Social Media Addiction and its Relation to Depression, Anxiety, and Loneliness Among the Egyptian Population

Background: Social media usage varies among people in terms of extent, feelings of attachment, and behavioral dependency, and these factors may exhibit distinct correlations with psychological outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine social media use (SMU) and evaluate how it relates to anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Additionally, to identify loneliness, anxiety, and depression as warning signs of social media addiction.Patients and Methods: In all, 388 individuals were enrolled. A survey was conducted online using sociodemographic inquiries, the Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ9), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and the UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-6) to measure social network dependency, depression, anxiety symptoms, and loneliness, respectively.Results: On the social media addiction scale, the mean score was 41.9±8.6. Overall, depression was prevalent in 50.2% of people, but anxiety was present in 32.8% of people. The social media addiction scale was significantly positively correlated (p-value <0.05) with social media duration of usage, depression, anxiety, and loneliness scales.Conclusions: Social networking is expanding and becoming progressively more popular. Many people in the general population experience depression, anxiety, and loneliness. They also have a close association with one another. It's essential to recognize these problems, and interventions should include these issues.