Social media may be trapping us in a cycle of loneliness, new study suggests

Spending time on social media, whether you are simply scrolling through posts or actively engaging with others, may contribute to increased feelings of loneliness over time, according to new research. A study published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin revealed that both types of social media use are associated with a rise in loneliness, suggesting that online interactions may not adequately replace the social fulfillment gained from face-to-face relationships.

In recent years, both social media use and reported loneliness have increased significantly. Despite the promise of social media to connect people and build communities, many individuals report feeling more disconnected than ever. Reports from organizations like the U.S. Surgeon General have highlighted a growing “epidemic of loneliness,” noting that a lack of social connection can be as detrimental to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

While some research has suggested social media might alleviate loneliness, other studies have indicated a potential negative impact. To gain clarity on this mixed picture—and to examine the specific ways people use social media—researchers conducted the new study to investigate how different types of social media engagement affect feelings of loneliness over an extended period.

“The last 10-plus years of my research focus has been on phone and social media use and their impact on well-being,” said study author James A. Roberts, the Ben H. Williams Professor of Marketing in the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. “But we also know that it is not simply a matter of more social media use leading to poorer health outcomes—it might make a difference how that social media is used. The current epidemic of loneliness, both in the United States and abroad, and the severe negative implications of being lonely make this topic of critical importance to researchers.”

The research team utilized data from a large-scale, long-term study in the Netherlands called the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences panel. This panel study has been collecting annual data from a representative sample of Dutch households since 2008. For this particular study, the researchers analyzed nine years of data, from 2014 to 2022. The sample included 6,965 adult participants, with slightly more than half being women. The average age of participants at the start of the study was around 50 years old. Participants completed surveys each year, answering questions about their social media use and feelings of loneliness.

The researchers were interested in two main types of social media use: passive and active. Passive social media use was defined as the time spent reading and viewing content without directly interacting—for example, scrolling through news feeds or browsing profiles. Participants estimated how many hours per week they spent on this type of browsing. Active social media use, by contrast, included time spent posting messages, photos, and videos, as well as engaging with others by liking or commenting on their posts. Participants also reported how many hours per week they engaged in this type of active use.

To measure loneliness, the study used a well-established six-item questionnaire. This measure asked participants about various aspects of loneliness, such as feeling a sense of emptiness, whether they had people to rely on, and how connected they felt to others. Participants rated their agreement with these statements, and their responses were combined to generate a loneliness score.

The researchers then used statistical models designed to track change over time to examine how different types of social media use related to loneliness. These models allowed them to assess how social media use at one time point predicted loneliness in later years, and vice versa, across the nine-year period.

The findings revealed a significant association between both passive and active social media use and increased loneliness over time. Individuals who reported more passive browsing at the start of the study tended to experience greater increases in loneliness in subsequent years. This suggests that spending more time scrolling through content without engaging may contribute to growing feelings of isolation.

More surprisingly, active social media use—typically thought to be more socially beneficial—was also linked to increasing loneliness over time. Participants who spent more time posting and engaging with others reported a sharper rise in loneliness as the years progressed. This finding challenges the popular notion that active participation on social media helps reduce loneliness. Instead, it suggests that even seemingly interactive online experiences may not offer the depth of connection that in-person relationships provide.

“Our results confirm my suspicions that no matter how it’s used, social media is a poor substitute for face-to-face interaction,” Roberts told PsyPost. “This suggests a coming public crisis as younger generations spend more time and are highly attached (if not addicted) to social media.”

The study also uncovered a feedback loop between social media use and loneliness. Not only did greater social media use predict increased loneliness, but feeling lonely also predicted more social media use over time. This pattern implies that people may turn to social media to ease their loneliness, but that increased use might only worsen those feelings.

“I think the major takeaway from our study should be that social media use is a poor substitute for person-to-person interaction,” Roberts said. “Our results suggest that no matter how one uses social media—actively or passively—such use leads to higher levels of loneliness. The fact that young people spend so much time on social media makes the implications of our findings all the more important. Along with increasing levels of social media use across all age categories, we have, surprisingly, found attendant higher levels of loneliness. Ironically, social media does not deliver on its core promise to bring us closer to others.”

While the study provides meaningful insight, it also comes with limitations. Most notably, it relies on self-reported measures of social media use and loneliness, which can be influenced by memory or social desirability biases. Participants may not accurately recall how much time they spent online or may underreport their feelings of loneliness. Future research could benefit from objective measures, such as tracking real-time app usage.

Another area for future study is the type of content people engage with on social media. Some interactions—like seeing posts that trigger social comparison or exclusion—may be more harmful than others. Understanding which online behaviors are most closely tied to loneliness could help guide healthier digital habits.

“More research is needed that investigates how different social media apps affect well-being,” Roberts said. “Sadly, my research with others suggests that the newest generation of social media—short-form video platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts—are even more addictive than the more traditional forms of social media, like Facebook. This will only exacerbate the loneliness of an online existence.”

“Our primary goal is to better understand how and why social media can be an alienating force. Fear of missing out has been extensively researched, but it suggests one way social media makes us feel worse is by showing us everything we were not included in. Upward social comparisons also negatively affect well-being. But we shouldn’t overlook a simpler explanation: time spent on social media displaces time spent with others. Most social media is consumed in isolation.”

“Loneliness is a significant health crisis with serious health implications for individuals, their relationships, work performance, and broader society, which must deal with the fallout. The negative outcomes associated with increasing levels of loneliness are real and far-reaching,” Roberts concluded.

The study, “The Epidemic of Loneliness: A 9-Year Longitudinal Study of the Impact of Passive and Active Social Media Use on Loneliness,” was authored by James A. Roberts, Phil D. Young, and Meredith E. David.