JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Two-fold increases in the prevalence of youth anxiety and depression over the last two decades have mirrored exponential growth in opportunities for adolescent online social interaction via social media, short messaging service (SMS) and internet text messaging apps on smartphones. However, studies to date of self-reported online social interaction time have produced conflicting results. Understanding the role of dispositional and developmental differences in individuals’ responses to online versus offline social interactions, may help elucidate whether and how online social interaction is related to anxiety and depression.

Objective:

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between older adolescents’ and emerging adults (18-24-year-olds) mental health and (1) objectively measured time spent on smartphones and online social interaction apps; (2) momentary affective and affiliative responses to online and offline social interactions; and (3) the moderating role of developmentally and dispositionally elevated social sensitivity.

Methods:

Smartphone, social media (eg, Instagram), SMS and internet (eg, WhatsApp) text messaging app time from participants’ screen use settings, as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression, and social sensitivity were measured in 190 older adolescents and emerging adults (mean age: 20.4 years). Participants then completed a novel ecological momentary assessment (EMA) capturing affective and affiliative responses to recent online or offline social interactions 3x daily for 1 week. Symptoms of mental health were assessed again after 1 month.

Results:

Total online social interaction (combined social media and text messaging) app time, but not total smartphone time, was associated with greater anxiety, at both baseline and 1 month later. Affective and affiliative responses were less positive for online social interactions compared to in-person interactions. Affective and affiliative responses to in-person, but not online, social interactions were negatively associated with depression across the 1-month study period. Finally, social sensitivity did moderate the relationship between affective and affiliative responses to social media interactions and depression at baseline.

Conclusions:

These findings emphasize the need to investigate individual factors influencing for whom online social interaction is harmful or beneficial. To do this, this study provides a novel, ecologically valid tool for understanding young people’s momentary responses to online and offline social interactions, as well as initial evidence for stronger associations between in-person than online social interaction responses and mental health. It also introduces evidence of social sensitivity as a potential, developmentally relevant vulnerability to the effects of online social interaction.