Social media has transformed the way people interact with each other and the world. Across the globe, researchers have documented political, social, emotional, and even health implications related to these ever-evolving platforms.
A new systematic review seeks to better understand how social media use affects people with pre-existing mental health disorders, specifically psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, body dysmorphia, eating disorders, narcissistic personality disorder, and borderline personality disorder.
Social media allows people to interact without the physical and temporal cues that happen during face-to-face interactions. These missing cues can be especially difficult for people with psychiatric disorders. Due to the way the brain processes virtual interactions, the authors hypothesized that social media could exacerbate psychiatric symptoms and conditions.
Their review, published in the journal BMC Psychiatry, combines the data from 155 studies on social media use and psychiatric disorders related to social cognition. It found that social media use is disproportionately high among people with psychiatric disorders involving delusional thinking.
For example, people with narcissistic personality disorder were more likely to engage in problematic behaviors on social media, such as excessively promoting themselves and compulsively seeking likes and followers. People with body dysmorphia and eating disorders were more likely to obsessively compare their appearance to others and seek approval for their distorted body image.
People with delusional disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, were more likely to develop online-related delusions, such as feeling paranoid about being watched or controlled through social media algorithms.
These findings led researchers to propose a new model—Delusion Amplification by Social Media—to explain how social media use leads to a distorted sense of self. The model begins with people who have an underdeveloped sense of self; they turn to social media to develop their identities and social status. This can lead to excessive use of social media platforms, which ultimately increases the likelihood of developing both mental and physical delusions.
The authors note that all of the studies in the analysis were observational and do not establish a direct link between social media use and mental health symptoms. They suggest that more longitudinal studies could help determine whether prolonged social media use exacerbates psychiatric symptoms over time. In addition, randomized, controlled experiments would help researchers better understand how to mitigate and reduce the likelihood of delusions for people with psychiatric symptoms.
The take-home message: a body of research suggests that social media use aggravates the symptoms of mental health disorders, especially disorders related to social cognition.
