Social Media Usage and Anxiety: An Overview of Intermediary Factors

Abstract

Social media makes it more convenient for people to communicate with each other and provides many benefits for peoples life. However, social media use can also cause anxiety. The mechanism by which social media use affects anxiety levels is still unclear. Therefore, this paper analyzes how the usage of social media affects college students anxiety levels through three intermediary variables: social comparison, psychological capital, and fear of negative evaluation (FNE). The result shows that the upward comparison leads people to feel that some aspects of their lives are not as good as their peers, thus deepening peoples levels of physical anxiety and state anxiety. Problematic using social media can lead to a reduction in psychological capital. Therefore, if social media users have lower levels of self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience, their anxiety level will be higher, as these are the four aspects of psychological capital. The usage of passive social networking sites activates peoples non-adaptive self-view, thus increasing peoples FNE. FNE are indicated to impact anxiety. Therefore, FNE is also an influential mediator. This study focused on three mediators of social medias influence on anxiety. Based on the findings, this study concluded that in order to reduce the negative effects of social media, intervention in mediators between social media and anxiety could be further studied.