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The Effects of Social Media on College Students’ Well-Being

Sophie Stapleton

Department of Communications, Messiah University

COMM 492: Senior Seminar

Dr. David Dixon

May 2, 2023
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In recent years, new technological inventions and an increase in social connectivity

platforms have added significant benefits to society yet simultaneously created advanced issues

within individual users. Scholars have studied the impact of social media networking sites across

the globe, seeking to understand its newfound impact, both positive and negative, on personal

factors such as mental and emotional health. Studies regarding individuals from various age

groups, social statuses, geographical location, and more have shown severely negative

consequences from repetitive and compulsive use of social media. However, specific studies

regarding this impact on college students is still relatively unknown. To bridge this gap, the

current study surveyed students from Messiah University and their personal experience with

social media and its effect on their mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing from a theoretical

perspective. The findings are discussed in further sections.

Literature Review

The rise of technology and social media platforms has created an abundance of

convenience and extended access to the world. However, scholars claim this ease of access may

lead to addictive behavior (Vogan, 2019), and that this addiction to media are harder to

overcome than other vices, such as alcohol or nicotine (Dutot, 2020). In fact, unlike broadcast

television, sites such as Instagram or TikTok are specifically designed with a limitless scroll

effect, which encourages addiction and unhealthy behavior in participants (Vargas, 2019; Eden et

al., 2021). Compulsive or addicted social media users are shown to exhibit behavioral symptoms

of addiction, including conflict, negative cognitive states, mood modification, depression, and

anxiety (Dutot, 2020; Dhir et al., 2018).

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RQ1: Are addictive social media behaviors and negative results present in Christian college

students?

H1: Frequent social media use is reminiscent of other kinds of addiction and has similar side

effects.

A significant issue found within scholarly studies is the phenomenon called Fear of

Missing Out (hereto referred to as FoMO), which is “characterized by the desire to stay

continually connected with others” (Vogan, 2019, p. 523). With the invention of tools like

Instagram stories, individuals may feel an exaggerated sense of not being involved (Dutot, 2020).

This can create a negative cycle wherein media users experiencing FoMO check social media

more frequently, which can lead to compulsivity, and ultimately social media fatigue (Dhir et al.,

2018), indirectly leading to emotional and behavioral issues. Scholars report that FoMO is a

serious detriment to one’s emotional and overall well-being (Vogan, 2019).

RQ2: Is there a positive correlation between increased social media use and users experiencing

Fear of Missing Out?

H2: There is a positive correlation between checking social media compulsively and

experiencing FoMO.

Excessive media access has extreme negative health consequences. It can manifest into an

experience called social media fatigue, in which users may step away from media usage to

combat the fatigue’s negative effects (Dhir et al., 2018). According to the same study, the

negative consequences of abundant media usage are inevitable, including depression and anxiety.

Once users experience the negative effects of social media fatigue, they are likely to use social

media use to combat depression, which in turn creates a negative reciprocal cycle (Dhir et al.,
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2018). Beyond anxiety and depression, social media and streaming service usage show

problematic sleep outcomes due to the limitless scrolling effect and other factors (Eden et al.,

2021). Additionally, increased use of social media increases engagement behaviors, which

studies show indicate a lack of impulse control in compulsive social media users (Coduto &

Anderson, 2021). The consequences of excessive social media participation are evident and

abundant in prior literature.

RQ3: Does increased social media use create social media fatigue? Does social media fatigue

contribute to feelings of anxiety and depression?

H3: Frequent social media use causes fatigue, which in turn contributes to anxiety and

depression in users; therefore, frequent social media use is linked to negative mental health and

feelings of anxiety and depression.

However, some studies show that people may utilize social media as a coping mechanism. It

is argued that media may provide some options for coping which has the potential to help

individuals increase well-being, but if media usage replaces other successful coping mechanisms,

the individual’s health may be in jeopardy (Wolfers & Schneider, 2021). Many theories were

integrated within that study, though further research is necessary.

Though media as a coping mechanism may seem counterintuitive to all the other research

presented, “what is problematic and disruptive for one media user may not be for others” (Eden

et al., 2021, p. 146). This statement is congruent with the assumption held by the Uses and

Gratifications theory, which assumes that different media affect different people in a variety of

ways.
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Given such complexities, this study will view the research through the lens of the Uses

and Gratifications theory, seeking to understand not just the impact of media usage but

motivations behind media consumption. The Uses and Gratifications theory assumes five things:

1) people use media for strategic purposes, 2) we satisfy needs through media use, 3) media

compete for our time and attention, 4) media affect different people differently, and 5) people

have the ability to self-report (Griffin et al., 2015; Oswald-Wilkins, 2021). An individual may be

motivated by a need they feel can be gratified by social media; this is a highly individualized

process. Any individual can be motivated by their own specific purposes, and each different

individual will be affected differently by said media. That being said, common motivations for

media use are passing time, companionship, escape, enjoyment, social interaction, and more

(Griffin et al., 2015; Oswald-Wilkins, 2021). A key component to fill the literature gap is the

students’ faith, which may play a role in media usage motivations.

