Social Media Use Intensity, Social Comparison, and Mental Burden: Evidence from a Online Survey with a Conditional Process Model

Social media use has been repeatedly associated with adverse mental health outcomes, yet effect heterogeneity suggests that psychological mechanisms and boundary conditions require more precise specification. This study tested a conditional process model in which social media use intensity (SMN) was associated with mental burden (MB) indirectly via social comparison (SV), and self-compassion (SMG) was examined as a moderator of the SV → MB association. Data were collected via a fully online survey recruited through Reddit and relevant subreddits (N = 120). All constructs were assessed using Likert-type composite scores (1–5). Regression-based conditional process analyses indicated a strong indirect effect of SMN on MB through SV, supporting social comparison as a central explanatory pathway linking social media engagement to experienced burden. Self-compassion showed strong negative associations with SV and MB, consistent with its role as a general resilience factor; however, the SV × SMG interaction was small and did not conform to a straightforward buffering pattern in this dataset, underscoring the importance of measurement considerations and replication with multi-method designs. Overall, the findings support mechanism-focused models of social media effects that prioritize social comparison processes and highlight self-compassion as a clinically relevant correlate of lower burden, while cautioning against overly simple protective interpretations in cross-sectional self-report data.