Give Me a Break: Do Mental Health Breaks from Social Networking Sites Correlate with Lower Psychopathology? - Preliminary Findings

Abstract

Social networking sites (SNS) have become a pervasive part of modern society. In 2019, 69 % of adults used Facebook, and 74 % of these users checked Facebook daily. Social networking use is even higher in younger generations; 92 % of adolescents check SNS daily, and 24 % report being online “almost constantly.” Recently, a flood of research has exposed the harmful correlates of social networking site use, including increased depression, anxiety, suicidality, psychological distress, self-esteem, anxiety, and sleep problems. As the public has become aware of these adverse outcomes, a new trend of taking a break from SNS for their mental health has increased in popularity. However, no empirical research has examined how the mental health of those who have taken a SNS mental health break differs from those who have not. Therefore, this study examined the differences in personality psychopathology, self-esteem, and internalizing symptoms between these two groups in a sample of 565 adult social networking site users. It was found that individuals who took a SNS mental health break had higher self-esteem, but also higher levels of personality psychopathology and internalizing symptomology. Implications for this study are discussed.