RQ4: What are college students’ main motivations for media use? Do they feel their needs are

gratified through their media use?

H4: College students’, based on their ability to self-report, will have various motivations for

their media usage and feel gratified through using media.

Though prior research on the topic of social media, its perpetration of the FoMO

phenomenon, and its effects on overall health and wellbeing (i.e., mood and cognitive disorders,

sleep impairment, etc.) has been studied in depth, a gap in the literature shows a lack of studying

such phenomena on college students in the United States. Moreover, Christian colleges and

universities are not well represented in published literature. This study seeks to understand how

compulsive and frequent social media use effects college students in the areas of addictive

behavior, FoMO, negative mental and emotional health tolls, and motivations for media use. It
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also explores how identification with the Christian faith may or may not influence and impact

such media usage.

Methodology

In order to bridge the research gap, a survey was designed to garner responses from

Christian college students across Messiah University’s School of Arts, Culture, and Society in

order to gather and analyze the effect of social media on students and their health. There is a

range of majors within the school, but are united by a common faith: Christianity. Though not all

students at Messiah identify as Christian, this is a distinguishing factor in the students who attend

the university. There is some ethnic diversity, with people of color and international students

from a variety of countries; however, the majority of students at Messiah identify as white and

live within the United States. In this way, we recognize that this study is not entirely

representative of all college students or even youth of this age group across other universities or

institutions nation- and world-wide.

It was decided that a survey would be the best method for collecting this data as many

times in communication research “you utilize survey research to test theoretical predictions about

the relationships between communication variables and other variables in a population of

interest” (Davis, 2017, p. 188). Additionally, it allows the participants to “retrospectively replay

incidents, behaviors, and meanings” (Davis, 2017, p. 188). These applications for survey

research are on par with the data necessary to collect for these research questions.

Due to the broad nature of the research questions, only a few specifications were placed

on who received the survey. A mass email was sent to the School of Culture, Arts, and Society, a

group of 1250 undergraduate students. This achieved diversity due to the fact that all students
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were given equal access to fill out the survey. The email was sent from the university and not

one specific person.

The research seeks to gather and interpret data from college students of all years, areas of

study, gender, etc. Therefore, the only exclusion criteria were graduate students and staff of

Messiah University. Via the mass email, all undergraduate students at Messiah were given the

opportunity to respond to the survey, and no sampling bias occurred due to the equal chance to

submit a survey response. Students were given the choice to participate in a confidential survey

that would take five to ten minutes of their time and were informed they could end their response

at any time throughout the survey. Once they finished the survey, the participants were given

contact information and informed they could contact the researchers if they had further

questions.

Questions on the survey utilized a mixture of a five-point Likert scale (1-Strongly

Disagree, 5-Strongly Agree) and questions using a semantic differential in order to gather

average scores from each student regarding the research questions and hypotheses. For example,

students were asked to self-report a level of emotion after spending time on social media (i.e.,

“After being on social media, I feel happy/sad, productive/apathetic, etc.) where they measured

said emotion on a binary spectrum. To ensure clarity for the students’ sake, the positive emotions

were all listed on the left side of each spectrum, and the negative emotions were all listed on the

right side. When reading and interpreting the responses, this made averaging the scores clearer as

well. Based on the responses from the Likert and semantic differential scales, the scores from

each question were averaged student by student, producing the data results.
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The researcher collected all data in a spreadsheet, which was stored on a double-locked

device to ensure confidentiality, and analyzed the data through correlation via the spreadsheet.

The variables measured were levels of social media usage and its consequent effects on students’

experience of negative mental health consequences, such as addictive behaviors, Fear of Missing

Out, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. These variables were measured by gathering data

from the collected survey, in which students scaled how often they used various social media

sites and disclosed positive or negative affects after utilizing such sites. Scores were averaged

between 1 and 5 on the survey, given the scale by which students placed their emotional

experiences with media. Scores which students indicated on the survey’s scales were measured

and averaged together to determine their quality of mental health. The hypotheses assumed there

would be a negative correlation shown between the amount of time spent using social media and

the mental health of the students, assuming the greater the social media usage, the lower mental

health score.

To analyze and understand the data collected, the variables measured were split into two

binaries and expressed by a mathematic scale. The independent variable, amount of social media

use, was split into two categories: high media usage and low media usage. The dependent

variable, students’ mental health, was split into two categories: high mental health (good) and

low mental health (bad). The predicted outcome was that the higher the social media usage, the

lower the mental health score.

