A new study finds that young adults, who use more social media, are more likely to develop depression within six months, regardless of personality type.
The results, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, showed that people with high agreeableness were 49 percent less likely to develop depression than those with low agreeableness.
"Previous research has linked the development of depression to many factors," said the authors, who include Chunhua Kao, an assistant professor in the University Of Alabama School Of Education. This new study addressed these important research questions and found strong and linear links to depression across all personality traits."
The team also found that people with high neuroticism were twice as likely to be depressed as those with low neuroticism when using more than 300 minutes of social media per day.
For the study, the team included a sample of more than 1,000 American adults between the ages of 18 and 30, and depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire. Social media was measured by asking participants how much time they spend per day using popular social media platforms.
Meanwhile, personality was measured using the Big Five Inventory, which assessed openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The authors suggest that problematic social comparison can reinforce negative feelings about self and others, which may explain how the risk of depression increases with increased social media use.
And engaging primarily in negative content can reinforce these feelings. Finally, engaging in more social media reduces opportunities for personal interactions and activities outside the home.