Loneliness and social media use in the European Union
Approximately 34.5% and 26.1% of respondents aged 16-30 use social networking sites and instant messaging tools for over 2 hours per day, respectively. The corresponding figures for respondents 31 or older are 13.1% and 8.8%. Over one third of young respondents exhibit patterns of social media addiction. Approximatively 12% of respondents aged 31 or older fall into this category.
Spending more than 2 hours per day on social network sites is associated with a substantial increase in the prevalence of loneliness. Intense passive use of social media is also linked with increased loneliness.There is not a significant association between intensive use of instant messaging tools or active use of social media and loneliness. The relationship between social media use and loneliness does not vary by age group.
These findings are consistent with previous research and suggest that how social media is used matters more than how often social media is used.
DHOMBRES Beatrice;
KOVACIC Matija;
SCHNEPF Sylke Viola;
BLASKÓ Zsuzsa;
DHOMBRES, B., KOVACIC, M., SCHNEPF, S.V. and BLASKÓ, Z., Loneliness and social media use in the European Union, European Commission, 2024, JRC135806.
2024-09-18
European Commission
JRC135806
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