Do men and women experience social media differently? A two-year longitudinal study of the moderating effect of gender on the social media use – well-being relationship

A vigorous debate exists among academics as to the impact of social media use (SMU) on well-being writ large. To date, research has found both positive and negative results, as well as no results, regarding the relationship between these two variables. Using a large, randomly selected sample of US adults across two annual waves of data, our findings suggest that SMU is negatively associated with physical and mental health (albeit weakly). Fixed R-squared was .047 and .049 for SMU as a predictor of physical and mental health, respectively. Currently, most research on SMU and well-being has focused on adolescents. A significant relationship between SMU and health contributes to the narrative that SMU may be associated with poorer perceptions of both physical and mental health. The study also finds that gender moderates this relationship. Women, as hypothesized, are more likely to report lower levels of physical and mental health from SMU than men. Our results also find a bidirectional relationship between SMU and health. Those reporting lower physical and/or mental health were more likely to use social media than those in better perceived health. And these results held across genders. Fixed R-squared was .097 for both mental and physical health. The study's findings have important implications for research in this area and for public policy.