ABSTRACT
The overall impact and consequences of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had an unimaginable and lasting influence on everyone worldwide. Since the start of the pandemic, people around the world have been forced into isolation and lockdowns for long periods of time, which has resulted in adverse psychological consequences for many people. The purpose of this study was to explore and identify how different predictors influence depression during the COVID-19 pandemic among adult social media users. The researcher used a combination of the uses and gratifications theory and the social comparison theory as a theoretical framework for this study. An online survey was conducted with a sample of 215 valid responses from participants around the world. The results demonstrated that increased COVID-19 anxiety was associated with higher levels of depression. The results also demonstrated that positive social comparison to other people was associated with lower levels of depression. The most significant result was that increased time spent on Facebook resulted in a reduction of depression for people who had favorable views of themselves. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The overall impact and consequences of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had an unimaginable and lasting influence on everyone worldwide. Since the start of the pandemic, people around the world have been forced into isolation and lockdowns for long periods of time, which has resulted in adverse psychological consequences for many people. The purpose of this study was to explore and identify how different predictors influence depression during the COVID-19 pandemic among adult social media users. The researcher used a combination of the uses and gratifications theory and the social comparison theory as a theoretical framework for this study. An online survey was conducted with a sample of 215 valid responses from participants around the world. The results demonstrated that increased COVID-19 anxiety was associated with higher levels of depression. The results also demonstrated that positive social comparison to other people was associated with lower levels of depression. The most significant result was that increased time spent on Facebook resulted in a reduction of depression for people who had favorable views of themselves. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)