A first-of-its-kind study of US adults shows that all those strangers you’re friends with on social media aren’t helping you feel less lonely.
Conversely, connecting on social media with people you don’t know closely is linked to increased loneliness, according to scientists at Oregon State University.
In a nationally representative study of more than 1,500 adults aged 30-70, connecting online with people you actually know was not associated with greater loneliness, but neither was it associated with reduced loneliness.
The findings suggest that “people experiencing loneliness may want to scrutinize their interactions with strangers on social media and prioritize interpersonal connections over those social media connections, even when those social media connections are perceived as close,” said study leader Brian Primack.
The research was published today in Public Health Reports, the official journal of the US Public Health Service. The agency developed a deep interest in loneliness after then-Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s 2023 report on the nation’s loneliness epidemic, said Primack, a professor in OSU’s College of Health.
The surgeon general’s report notes that even before COVID-19, about half of American adults reported measurable levels of loneliness, and that a lack of connection carries health risks on par with smoking.
People who often feel lonely are more than twice as likely to develop depression. They also face a 29% increased risk of heart disease. 32% increased risk of stroke. 50% increased risk of developing dementia (for older adults). and a greater than 60% chance of premature death.
The research by Primack, two OSU faculty colleagues and two graduate students represents a step toward filling a knowledge gap about the role of social media in loneliness. Most previous studies, Primack said, looked at teenagers and young adults, while this study looks at adults in midlife and later adulthood.
This gap in the literature is important because people who are not teenagers or young adults make up 75% of the US population, these people are highly exposed to social media, and many of the health effects of loneliness become more pronounced as adulthood progresses.”
Brian Primack, Professor, OSU College of Health;
The researchers note that overall, about 35% of the study group’s social media contacts were people they had never met in person. They suspect that one reason interacting with “strangers” on social media is linked to loneliness is because of social media’s high potential to facilitate misinterpretation.
“We know that social media interactions can lead to idealization of other people’s friendships with each other, which can exacerbate social comparison effects,” said study co-author Jessica Gorman. “That idealization is probably stronger when those friendships involve people you’ve never met, because there’s no personal experience to counter that idealization.”
