Recent research published in journals Psychology of popular media It suggests how problematic social media use changes the relationship between our sense of personal and national freedom and mental health. The findings show that while feeling free generally supports improved psychological well-being, an unhealthy obsession with social media tends to weaken the benefits of personal freedom while reinforcing the positive effects of national pride.
Psychologists generally agree that feeling free leads to improved mental health. The concept of freedom in psychology is broad. It involves a clear sense of personal freedom as well as a sense of belonging to a community. It also includes knowing that the world is treating you fairly and feeling that you have enough financial wealth to meet your needs and desires.
Compared to those around them, people who feel they have these resources and freedoms generally report fewer mental health problems. The researchers wanted to see how modern digital environments fit into this established psychological context. Social media provides vast tools for connection, but an unhealthy reliance on these platforms poses complex new challenges to human well-being.
Cameron J. Bunker, assistant professor of media psychology in Emerson College’s School of Communication, led the research team. “I’m a social scientist who studies media and self-perception,” Bunker said. “I am broadly interested in how the use of media such as social media and the use of AI influences the way people see themselves (and vice versa).”
Bunker explained that the study specifically targets feelings of autonomy. “For this project, I wanted to focus on the perception of freedom,” Bunker said. “Some have suggested that social media use may cause some people to feel constrained (for example, not being able to express themselves as they wish or being treated unfairly).”
To explore this idea, researchers conducted a large-scale population study in both the United States and Germany. They recruited a total of 2,036 adult participants in the fall of 2022 through an independent research firm. The American sample included 1,007 people and the German sample included 1,029 people.
These participants were selected to accurately reflect the general population in terms of age, gender, and geographic region in their respective countries. Scientists chose these two countries because they both rank highly on global measures of individualism. Individualism is a cultural trait that values personal independence, making freedom a particularly important concept for mental health in these regions.
Participants completed a series of questionnaires designed to measure their perceptions of freedom, social media habits, and mental health. To measure freedom, researchers asked participants to rate how free they felt on a 100-point scale. They assessed four specific areas, including a general sense of personal freedom, a sense of belonging or social connectedness, a sense of being treated fairly, and a sense of economic well-being.
Participants rated these four factors in two different ways. First, they compared themselves to other individuals in the country. Second, they compared their country as a whole to other countries around the world.
The researchers then measured social media behavior using a widely accepted psychological questionnaire. The tool asks users how often they feel addicted to social media, whether they use social media to escape negative emotions, and whether they experience distress when they can’t access their accounts. Finally, the scientists evaluated the participants’ mental health by looking at both positive and negative psychological indicators.
They measured negative mental health symptoms by asking participants how often they experienced feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress. They also asked participants to rate their overall life satisfaction and overall happiness, and measured positive mental health indicators. Statistical analysis showed that the four types of freedom were mixed to yield one composite score for individual freedom and another composite score for national freedom.
After analyzing the data, the researchers found that unhealthy social media use significantly altered the relationship between freedom scores and mental health. When it came to personal perceptions of freedom, social media obsession tended to weaken the usual psychological benefits. Generally, people who feel they have more freedom in their personal lives report fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression.
However, this protective effect on mental health was significantly weaker for those who also had high levels of problematic social media use. Scientists suggest that heavy, uncontrolled social media use can introduce new digital stressors that interfere with the peace of mind normally provided by a sense of personal freedom.
“People who feel free (for example, those who are treated fairly or feel like they belong in a social environment) tend to have better mental health,” Bunker told SciPost. “This has been proven in previous research. In this study, my collaborators and I found in a cross-cultural sample of more than 2,000 people that perceived freedom may be less positively associated with mental health among people who exhibit problematic patterns of social media use (e.g., those who feel unable to reduce their use even though they are trying).”
Mr. Bunker emphasized the importance of this digital context. “It is important to consider how people’s perceptions of freedom are embedded in a digital world with social media platforms,” he said.
When researchers looked at how people view their countries, a different pattern emerged. Regarding perceptions of national freedom, problematic social media use actually strengthened the association with positive mental health. People who believed their country was very free, fair, and wealthy compared to the rest of the world reported higher levels of overall happiness.
Scientists found that this effect was particularly pronounced among American participants. “When we focused on Americans’ (non-Germans’) perceptions of freedom, we actually found the opposite effect when the country was the target rather than the self,” Bunker said. “In other words, how free Americans think their country is is correlated with better mental health among people who have trouble using social media.”
Bunker provided a potential reason for this particular national trend. “One interpretation of these anomalies is that people who use social media problematically in the United States may be more prone to nationalist beliefs (seeing their country as more free than other countries and feeling better about it overall),” Bunker said.
Although this study provides new insights, it has several limitations. Because this study relies on data collected at a single point in time, it cannot prove cause and effect. Unhealthy social media use may reduce the mental health benefits of freedom, but the reverse may also be true.
“The results of this study are correlational, so we cannot conclude a causal relationship,” Professor Bunker said. “For example, we cannot conclude that problematic social media use worsens the relationship between perceptions of freedom and mental health (or vice versa).”
Bunker also highlighted changes in the way psychologists explain these digital behaviors. “I now use the term ‘problematic use’ rather than ‘addictive use,'” Bunker explained. “Since publication, my thoughts on this label have changed. There is new research suggesting that most social media users are not actually ‘addicted’ to social media use, and patterns like the one measured in this study may more accurately be classified as ‘problematic.'”
Finally, this study focused entirely on individuals living in the United States and Germany. This result may not apply to people living in collectivist cultures, as both countries are highly individualistic. People in those societies may use social media differently and derive a sense of freedom from completely different social sources.
Looking to the future, Bunker plans to continue investigating how modern technology shapes human identity. “I’m currently investigating what kind of constraining role AI algorithms may play in people’s self-concepts,” he said.
The study, “Social media addiction moderates the association between perceived freedom and mental health in the United States and Germany,” was authored by Cameron J. Bunker, Jürgen Margraf, and Julia Breilovskaya.
