Timothy Matthews,Louise Arseneault,Bridget T Bryan,Helen L Fisher,Rebecca Gray,Joanne Henchy,Terrie E Moffitt,Candice L Odgers
{"title":"Social media use, online experiences, and loneliness among young adults: A cohort study.","authors":"Timothy Matthews,Louise Arseneault,Bridget T Bryan,Helen L Fisher,Rebecca Gray,Joanne Henchy,Terrie E Moffitt,Candice L Odgers","doi":"10.1111/nyas.15370","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study investigated patterns of digital technology use and their associations with loneliness in a cohort of 1632 young adults (mean age 26) in the UK who had been followed prospectively since childhood by the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study. Data were collected via an online survey in 2019-2020. Although overall time spent online was associated with greater loneliness, this was not the case for social media usage specifically. Use of social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) showed no association with loneliness. Instead, greater loneliness was associated with the use of Reddit and dating apps, while the use of WhatsApp was associated with lower loneliness. However, individuals who reported more compulsive use of digital technology, or experiences of online victimization, were lonelier on average, suggesting that the types of experiences individuals encounter online may be more related to loneliness than using particular platforms per se. Associations were robust to controls for a prior history of depression or anxiety at age 18. Moreover, findings remained broadly consistent between those who participated before versus during COVID-19 lockdown measures. An exception was that certain types of media characterized by passive consumption were associated with loneliness prior to, but not during lockdown.","PeriodicalId":8250,"journal":{"name":"Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"103","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.15370","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study investigated patterns of digital technology use and their associations with loneliness in a cohort of 1632 young adults (mean age 26) in the UK who had been followed prospectively since childhood by the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study. Data were collected via an online survey in 2019-2020. Although overall time spent online was associated with greater loneliness, this was not the case for social media usage specifically. Use of social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) showed no association with loneliness. Instead, greater loneliness was associated with the use of Reddit and dating apps, while the use of WhatsApp was associated with lower loneliness. However, individuals who reported more compulsive use of digital technology, or experiences of online victimization, were lonelier on average, suggesting that the types of experiences individuals encounter online may be more related to loneliness than using particular platforms per se. Associations were robust to controls for a prior history of depression or anxiety at age 18. Moreover, findings remained broadly consistent between those who participated before versus during COVID-19 lockdown measures. An exception was that certain types of media characterized by passive consumption were associated with loneliness prior to, but not during lockdown.
期刊介绍:
Published on behalf of the New York Academy of Sciences, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences provides multidisciplinary perspectives on research of current scientific interest with far-reaching implications for the wider scientific community and society at large. Each special issue assembles the best thinking of key contributors to a field of investigation at a time when emerging developments offer the promise of new insight. Individually themed, Annals special issues stimulate new ways to think about science by providing a neutral forum for discourse—within and across many institutions and fields.