Cranky? Angry? Irritable? TikTok, Instagram and social media may be impacting your mood, study finds.
Rage-baiting — posting infuriating content to social media to attract attention and engagement — has been making headlines in recent years because it’s, well, enraging. And baiting followers into leaving millions of angry comments on videos designed to upset them is making influencers, especially those on TikTok, six-figure profits.
But even if you’re not seeing much rage-bait on your TikTok, Instagram or X feeds, you’re still more likely to feel irritable the more you use social media, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open. Why is that? And what should you do if you feel on edge while scrolling? Here’s what experts say.
What the new study found
Led by Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry Dr. Roy Perlis, researchers collected data on how often adults 18 and older use Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly known as Twitter) or Facebook. They then compared people’s social media use to how they scored on a test designed to gauge how irritable they were. Previous research has linked social media to anxiety and depression, but “irritability is important in its own right, not just because it is common in depression — it can be associated with suicide risk, with substance use, even violence,” Perlis tells Yahoo Life.
He and his team found that those who spent more time on social media were “significantly” more likely to feel angry or annoyed. For example, those who said they used social media “most of the day” scored 3.37 points higher on the irritability scale than those who said they never used social media. It’s worth noting, however, that the majority of survey respondents (over 78%) said they used social media daily, with nearly 25% reporting they use it most of the day. And that was true across all the social media platforms researchers asked people about using, though the strongest link was between frequent TikTok use and irritability.
Do irritable people use social media, or does social media make them irritable?
That’s hard to say, at least on the basis of this study. “It may be that social media use exacerbates irritability, but it may also be that irritability makes people use more social media,” or a combination of the two, says Perlis. But past research “really points in the direction of [social media having an impact on] externalizing emotions like anger and irritability,” Jean Twenge, psychologist and author of Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents — and What They Mean for America's Future, tells Yahoo Life.
Not all social media use is equally linked to irritability
Some social media platforms — namely, TikTok and, to a lesser extent, X — were more closely linked than others, like Instagram, to irritability in the new study. “I suspect it has to do with the kind of content people engage with” on each app, says Perlis. Twenge’s research on social media and teen’s self-image and mental health has led her often to Instagram, where she says content is more “focused on diet and body image, and that [contributes] a little more toward depression than anger,” she notes. “On TikTok, it’s very often people talking, expressing opinions about how to do X or Y.” This more opinionated content may be more likely to stoke irritability, she speculates.
This opinionated content can include political discourse. But even when researchers adjusted their calculations to account for political engagement, they still found a link between irritability and time spent on sites like X and TikTok. “That’s not to say that arguing politics on the internet is great for mental health, just that it’s not the sole reason people who use more social media are more irritable,” Perlis says.
And it’s worth noting irritability scores mostly went up when people used social media for most of the day. In fact, the scores were slightly lower, on average, for those who used social media “several” times a day, compared to those who said they logged on just once a day. “I think for many people, some amount of use can be a net positive — it’s just finding ways to moderate that use,” says Perlis. He adds that the companies running social media platforms could “probably do more to help people use them more responsibly.”
How to have a more positive social media experience
The main thing, experts agree, is simply to avoid overindulging. “As with other habits, if we think that some of the irritability might be caused or exacerbated by social media use, learning to moderate use is probably the best strategy,” Perlis says.
Of course, that’s easier said than done. But there are some mindful strategies you can employ to set yourself up for success. “If you truly are spending most of the day on social media, there are probably more beneficial things you can be doing with your time,” Twenge says. “What are you not doing? You’re probably not sleeping enough, talking to people in person, getting outdoors or exercising,” she adds.
It might also be helpful to consider how your scroll time might affect your relationships. “Social media use doesn’t just affect the individual user; it affects the people around them and, in this case, irritability is a good example” of a negative effect, says Twenge.
