Quantitative and Qualitative Examination of the Relationship between University Students' Mental Health and Social Media Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between university students' SNS (Twitter, Instagram) usage and mental health from both quantitative and qualitative approach during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on differences by grades. Subjective well-being (SWB) and loneliness were measured as the indicators of mental health. Analysis of quantitative data from 408 university students who responded to an online survey conducted between August and September 2022 revealed that connecting with university friends on Twitter led to higher levels of SWB and lower levels of loneliness, and posting on Instagram led to lower levels of loneliness among second-year students. For third-year students, posting and browsing on Twitter led to lower levels of SWB. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted between October 2022 and February 2023 with 23 of the university students who answered the online survey. The results showed that those who used Twitter in a way that reinforced their interpersonal relationships in real life exhibited adaptive mental health, regardless of their grading years. However, those who communicated only with online friends tended to be less adaptive in their mental health, but some maintained at least their current mental health through self-protection by avoiding opinions with which they disagreed. Furthermore, those in the higher grades with lower levels of social skills who did not force themselves to explore their networks on Twitter and who hung out with a small number of friends tended to maintain their mental health, at least at that point the survey was conducted. However, some of these students still attempted to explore their networks through Twitter postings in their first and second years. The results suggest that, under conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating opportunities for first- and second- year students to increase their real-life friends through social media might be able to reinforce their real-life relationships and lead to a good mental health.