Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp were no help in preventing anxiety and depression during the pandemic, according to a new study. Researchers found that keeping in touch via video, phone or instant messaging did little to stop an increase in stress levels during the Covid lockdowns.
Many young adults who increased their use of video and messaging with friends and family who they couldn’t see face-to-face actually experienced a deterioration in their mental health, according to the findings. Dr Patrick Rouxel and Professor Tarani Chandola, of the University of Hong Kong, analysed data of more than 16,000 British people’s internet use, mental health and social isolation from four surveys conducted during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
They found that people who used video or phones every day to keep in touch with friends and family outside their own household were only three per cent lower on a scale for anxiety and depression than those who never did. People who used internet messaging services such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp every day during the lockdowns had an anxiety-depression score the same as those who never used them.
People aged 20 who used social media infrequently before the pandemic were 10 per cent higher on the anxiety-depression scale if they used it every day during lockdown, compared to their peers who used it two or three times a week during lockdown. Dr Rouxel said: “Early on in the pandemic, several commentators suggested that online communication modes and video technology in particular can bridge social distances during the pandemic.
“We found little evidence to support the idea that online modes of social contact could compensate for the restrictions in in-person social contact during the pandemic. The reduction in mental health associated with reduced in-person social contact during the pandemic was not offset by online or telephone modes of social contact."
He added: “Young adults who increased their online social media frequency during the pandemic experienced a deterioration in mental health. Young adulthood is a sensitive period of the life-course for social relationships, with increases in online social media frequency during the pandemic having adverse effects on mental health.”
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The research, published in the journal Sociology, also found that people whose finances had worsened during lockdown had an anxiety-depression level 25 per cent higher than those who did not. The surveys covered the periods of May 2020, during the first lockdown; September and October 2020, when restrictions were lifted in many places; and February and March 2021, during the third lockdown.
