Lack of access to a phone and high social media use was associated with elevated physiological arousal in college students exposed to an acute laboratory stressor

Abstract. Recent studies indicate that virtual social networks have the ability to modulate emotional states and health of users for better or worse. One possible explanation between these inconsistent results may be related to the amount of time spent using social network sites. Therefore, we examined if patterns of social media use modulated responses to an acute laboratory stressor. Physiological (heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), respiratory rate (RR)), psychological (perception of public speaking, mood, perceived social isolation) and behavioral (passive and active engagements) responses were compared in healthy college undergraduates before and after completing the Simulation Public Speaking Test (SPST). Lack of access to a phone was associated with elevated physiological arousal (i.e., increased HR, BP, RR; all p > 0.05) and subjects who reported high social media use (HSMU) that were not allowed access to their phones demonstrated potentiated stress responses compared with low social media users (LSMU; e.g., mean HSMU/No phone stress HR = 84.5 beats/min vs mean LSMU/No phone; stress HR = 69 beats/min; p > 0.05). Subjects with access to a phone responded differently to psychological assessments throughout the SPST based on amount of social media use. HSMUs demonstrated higher amounts of perceived social isolation and were less likely to interact with others around them compared with LSMUs. These results suggest that subjects reporting high social media use depended on their phone for “stress coping” more so than those reporting low social media use and that lack of access to a phone resulted in differential physiological, psychological and behavioral responses in HSMUs compared with LSMUs. Collectively, these data provide further insight into the interaction between psychosocial stress, social media use and health.