Abstract
Social media's influence on stress remains largely unknown. Conflicting research suggests that Facebook use may both enhance and undermine psychosocial constructs related to well-being. Using novel experimental methods, this study examined the impact of social media use on stress recovery. Facebook users (n = 92, 49 males, mean age 19.55 SD = 1.63) were randomly assigned to use their own Facebook profile or quietly read after experiencing an acute social stressor. All participants showed significant changes in subjective and physiological stress markers during recovery. Participants who used Facebook experienced greater sustained cortisol concentration (p < 0.05) when controlling for gender and emotional investment in the website compared to controls. Results suggest that social media use may delay or impair recovery after experiencing an acute social stressor. This novel study incorporated objective physiological markers with subjective psychosocial measures to show that Facebook use may negatively impact well-being.
Highlights
To date, Facebook remains the most popular social networking site, with over 1 billion worldwide users (Facebook Company Information, 2016) and 71% of online U.S adults naming it as their preferred platform (Duggan et al, 2015)
Given our interest in stress recovery, participants who maintained stable levels or showed a decrease in cortisol output concentration in response to the stress induction (n = 10) were excluded from analyses
The present study provides the first objective evidence of how social media may affect stress
Summary
Facebook remains the most popular social networking site, with over 1 billion worldwide users (Facebook Company Information, 2016) and 71% of online U.S adults naming it as their preferred platform (Duggan et al, 2015). Several studies have examined potential associations between Facebook use and outcomes related to psychosocial well-being, many of which have provided mixed and sometimes conflicting results. One of the first studies to examine Facebook use and health found an association between online social integration and reduced mortality rate (Hobbs et al, 2016); underlying mechanisms were not explored. Are females more likely to use Facebook (Anderson, 2015), they may be more susceptible to feeling threatened by specific information displayed on the site (e.g., McAndrew and Shah, 2013)
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