Results

116 responses were recorded via the survey sent to the School of Arts, Culture, and

Society. Students were not asked to identify their age, gender, race/ethnicity, or nationality.
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Rather, they selected which social media sites they were active on, including Twitter, Snapchat,

Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. The highest-used platform was Instagram, with 30% of

participants active, followed by Snapchat and Facebook, each ranking at 23%. Next, students

were asked to divulge the amount of hours each day they average on social media sites, using

statistics from their phone/screen time tracker to help determine. There was a ride variety of

responses, which were divided into two categories: Low Social Media Use (0-2 hours) and High

Social Media Use (2+ hours). 61 out of 116 students averaged 2+ hours of social media usage

each day, meaning 53% of respondents were categorized as High Social Media Users.

Figure 1

Referencing the research discovered in the literature review, many studies have found

social media to be inherently addictive. In this survey, students were asked to rate on a scale
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from 1 to 5 if they felt unable to stop scrolling on social media, and if they struggled to take

breaks from sites. Note Figure 1. Regarding the first statement, 49% of students indicated they

somewhat agreed and 22% strongly agreed. For the second statement, 39.18% indicated they

somewhat agreed while 22% somewhat disagreed. The statistics presented by the first statement

confirm H1, which assumed that frequent social media use indicates addictive behaviors.

Tota
# Question 1 2 3 4 5
l
17.17 1 61.62 6 21.21 2 0.00
1 Sad: Happy 0.00% 0 0 99
% 7 % 1 % 1 %
31.63 3 39.80 3 22.45 2 0.00
2 Dissatisfied: Satisfied 6.12% 6 0 98
% 1 % 9 % 2 %
Unproductive: 44.90 4 38.78 3 11.22 1 1.02
3 4.08% 4 1 98
Productive % 4 % 8 % 1 %
Unmotivated: 19.39 1 40.82 4 30.61 3 2.04
4 7.14% 7 2 98
Motivated % 9 % 0 % 0 %
24.49 2 52.04 5 15.31 1 2.04
5 Anxious: Peaceful 6.12% 6 2 98
% 4 % 1 % 5 %
18.37 1 64.29 6 16.33 1 0.00
6 Depressed: Joyful 1.02% 1 0 98
% 8 % 3 % 6 %
Table 1

After establishing H1, the survey sought to understand how frequent social media use

affected the emotional regulation and mental patterns of the students. Note Table 1. Students

were asked to rate their feelings after using social media on a semantic differential scale;

negative emotions ranked as 1, and positive emotions ranked as 5. In almost every category, the

majority of students rated their emotional state right in the middle of the scale after social media

use; the outlier being that the majority of students were a 1 or 2 on the Unproductive-Productive

scale, and 40% were a 2 on Unmotivated-Motivated. This confirms H3, which states that

frequent social media use can lead to fatigue and other negative emotional states.
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Figure 2

Seeking to understand how social media creates or furthers the Fear of Missing Out

phenomenon, students were asked to rate how often they felt left out or dissatisfied with their

own experience when viewing others’ social media stories, posts, etc. Somewhat surprisingly,

the majority of respondents selected that they only sometimes felt FoMO as a result of viewing

various posts on social media. This data did not explicitly confirm H2 but indicated that FoMO

is still somewhat a part of social media usage.

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Figure 3

To frame the research, the Uses and Gratifications Theory can be applied. Media in its

many forms, specifically in this instance social media, can be used to fulfill needs and desires.

This research sought to understand the desires behind college students’ social media use and if it

was fulfilling. 29% of students said they use social media to pass time, followed closely by 25%

saying they used it for enjoyment purposes. 19% cited escape as their motivation, and 18%

claimed social interaction.

This discovery is somewhat contradictory to the aforementioned findings regarding social

media’s effect on emotional states. If social media is almost primarily used for passing time and

enjoyment, but it causes feelings of unproductivity and depression, then needs are not being

gratified. Referencing H4, it is evident that students do have clear motivations for social media

use, though those reasons may not bring fulfillment, despite their belief that it does.
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Figure 5

In addition to the previous hypotheses, this research surveyed students from a Christian

university. Though the students were not asked whether they practiced Christianity or not, they

were asked if they had ever participated in a faith-motivated fast from social media, regularly

participate in social media fasts for Sabbath, and if their faith influences their media usage. 60%

of students have abstained from social media for a period of time due to faith-related reasons, but

only 8% report regularly taking breaks from social media as a spiritual discipline. As shown in

Figure 5, more than half of the surveyed students report their faith being a significant factor that

influences how they approach media use.

