Does Social Media Really Change Our Mood, or Are We Just Scrolling in Circles?

Ever wondered how social media affects our mood? Do you start a scrolling session feeling one way and end up feeling completely different? In this post, I am diving into the ups and downs of social media use, exploring questions like: Does Instagram actually make us happier? Does WhatsApp keep us connected or just tired? And why do we keep going back to certain apps even when we’re bored? Using data visualizations, I will try to look at how different moods influence the way we use social media, how our moods shift after using certain apps, and which platforms steal the most of our time. Let’s find out if social media is a mood-booster or just a time-waster!

For this visualization I used the data that I got from my phone that tracks how much time I am spending in each and every app from my phone. Though we use so many apps in a daily basis, here I am working with the mostly used 6 apps of mine.

This bar graph displays duration in minutes for different social media apps (represented by color-coded bars) across four mood categories—Bored, Happy, Sad, and Tired. The “Mood Before” category is represented along the x-axis, and the y-axis shows the total duration in minutes.

For me Instagram and Facebook usage peaks when I am feeling happy, WhatsApp usage is highest when I am feeling tired, Snapchat is used minimally in my sad mood, and YouTube is used moderately when I am usually bored. This graph mainly illustrates how mood affects the choice of app and the duration of use.

This bubble chart visualizes mood transitions—how the “Mood Before” changes to the “Mood After”. Each bubble represents a unique combination of “Mood Before” and “Mood After” states, and the color of each bubble indicates the “Mood After”.

WhatsApp (Green Bubble):

I start using WhatsApp in a “Tired” or “Happy” mood and generally remain “Happy” afterward. This is mostly because I am an International student and I have 12 hours of time difference with my country. Usually at night when I am tired and exhausted, it is the morning time in my country and I talk to my family and friends over friend and afterwards I feel happy.

Facebook (Blue Bubble):

I feel “Happy” both before and after using Facebook. This is because I get to know about the daily life of my near and dear ones from Facebook as it is not possible to contact everyone everyday. So, this app makes me happy.

Instagram (Orange Bubble):

I start “Happy” but may transition to either “Happy” or “Angry.” In Instagram I mostly see reels and most of the reels makes me angry and also I feel bad watching some pf the reels. But this is so addictive that I can’t stop scrolling reels.

YouTube (Red Bubble):

I tend to move from “Bored” to “Happy” after using YouTube. This is the app that I mainly use to listen to songs and Songs makes me super happy.

TikTok (Teal Bubble):

I start and remain in a “Tired” mood while using TikTok maybe this is a passive activity for winding down without strong emotional engagement.

Snapchat (Yellow Bubble):

I tend to start feeling “Sad” and end up feeling “Tired” afterward. Because when I am sad I start watching snaps from my friends but somehow I am getting so much snaps daily that I end up being tired after watching all the snaps.

This pie chart shows the distribution of time spent on various social media apps, represented as percentages of the total duration. Each slice represents a different app, with the percentage indicating how much time, relative to the total, was spent on that app. This chart effectively shows that WhatsApp and Instagram dominates my social media time, while other apps like Snapchat, Facebook, and YouTube are used more sparingly. This data basically reflects my preferred platforms for different types of interactions or content consumption. And WhatsApp has the largest share, almost half of the total time this is because I am mostly talking to my friends and family via this app.

In conclusion, I came up with the idea that social media does affect my emotional state. Social media, far from being a one-size-fits-all experience, serves as a mirror for my moods. I guess this is more or less same for everyone. But again this makes me so sad seeing how much time I waste on social media on a daily basis. I had no idea about this before I did this visualization. Though this breaks the monotony of life and keeps me entertained but again my learning form this visualization is that I need to manage my time more efficiently.