he number of social media users worldwide reached 5.6 billion in 2025, representing nearly 70 percent of the world’s population. Pakistan, too, is catching up fast. The number of active social media users now exceeds 80 million. Research has shown that social media users spend around two and half hours a day on various platforms. Despite this high access rate and the amount of time spent on social media, the studies also report profound loneliness and emotional detachment among the users. It seems ironic that the users should suffer from such isolation while having hundreds of ‘friends’ and thousands of ‘followers’ on Facebook, Insta and the X etc.

This paradox has been researched and studied by many social scientists. Some of their findings and observations are very interesting. For instance, the urge to frequently post images and reels to get dopamine-inducing ‘likes’ and ‘replies’ can cause the users to care less about how honestly they portray themselves. To get maximum likes and responses, the posts have to be ‘interesting’ though not necessarily truthful. Consequently, on one hand many users unconsciously adopt a virtual persona that differs from their real self, which may lead them into manipulative behaviours or develop emotional detachment in real-life relationships. On the other hand, this urge for greater visibility creates a barrier to developing genuine attachment that can satisfy the human need for a sense of belonging and togetherness.

At the receiving end, going through someone’s media posts containing photos and videos, which are highly selective, filtered and admirable glimpses of their life, may lead some users to subject themselves to what psychologists are calling ‘upward social comparison’ where they feel that their own life, person and achievements are inadequate. Often, this leads people into ‘passive scrolling’ Such users keep swiping posts without actually interacting with other users. This practice exposes their loneliness. The excessive time spent on social media is often the time that could have been spent on deeper, in-person interactions with family and friends.

The Gen Z and Gen Alpha, the cohorts that are at once the most social media savvy and most connected, are reported to be affected by loneliness to a level bordering on the pathological. Studies report that around 62 percent of Pakistani youth believe that social media has largely replaced in-person interactions. Unlike the youth, many older adults actually benefit from social media by using it to maintain contact with geographically distant family members and friends. This is actually helpful in reducing their isolation.

The effects of social media-induced loneliness aren’t limited to outside one’s home. Mobile phones have ended the monopoly of TV screens over visual entertainment. Many people now prefer the individualised entertainment and media experience on their personal devices, i.e. smart-phones and tabs. For many, this has eliminated the opportunity for the family members to sit together and watch the same dramas and movies, which used to facilitate more in-person engagement between siblings and other family members. This partially explains the increasing feelings of alienation and isolation among family members even while living together.

At an airport lounge, the waiting area in a hospital and other public places, we see rampant ‘phubbing,’ i.e. phone snubbing, the practice of ignoring the people physically present around us in favour of browsing using smart-phones. Such behaviour cannot help people address their loneliness as it keeps them from ‘meeting’ real people around them and improving their inter-personal skills.

So often do we see crime and self-harm around us that is linked to social media addiction and the resulting feeling of loneliness. In fact, some psychologists say that there is a bi-directional correlation between this loneliness and subsequent aggressive behaviour manifested not only on the digital platforms but also in the real world outside. What happens is that the feeling of loneliness and constant upward social comparison, that the users find themselves subject to, consume all their limited energy and faculties of self-control and will-power. In worst cases, these faculties are depleted to the extent that they lose their ability to weigh the consequences of the next impulsive thought and action: hence they end up committing self-harm or crime against others.

It’s no exaggeration that addiction to social media poses serious challenges and risks especially to the physical and mental wellbeing of adolescent and young people for their very limited exposure and only fledging life skills. Authorities world over are waking up to the potential of the risks from social media use. Many have started putting in place regulatory frameworks to protect users of vulnerable age. To end the loneliness caused by excessive use of social media, the governments, schools, offices and families have to find innovative ways to encourage people to spend more time physically together than on social media platforms.

The writer is a sociologist with extensive work in social policy and development. He’s accessible at [email protected].