Discussion

The findings of this study suggest a positive correlation between frequent social media

use and negative mental health effects. Previous studies prove that ease of access to technology

and various media leads to addictive behavior which is extremely challenging to overcome

(Vogan, 2019; Dutot, 2020). This struggle is worsened due to inherent components of social

media that foster addiction, such as the limitless scroll effect (Vargas, 2019; Eden et al., 2021).
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The study at hand confirms these findings, showing that social media users often struggle to take

breaks from social media, or they feel as though they cannot stop scrolling once they begin.

Moreover, this addiction can lead to social media fatigue, whose byproducts include

anxiety and depression (Dhir et al., 2018). This study does indicate negative health patterns in

frequent social media users, though the most prevalent negative effects were feelings of

unproductivity and lack of motivation. Thus, the conclusion is drawn that an excess of social

media use can lead to mental and emotional fatigue; prior studies show that this may cause a

negative reciprocal cycle wherein users continue to return to media to solve the very problem it

has caused (Dhir et al., 2018). Further studies may benefit from investigating this phenomenon;

this study does not go into depth regarding the return to media use once fatigue is experienced.

Another significant finding from previous studies was the correlation between social

media usage and the Fear of Missing Out, exacerbated by the invention of tools such as

Instagram stories (Dutot, 2020). After feeling FoMO, users begin to frequently check stories,

which leads to the aforementioned social media fatigue (Dhir et al., 2018). The survey and

responses from students did not indicate this same level of experiencing Fear of Missing Out

from increased social media usage. This is an interesting proposition for future studies to

explore, as it is a complex topic with many nuances.

Framing this study with the Uses and Gratifications theory was somewhat limited.

Though students identified the reasons they utilized social media, further studies should go into

depth regarding the needs and desires of media users and whether or not they feel their chosen

media format actually satisfies those needs. Many users had multiple reasons for utilizing social
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media, and the given emotional data suggests that their needs are not being gratified. However,

further research must be conducted in order to clarify this correlation.

The final topic this study explored was the influence of Christianity on college students’

media usage. Future studies could be conducted to explore this idea more in-depth, as the given

study only scratched the surface of how one’s faith may impact how they think about media.

These findings presented in this study are extremely relevant in this day and age. There

are many studies regarding social media use and its effects on mental health, but there are not

many studies based solely off college students, even fewer of which focus on religious

educational institutions. As new technologies and media platforms are ever-increasing, and we

continue to live in an expanding global village, access to and use of social media will continue to

increase as well. Knowing the potential benefits and risks of this ever-accessible media is

necessary. Additionally, because younger generations are more exposed and desensitized to a

wide array of media, it is critical that society understands media’s mental and emotional

implications.

There are a few limitations to this study. The first is that there was no personal

information gathered about the participants; gender, age, difference of college class or major,

race, and more were not distinguished. Additionally, though the sampling was unbiased and

inclusive, the sample size to begin with was limited. Messiah University’s School of Arts,

Culture, and Society is not extremely diverse racially, religiously, or by area of study. This

inherently limits the study due to the accessible population. Additionally, the survey covered

more breadth of the topic at hand rather than depth, which is something further studies can

improve and expand upon.

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Overall, this study indicated a positive correlation between increased media usage and

negative mental health effects, though the amount of FoMO experienced via social media was

less than predicted. The students’ Christian faith and some impact on how they thought about

their media use, though consistent direct action was not always a result of faith-based conviction.

Further studies will be helpful in going into greater depth and detail regarding the issues

presented, and will remain relevant and important as the access to and conversations around

social media continue to grow.

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References

Coduto, K. D., & Anderson, J. (2021). Cognitive Preoccupation with Breaking News and
Compulsive Social Media Use: Relationships with Online Engagement and Motivations
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org.ezproxy.messiah.edu/10.1080/08838151.2021.1972114

Dhir, A., Yossatorn, Y., Kaur, P., & Chen, S. (2018). Online social media fatigue and
psychological wellbeing—A study of compulsive use, fear of missing out, fatigue,
anxiety and depression. International Journal of Information Management, 40, 141-152.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.messiah.edu/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.01.012

Dogan, V. (2019). Why Do People Experience the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO)? Exposing the
Link Between the Self and the FoMO Through Self-Construal. Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology, 50(4), 524-538.
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Dutot, V. (2020). A social identity perspective of social media’s impact on satisfaction with life.
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Griffin, E., et al., (2015). A First Look at Communication Theory (Ninth ed. Uses and
Gratifications Theory). McGraw-Hill Education.

Oswald-Wilkins, K. (2021). Uses and Gratifications [Lecture].

Vargas, L. (2019). Social media intoxication – time for a detox? Media Development, 65(1), 22-
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