IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA VERSUS IN-PERSON COMMUNICATION FOR FEELINGS OF LONELINESS AMONG OLDER ADULTS

Many technology and social media companies market their products as a cure for loneliness, which is associated with poorer health. This study examines whether technology-mediated communication such as social media, compared to in-person communication, influences loneliness. Data are from adults aged 50 years and older who returned the leave behind questionnaire in the 2014 and 2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. The UCLA Loneliness Scale was used to measure feelings of loneliness; mode of contact was determined through questions about how often participants use Skype, Facebook, or other social media, versus how often they meet in-person to communicate with their children, family, and friends. Using multiple linear regression, preliminary results indicate that using only social media to contact networks was not associated with lower levels of loneliness than having no contact at all (p=.093). Also compared to older adults who have no contact, those who only meet in-person and those who use both social media and in-person meetings have significantly lower loneliness scores (B = -.35, p<.001 and B = -.44, p<.001, respectively). A Wald post hoc test revealed that older adults who used both social media and in-person meetings had significantly lower levels of loneliness compared to those who only met up with networks in-person (p<.001). These results suggest that social media can be a beneficial supplement to in-person contact but is a poor replacement for it, and they can inform applications of social media to reduce loneliness among older adults.