“Not Liking the Look of This”: Examining the Relationship Between COVID-Related Social Media Exposure and Mental Health Symptoms

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the implementation of quarantine measures, resulting in widespread isolation and encouraging more online engagement, especially around information related to the novel COVID-19 virus. Uncertainty reduction theory suggests that individuals who sought this information were likely exposed to distressing media content that increased their stress, rather than reducing it as intended. Indeed, research has identified COVID-19 as a traumatic stressor capable of eliciting PTSD-like responses, with recent studies demonstrating associations between higher levels of media exposure to COVID-19 information and greater psychological distress. However, there is some evidence to suggest potential adaptive uses of social media related to the pandemic. Moreover, scarce research exists on the actual pandemic-related content that individuals have been exposed to on social media. The present study utilized quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the relationship between mental health outcomes and positive/negative exposure to COVID-19-related social media, as well as the moderating influences of positive COVID-related social media exposure and previous trauma, respectively, in college students. Participants completed an online survey assessing their exposure to COVID-19 content on social media, mental health symptoms, and previous trauma exposure. Our quantitative results indicated significant associations between high fear following a COVID-19 post and more depressive, B(SE) = 0.13(0.04), p = .003, anxiety, B(SE) = 0.26(0.05), p < .001, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, B(SE) = 0.27(0.09), p = .003, with previous trauma moderating fear and anxiety symptoms, B(SE) = 0.59(0.23), p = .02. Our thematic analysis identified news stories as the main type of content that elicited both negative and positive emotions among participants. Further research is needed to continue to understand how to better mitigate the risk of exposure to negative social media content on mental health outcomes.