Navigating Social Media: The Impact of Text-Based vs. Image-Based Engagement on Social Anxiety Among College Students
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Authors
Sammons, Trinity
Stacey, Rachel
Lindus, Emilia
Piffarerio, Gina
Date of Issue
2025-04-25
Type
Presentation
Language
en_US
Subject Keywords
Other Titles
Abstract
Previous studies suggest social media outlets such as Facebook have a negative impact on students’ mental health (Braghieri et al., 2022). Specifically, the use of social media is correlated with heightened social anxiety and affects both men and women (Dobrean & Pasarelu, 2016). Our study aimed to build on prior research by exploring if users’ levels of social anxiety are different based on which platforms they more frequently use. We examined this association by asking participants (n=51) to report the top social media applications used on their smartphone Participants then completed the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL), demographic questions and a smartphone screen time questionnaire. Results indicated that women had a statistically significantly higher LSAS score than men did. However, no association was found between screen time and social anxiety scores. There was also no significant difference in phone usage (the top social media outlets used) between men and women. Although this was of no significance, it might be interesting to note the results found when looking at text-based vs image-based social media. We found that only 2 out of 51 participants had reported a text-based app being their most used, while the rest were image-based. Further research could be gathering information about the type of content (beauty vs sports) that women and men engage in, and how those differences could correlate with social anxiety.