Is Social Media Making Adults Grumpy?

TOPLINE:

Frequent social media use is associated with increased irritability in US adults, showing a notable dose-response relationship with posting frequency.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers analyzed data from two waves of an internet survey to explore the link between social media use and irritability. The survey was conducted between November 2023 and January 2024 across all 50 US states and the District of Columbia and included 42,597 adults (mean age, 46.0 years; 58.5% women; 66.6% White).
• Participants self-reported their frequency of social media usage and posting, ranging from less than once a week to most of the day, across platforms such as Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok.
• Among the survey respondents, 78.2% reported daily use of social media platforms, with 24.9% using it most of the day.
• Researchers used the Brief Irritability Test to evaluate irritability over the past 2 weeks, with higher scores indicating greater irritability.
• Effects of political engagement, severity of depressive symptoms, and anxiety were also evaluated in relation to the association between social media and irritability.

TAKEAWAY:

• Frequent social media use was linked to significantly higher irritability scores in adjusted analysis, especially for those using it more than once a day than never (0.38 points; 95% CI, 0.18-0.58) or for most of the day (1.55 points; 95% CI, 1.32-1.78), as well as for those with higher posting frequency.
• Significant increases in irritability were noted for users of X, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, especially for those who used these platforms for most of the day.
• The association between social media use and irritability persisted even after accounting for depressive and anxious symptoms.
• Frequent political discussions correlated with increased irritability, whereas following political news was associated with a modest decrease in irritability.

IN PRACTICE:

“Irritability is often considered simply a correlate of other forms of negative valence, most notably depression or anxiety. However, when it co-occurs with depression, it may be associated with greater functional impact, poorer treatment outcomes, and likelihood of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Irritability has also been associated with impacts on social function and employment, as well as risk for violence. The possibility that social media use may contribute to irritability, or at least that it has a bidirectional association with irritability, is therefore of more than academic interest,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Roy H. Perlis, MD, MSc, of the Center for Quantitative Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. It was published online on January 8, 2025, in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

The cross-sectional design of this study limited the ability to assess causation between social media use and irritability. The study did not analyze specific social media content, limiting insights into domain-specific irritability. Additionally, reliance on self-reported data may introduce recall bias.

DISCLOSURES:

This survey was supported in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Three authors disclosed receiving personal fees and/or grants outside the submitted work.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.