Social media offers little substitute for real-life emotional support, research suggests

by Steve Lundeberg, Oregon State University

edited by Swati Mestri , reviewed by Robert Egan

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Add as preferred source Credit: Viralyft from Pexels Two new papers by Oregon State University scientists suggest that social media may do little to replace the emotional support people receive from in-person relationships and that the timing of social media use may matter for a person's mental health.

The first study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine , examined the relationship between social media-based emotional support, real-life emotional support and loneliness.

The second, published in the Journal of Prevention , examined whether social media use soon after waking was associated with depression.