Socializing Targets of Older Adults’ SNS Use: Social Strain Mediates the Relations Between Older Adults’ SNS Use With Friends and Well-Being Outcomes

Abstract

Studies have yielded mixed findings regarding the relation between older adults’ social networking site (SNS) use and well-being. Drawing on socioemotional selectivity theory, we sought to examine whether older adults’ SNS use with different socializing targets (i.e., family vs friends) would differentially predict global, social, and mental well-being outcomes indexed by life satisfaction, loneliness, and depressive symptoms, respectively. Furthermore, we examined whether social support and social strain would mediate, in parallel, the relations between SNS use and well-being outcomes. We recruited healthy, community-dwelling older adults (ages 60–93 years, N = 69). Using the PROCESS macro, we found that SNS use with friends, but not family, predicted poorer life satisfaction and greater loneliness via increased social strain. However, SNS use with neither friends nor family was linked to depressive symptoms. Furthermore, social support failed to account for the relations between SNS use and well-being indices. These results held when we controlled for a host of covariates—age, gender, education level, income, marital status, and overall physical health. Our findings reconcile disparate findings in the literature by elucidating that older adults’ SNS use with different socializing targets asymmetrically predicts life satisfaction and loneliness via varying degrees of perceived social strain.