The rise of social media has been as sudden – and stratospheric – as the smartphone itself. And it’s spread far beyond the web – influencing real life social interactions. And it’s played an outsized role in the lives of those with certain socio-cognitive traits and mental disorders.
Social media, by its very nature, allows its users to descend into – and live with – distorted perceptions of themselves. Throw in a muddled sense of self and a lack of a social life, and it can amplify that effect. And with a virtual ecosystem that prevents instant feedback (unlike real life), someone’s warped beliefs can linger on unchecked.
A pair of Canadian researchers wanted to explore that influence as they pursued a systematic review of how social media use ties into psychotic spectrum phenotypes and disorders that involve self-identity disturbances – such as narcissism, body dysmorphia, and eating disorders.
“Social media is creating conditions where delusions can more easily be generated and sustained due to the presence of platforms and apps that cater to the disorder’s causes, plus the absence of effective reality-checking,” co-author Bernard Crespi, a professor of biological sciences at Simon Fraser University, said in a press release. “This research has important implications for the causes and symptoms of mental illnesses, and how they can be exacerbated by online social platforms.”
Crespi and his collaborator uncovered three key things that they argue links digital interactions with psychological traits and disorders.
Mentalistic Traits
For starters, the researchers found a bidirectional relationship between intense social media use and users with strong mentalistic traits. In short, individuals with such traits are more drawn to social media. At the same time, online interactions can influence those traits.
The study discusses virtual environments and how they provide fertile ground for imaginative social cognition, which fuels delusions. Those with highly mentalistic traits could be more attracted to these environments, the authors contend, since they allow for exaggerated interpretations of social interactions.
This argument pushes past the conceit that all social media does is promote mental distress. Rather, the authors propose that one’s psychological makeup interacts with the platform’s social structure.
Fueling Self Delusion
The team also discovered a strong relationship between increased social media use and mental health issues, such as narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and eating disorders.
It’s worth noting that each of these disorders involves a warped perception of self, which social media platforms can amplify.
For narcissists, social media’s infrastructure fuels grandiosity and self-exaggeration. Narcissistic users often display an idealized self-image online, hunting for validation through likes, comments, and followers. This ecosystem fosters a feedback loop where perceived social admiration reinforces their inflated self-perception.
On the other hand, BDD patients and those with eating disorders might turn to social media to help manage how badly they feel about themselves. The quantifiable nature of social media metrics, with its – likes, reposts, and views – offers a way to validate distorted self-images.
But instead of fixing their self-perception, excessive social media engagement makes things worse, fueling their anxiety and exacerbating their symptoms.
Social Media and Autism
Finally, the researchers found that those on the autism spectrum practice much different habits online. They show less of a tendency toward engagement, echoing stronger self-other boundaries and less interest in social interactions overall.
Those with autism prefer platforms like YouTube, which encourage passive consumption rather than active engagement. This lines up with established research that those on the spectrum prefer asynchronous, text-based communication, which reduces social stress and sensory overload.
Mental Health Implications
The study reinforces – once more – that social media continues to play a powerful role in shaping our mental health. And the influence is especially strong among those with specific psychiatric conditions. While these apps certainly foster stronger social connections most of the time, their highly curated environments can perpetuate distorted self-perceptions and delusional thinking.
“According to Cooley’s theory of the looking-glass self, people’s self-identities are formed in three steps:
- People imagining how they appear to other people.
- People imagining how others are judging them based on appearance and how they present themselves, and
- People imagining how others feel about them based on the judgements they make.
“Considering modern technological advances, the reflecting power of another person’s eyes is being replaced by the glow of smartphone screens displaying virtual faces and bodies,” the authors conclude. “For the first time in human evolutionary history, social interactions can thus be completely disembodied and dissociated from its physical, temporal, and tactile cues.”
Further Reading
Social Media Really is a Nightmare
