Lockdown loneliness and social media compulsive use during the COVID-19 pandemic in China: A serial mediation model

Abstract

During the COVID-19 epidemic, social media was the main way for people to communicate with others. While social media brings convenience to all people, it also has its dark side. This study examined the link between the psychological characteristics of the general public at the time of blockade and compulsive social media behavior based on the I-PACE theory and compensatory internet use theory. During the first outbreak of COVID-19, 416 participants between the ages of 18 and 40 in China were recruited using an online survey in social media platform for this research. Findings highlight that users who feel high loneliness may tend to use social media compulsively. Results also indicated that social interaction anxiety and FoMO serially mediate the link between lockdown loneliness and compulsive use. This research demonstrated that higher social presence could increase lonely users’ tendency of compulsive use. Higher social presence can improve the risk of compulsive social media usage when individuals in FoMO state. During the COVID-19 pandemic, individual in higher boredom proneness may positively affect the association between lockdown loneliness and compulsive use. The results can provide a potential way to understand compulsive social media usage and prevent individuals’ negative emotions from contributing to unhealthy social media usage. The results of this study provide a range of references for social media users, social media platform providers, and governments to use social media effectively and sustainably during the global COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic period.