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.
Highlights
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) generated a global health crisis, prompting people to face a distressing and unexpected situation
The percentage corresponding to 1–2 h/day decreased to 26.7%, and 21.2% of the participants declared that they spent more than 4 h/day on social media
The Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) (Table 1) exploring group differences in relation to hours per day spent on social media, loneliness, anxiety, and excessive social media use showed significant differences between genderbased groups [Wilks’ λ = 0.98; F(4, 708) = 4.5; p = 0.001] and age-based groups [Wilks’ λ = 0.94; F(4, 708) = 10.62; p < 0.001]
Summary
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) generated a global health crisis, prompting people to face a distressing and unexpected situation. The loss of one’s usual routine and reduced social contacts may cause boredom, frustration, and a sense of isolation, which can generate high levels of distress in individuals increasing the risk of mental disorders, such as anxiety, mood, addictive, and thought disorders [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21] In this regard, a strong participation of mental health professionals in the management of the crisis and postcrisis has been warmly recommended, in order to help people facing the stressful circumstance and its risky consequences [6, 20]
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