Focus on social media engagement – not just screen time – essential to help protect mental health

A focus on how we engage with social media – not just how long we spend on it – is key to analysing the impact on mental health, a new study warns.

Examining how people think about, respond to, and use social media – alongside how much time they spend on it – may give a more informative picture of links with mental health.

The research says it is important for consumers and policymakers to consider the cognitive and emotional quality, as well as the quantity, of social media use.

Interventions focused solely on reducing screen time may overlook important psychological mechanisms underpinning relationships between social media use and mental health.

The study found time spent on social media was associated with depressive symptoms. However, time spent played a smaller role in relationships between engagement style and anxiety. This suggests that reducing overall use may not address all forms of psychological distress in the same way.

As part of the study, by Dr Jason Hill, from the University of Exeter, 304 adults gave information about their social media engagement styles, daily time spent on social media, and symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Dr Hill asked participants in the study to self-report symptoms of depression and anxiety, alongside aspects of mindfulness and the way they engaged with social media.

Dr Hill said: “Two people can spend exactly the same amount of time on social media while having very different psychological experiences. A focus only on reducing the amount of time people spend using social media overlooks the impact of how they are using it. This includes the extent to which they are cognitively preoccupied with social media, behaviourally drawn to checking or using it, and emotionally invested in what happens online.

“Social media use has been widely linked to depression and anxiety, and this study is further evidence that the style of engagement may matter alongside the amount of time people spend online.”

The research indicates that associations between social media use and depressive and anxiety symptoms depend not only on how frequently or how long individuals engage, but also on the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural quality of that engagement.

The study also found that some of the links between social media engagement and depressive symptoms were statistically explained by aspects of mindfulness, including greater awareness, being able to describe internal experiences, and responding less judgmentally to thoughts and feelings. These pathways were less consistent for anxiety.

The findings suggest that interventions and policy initiatives focused on social media reduction may benefit from considering psychologically absorbing or emotionally involved patterns of use alongside time-based strategies. Approaches that encourage greater awareness of how people engage with social media, rather than focusing only on minutes or hours, may therefore be worth exploring.

For depression, time spent on social media appeared more important in explaining links with cognitive and behavioural engagement. For anxiety, affective or emotional engagement appeared more important, while time played a smaller role.

Dr Hill said: “It is not simply how much time is spent on social media that matters, but also how that time is used. Together, these findings highlight the importance of identifying for whom, and under what conditions, social media engagement may be detrimental and imply that interventions and policy initiatives based solely on reducing screen time may be insufficient, particularly where social media use involves strong emotional engagement.”

Because the study was cross-sectional, it cannot show that particular styles of social media use cause changes in mindfulness, depression, or anxiety, and the relationships may work in both directions.