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An Ohio University researcher helped look into how social media affects loneliness among college students

By: David Forster
Posted on: Friday, May 22, 2026

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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — There is an ironic juxtaposition between the words “social media” and its affect on its users. Research is beginning to show our use of it may not be providing the social link once promised and could have a negative impact on mental health.

Madelyn Hill is an associate professor at Ohio University’s College of Health Sciences and Professions. She was part of a team that studied the relationship between social media use and loneliness among college students. The study was based on a survey of 65,000 students nationwide who were asked how often they felt left out, lacked companionship or felt isolated and how often they used social media.

She sat down to speak with WOUB’s David Forster for “Modern Science.”

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

On how their study paved the way for future research on social media and mental health

“I wish I could sit here and give you this direct causation and say ‘Yep, social media is definitely causing this loneliness.’ Unfortunately, given the study design, I’m not able to say that there’s causality with this. I can say there’s an association, there’s a relationship.

“We are seeing college students who are reporting loneliness also having higher rates of social media use. This is really kind of a foundational study in a sense, to provide those numbers so we can understand that there’s something going on there. But we definitely need to look deeper into that causality piece because right now it’s the chicken or the egg. What came first? Are we using social media because we’re lonely and that’s where I can have social companionship or social connection? Or am I spending too much time on social media that I’m not having time for in-person relationships and socialization?”

How we use social media plays a role in our mental health experiences

“The data of it all comes down to the subjective experience for the person.

“Other research has shown that marginalized groups tend to actually get more social connection from social media. They could potentially have more loneliness should they stop using because they’re finding groups and connection online. There’s also other research that has shown that being more passive online, just endlessly scrolling and not engaging, tend to have higher loneliness than people who actively use social media: commenting, posting, messaging people you know, having that social engagement.”

On the importance of connection

“We are social beings. That’s how we survived this long is by having community groups so we can survive together. I think as our society has become more individualized, we’ve forgotten that we still need each other to connect.

“I don’t mean when I say ‘Oh, if you’re lonely, that means you don’t have all these friends.’ I just mean, do you have a connection, any type of social connection that’s giving you something. It’s not about the number of interactions you have, it’s how you feel after those interactions.”

 

The first draft of the transcript used for this story was created in Adobe Podcast, which includes an AI transcription tool. A WOUB News Editor then reviewed, corrected and reformatted the transcript before publication.