Critics of social media often accuse it of swallowing out our relationships with others as we turn to breadth rather than depth of interactions. Research from the University of Kansas suggests such an accusation is unfounded, and finds that while our socializing in-person is typically declining, social media is not to blame.

“The social displacement hypothesis is probably the most well-known, long-lasting explanation for where time spent using new technologies—from the internet to texting, and now social media—comes from,” the authors explain. “The social displacement argument says that new media cuts into our face-to-face time. The best available evidence suggests it’s just not so.”

How we spend our time

The authors collected data on face-to-face time from the US Department of Labor’s American Time Use Survey, which was conducted each year between 1995 and 2021. This was then compared with similar studies conducted in the UK and Australia. The charts for each country appeared to head in the same direction at the same rate.

What isn’t clear, however, is that the time we would spend socializing in person is instead being spent interacting with people on social media. Instead, the researchers believe there is a transformation in where we’re devoting our attention, with rises in viewing content on YouTube and TikTok, such that social media is instead taking the time that would otherwise be spent watching television or doing household chores. Indeed, the researchers don’t believe that social media is detrimental to friendships.

“Social media can be used in many friendship-promoting ways, especially now that many people use messaging programs supported by social media platforms,” they explain. “Social people are active both online and offline.”

Loneliness epidemic

While social media might not be to blame, the researchers do nonetheless believe that the reduction in face-to-face time is harmful and may reflect the growing rates of loneliness seen across the world.

These trends largely existed before the pandemic, but the pandemic has undoubtedly exacerbated them, as while we may have regained some time that would otherwise have been spent commuting, we don’t appear to have devoted that to face-to-face communication. So even when we have additional time, we don’t seem to be spending it in ways that promote our social and mental health.

The authors suggest that while we’re not spending time on our commute, we do appear to be spending more time actually working, which may partly explain the lack of time spent socializing. If we’re not working, we tend to spend our leisure time alone. The researchers explain that we’re often working virtually rather than socializing with others.

“It seems we live in a society that privileges working and media consumption over everything else,” the authors conclude. “The decline in face-to-face time is a matter of priority and a matter of availability. And we are neither prioritizing face-to-face time, nor are we available to do so.”