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, according to a 2023 advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General. The advisory also stressed that social media use is a loneliness risk factor.Americans were lonelier before COVID-19, and the pandemic only added fuel to the fire. “Most prior research on social media use and loneliness has focused on youth and young adults. Even after adjusting for all measured sociodemographic factors among the people in our study – gender, age, sexual orientation, educational attainment, employment status and marital status – we found a significant association between people being lonely and people being on social media frequently or for extended periods,” Gorman said.
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For instance estimate suggests that a person checks social media between 100 and 200 times a day and to spend two to four hours on their platforms of choice. Older adults, who are ‘digital immigrants,’ may be less adept than younger social media users, which could be one factor behind the connection to loneliness in the older population.“There hasn’t been enough research on adults, who use social media a lot and experience harm due to loneliness. An important caveat is that this was a correlational study, so we can’t say whether using social media leads to loneliness or whether lonely people seek out more social media. It may be a combination,” Primack said.
Though the study cannot determine why the connection exists, it cautions against using social media aggressively in US adults. It add that even if lonely people use social media more, it won’t take away the loneliness they experience.
