Association between social media addiction and mental health among Greek young adults

Background: The use of social media is constantly increasing, but it also has several negative consequences, especially for young people. Aim: To examine the relationship between social media addiction and mental health among Greek young adults. Methods: We conducted an online cross-sectional study during July 2024 in Greece. We used the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) to measure levels of social media addiction in our participants. We used the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) to evaluate levels of anxiety and depression in our participants. We measured gender, age, the number of hours that participants usually sleep when next day they have to go for their work/class, and how sleepy they felt at work/class. Results: The majority of our participants were females (83.1%, n=300), while 16.9% were males (n=61). Mean age was 23.3 years. Our correlation analysis showed that social media addiction was correlated with increased anxiety and depression (p-value < 0.01 in both cases). Moreover, reduced age and reduced duration of night sleep was associated with increased social media addiction (p-value < 0.01 in both cases). Additionally, social media addiction was correlated with increased sleepiness in work/class (p-value < 0.01). Conclusions: We found a positive correlation between social media addiction, anxiety and depression among young adults in Greece. Moreover, we found that reduced age and reduced duration of night sleep was associated with increased social media addiction. Additionally, social media addiction was correlated with increased sleepiness in work/class. Therefore, social media addiction is an important issue among young adults and policy makers should develop appropriate interventions to reduce this phenomenon.