After defining five possible pathways to increase belonging through social media use, this narrative review summarizes the research on social media and loneliness. The association between social media use and loneliness is examined at the trait level and change in loneliness over time. Next, the use of social media during the COVID pandemic and its use to increase belonging at the momentary or daily level are summarized. Following, the use of social media to cope with loneliness or ostracism as well as the social compensation and enhancement hypotheses are examined. The evidence suggests social media use is weakly related to trait loneliness, explains little variance in loneliness relative to other predictors, and fails to explain a change in loneliness over time. There is no evidence it causes loneliness. On any given day, however, social media use may be used to promote belongingness but may not be a good means of coping with loneliness in the long term. This narrative review concludes that future research should firmly situate the study of loneliness and social media in the context of social interactions and relationships by carefully examining when and for whom it is beneficial or harmful.

中文翻译：

---

孤独和社交媒体


在定义了通过使用社交媒体来增加归属感的五种可能途径之后，这篇叙述性综述总结了对社交媒体和孤独感的研究。社交媒体使用与孤独感之间的关联在特质层面和孤独感随时间的变化进行了研究。接下来，总结了 COVID 大流行期间社交媒体的使用及其在瞬间或日常层面上增加归属感的用途。接下来，研究了使用社交媒体来应对孤独或排斥以及社会补偿和增强假设。证据表明，社交媒体的使用与孤独感的相关性较弱，解释了相对于其他预测因子的孤独感变化很小，并且无法解释孤独感随时间的变化。没有证据表明它会导致孤独。然而，在任何一天，社交媒体的使用都可能被用来促进归属感，但从长远来看，这可能不是应对孤独感的好方法。本叙述性综述得出结论，未来的研究应通过仔细研究何时以及对谁有益或有害，将孤独和社交媒体的研究牢固地置于社会互动和关系的背景下。