Whether and how will using social media induce social anxiety? The correlational and causal evidence from Chinese society

BACKGROUND: Prior literature has well established the relationship between social media use and social anxiety, but little attention has been paid to the underlying mechanisms. Additionally, the causal evidence concerning the effect of social media use on social anxiety is scarce. OBJECTIVE: Given that, two studies were conducted to examine the effect of social media use on social anxiety and the underlying mechanisms. METHODS AND RESULTS: In Study 1, with 470 undergraduates as participants, we applied the questionnaire survey to investigate the relationship between social media use and social anxiety. The results showed that higher social media use intensity was significantly related to higher social anxiety, and social media use was related to social anxiety via two possible mediation paths: (1) social media use → upward social comparison → social anxiety, (2) and social media use → upward social comparison → self-esteem → social anxiety. In Study 2, with 180 undergraduates as participants, we conducted a lab experiment, in which participants were assigned to the experimental (exposed to the content that undergraduates frequently access on social media) or control (exposed to landscape documentaries) condition, and then measured their upward social comparison, self-esteem and social anxiety. The results showed that participants in the experimental condition reported higher social anxiety than those in the control condition, demonstrating the causality between social media exposure and social anxiety. The subsequent mediation analysis basically replicated the findings of Study 1. That is, upward social comparison played the mediating role between social media exposure and social anxiety, and upward social comparison and self-esteem played the chain-mediating role between them. CONCLUSION: The current research firstly demonstrated the causality between social media use and social anxiety in Chinese society, and also revealed the mediating mechanisms between them, which would deepen our understanding of how social media use will increase social anxiety.