Social Media, Real-World Social Connection and Adolescent Loneliness and Mental Health: Evidence from Born in Bradford

Friendships and spending time with peers are central parts of adolescence. However, in an increasingly digital world, young people now socialise both face-to-face and online. Simply counting how many friends a young person has, how often they meet friends in person, or how much time they spend on social media may therefore not tell us whether they feel socially connected. An important question is whether online interaction can help when young people have less face-to-face contact with friends than they would like. This study will examine what we call the “real-world social connection gap”: the difference between how often young people actually meet friends face-to-face and how often they would prefer to meet them. We will investigate whether young people whose actual social contact falls short of what they would like are more likely to feel lonely, and whether this gap matters more for loneliness than simply having fewer friends or meeting friends less often. We will then examine how young people’s online social lives fit into this relationship. This will include how much time they spend on social media, how many online friends they have, whether social media helps them connect with friends, and whether they feel able to be open about their feelings online. We will investigate whether these forms of online connection are associated with lower loneliness when face-to-face social needs are not being met. We will also examine whether some ways of using social media, such as comparing oneself with others, monitoring likes and comments, having mood affected by online feedback, or spending more time online than intended, are associated with greater loneliness.