Problematic social media use in 3D? Relationships between traditional social media use, social virtual reality (VR) use, and mental health
| Author(s) | Yao, Shay Xuejing | |
| Author(s) | Lee, Joomi | |
| Author(s) | Reynolds, Reed M. | |
| Author(s) | Ellithorpe, Morgan E. | |
| Date Accessioned | 2025-02-12T18:03:48Z | |
| Date Available | 2025-02-12T18:03:48Z | |
| Publication Date | 2025-01-15 | |
| Description | This article was originally published in PLoS ONE. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0314863. © 2025 Yao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
| Abstract | This research expanded on prior work exploring the relationship between social media use, social support, and mental health by including the usage of social virtual reality (VR). In Study 1 (undergraduate students; n = 448) we examined divergent relationships between problematic social media use (e.g., Facebook, TikTok), total use, and users’ mental health indicators (e.g., depression, anxiety, social isolation). To determine whether problematic social media use patterns extended to immersive 3-D environments, we sampled active social VR users (e.g., Rec Room) in Study 2 (n = 464). Problematic social VR use was related to decreased real-life social support (β = -.62, 95%CI [-.80, -.44]), but not to VR social support (β = -.06, 95%CI [-.25, .14]). Conversely, the amount of social VR use was only related to increased social VR (β = .06, 95%CI [.04, .15]) but not to real-life social support (β = -.02, 95%CI [-.05, .04]). Study 2 also revealed a finding that may be unique to the 3-D immersive environment: the amount of social VR use facilitated better mental health for VR users, but only through stronger perceived social support on social VR but not in real life. This result highlights the potential of immersive media to promote mental well-being by facilitating engaging and meaningful social interactions. | |
| Sponsor | The first author's startup fund from Georgia State University was used to fund this research. | |
| Citation | Yao SX, Lee J, Reynolds RM, Ellithorpe ME (2025) Problematic social media use in 3D? Relationships between traditional social media use, social virtual reality (VR) use, and mental health. PLoS ONE 20(1): e0314863. https://doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0314863 | |
| ISSN | 1932-6203 | |
| URL | https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/35802 | |
| Language | en_US | |
| Publisher | PLoS ONE | |
| dc.rights | Attribution 4.0 International | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
| Title | Problematic social media use in 3D? Relationships between traditional social media use, social virtual reality (VR) use, and mental health | |
| Type | Article |
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