Excessive social media use linked to depression during pandemic, study suggests

The new study found that more than half of participants, none of whom reported any traumatic or depressive disorders before the pandemic, experienced some level of depression. — Dreamstime/TNS

Excessive social media use during the pandemic is a predictor of symptoms of depression and secondary trauma, a new study by researchers at Pennsylvania State University and Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, suggests.

The study, published last month in Computers In Human Behavior, surveyed 320 participants living in Wuhan about how they accessed and shared health information with friends, family members, and colleagues over WeChat, China’s most popular social media app. They also used a stress scale to measure anxiety and depression by asking participants to rate statements such as “I felt that life was meaningless” and “I had disturbing dreams about the coronavirus epidemic”.