Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Apr 10, 2023
Date Accepted: Feb 7, 2024
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Status and Influencing Factors of Social Media Addiction in Chinese Workers
ABSTRACT
Background:
There are a huge number of social media users around the world. Social media has brought great convenience to people's work and life,but many studies have pointed out that the poor use of social media has also become a new addiction issue, which will have a negative impact on people's physical and mental health. At present, the vast majority of social media addiction(SMA) studies rely on college students aged 19-25 years, the data on workers and other agce groups are very scarce, especially in China.
Objective:
The main purpose of this study is to collect the current status of SMA in Chinese workers and explore the influencing factors.
Methods:
In this study, Social Networking Service Addiction Scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory–General Survey and Mindful Attention Awareness scale were used to investigate Chinese workers online, and collected common demographic data of participants. SPSS software was used for data analysis. The survey was completely anonymous and was conducted from November 1,2022 to January 30,2023. All participants were full-time workers or self-employed.
Results:
We received a total of 5,176 questionnaires, and after screening, we received 3,468(67.00%) valid questionnaires from employees in 15 industries. We found that the overall SMA score of the Chinese workers was high(53.19 ± 12.04), and some workers have very high SMA scores(n=393,11.33%). There were significant differences in the degree of SMA among different occupations(P<. 001). Unmarried and in relationships had higher SMA scores on average than married workers(P<. 001), but many of the highest-scoring groups are married workers(n=214, 54.45%). Female workers(P<. 001) and young workers(P<. 001) have higher SMA scores. Frequency of social media use during work hours(P<. 001) and the frequency of social media use before bed(P<. 001) was positively correlated with SMA scores. Linear regression results showed that burnout had a significant positive effect on SMA in workers(r=0.099, P<. 001), while mindfulness had a significant negative effect on SMA(r=-0.511, P<. 001).
Conclusions:
Our study is one of the first large-scale studies of SMA among workers. We found that Chinese workers' SMA scores are generally high, and future studies of SMA should consider occupational differences.Married workers also have a certain number of high SMA scores, so the problem of social media addiction in this group is worth further research. Due to the heavy workload or excessive working hours , workers are forced to use social media as their primary entertainment activity and may unreasonable use it before bedtime or during work hours. Therefore, reducing workers' workload .instead of limiting social media use, may be an effective way to reduce their SMA. It may also be effective to reduce workers' SMA by intervening and improving their level of mindfulness.
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