An estimated 50% of the adult population in the United States are alone. Americans were already alone before Covid-19, and the pandemic has only worsened the trend. A new study by researchers at Oregon State University found that Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook and similar platforms are apparently not an antidote for the global loneliness epidemic. In fact, they linked the increase in social media to a greater probability of feeling alone. The results of the study are published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
People grow lonely, and social media is aggravated
To analyze deeply about loneliness, Jessica Gorman from the OSU College of Health, the researchers analyzed more than 1,500 American adults between 30 and 70. The study was led by Jessica Gorman from OSU College of Health. It is based on a study from 2017 by co -author Brian Primack who looked at young adults.The previous study looked at two different measures of the use of social media, time and frequency, each correlated with loneliness. Which means that even the short “controls” are linked to loneliness similar to some long sessions.“I was not sure if we would see such a strong relationship between social media and loneliness for 60-year-olds as we saw with 18-year-olds, but we did. Those in the upper 25% based on the frequency of social media, compared to those in the lower 25%, were more than twice as likely to test as alone,” said Primack.The researchers have emphasized that these results have important consequences for public health, given loneliness is a high cost to society.
What is loneliness?
Loneliness is characterized by the subjective experience of insufficient social contacts and resources. It is also linked to a number of negative health consequences, including cardiovascular disease, substance use, poor mental health and intimate partner violence. Loneliness’s health effects correspond to smoking 15 cigarettes per day, according to a 2023 advice from the US surgery general. The advice also emphasized that the use of social media is a loneliness risk factor.Americans were alone before Covid-19, and the pandemic only added fuel to the fire. “Most previous research on the use of social media and loneliness has focused on adolescents and young adults. Even after adapting for all measured socio -demographic factors among the people in our study – gender, age, sexual orientation, education, employment status and marital status – we found a significant relationship between people who are lonely and people who are often or for social media.
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For example, estimate suggests that a person controls social media between 100 and 200 times a day and to spend two to four hours on their optional platforms. Older adults, who are “digital immigrants”, may be less skilled than younger users of social media, which may be a factor behind the connection to loneliness in the older population.“There has been not enough research on adults, which uses social media much and experience injury due to loneliness. An important warning is that this was a correlation study, so we cannot say about using social media leading to loneliness or if lonely people seek more social media. It can be a combination,” said Primakck.
Although the study cannot determine why the connection exists, it warns against using social media aggressively in American adults. It adds that although lonely people use social media more, it will not remove the loneliness they experience.
