Social media addiction and burnout: The mediating roles of envy and social media use anxiety

Although prior studies have to some extent clarified the mechanism underlying the development of social media burnout, the present study contributes to the literature by showing how social media addiction contributes to this phenomenon. Chinese university students (N = 519) completed self-report questionnaires on social media addiction, social media burnout, envy, and social media use anxiety. The results showed that addiction, envy, and social media use anxiety were all significant predictors of burnout. Moreover, envy and social media use anxiety mediated the relationship between social media addiction and burnout, both in parallel and as a pair in series. Considering the negative effect of social media burnout such as depression, the findings may provide new path to understand the detrimental of excessive use of social media toward corresponding psychological outcomes.