ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter was to provide a short overview and a practical example of the association between online social media use, loneliness, and perceived social isolation among individuals aged 65 years and over. To this end, we used data from the German Ageing Survey (wave six, n = 3,242) – a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older individuals in Germany. The frequency of social media use was used as the key independent variable. The de Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale was used to quantify loneliness and the Bude and Lantermann scale was used to quantify perceived social isolation. Our findings demonstrated that compared to never users of social media, almost every frequency of social media use was associated with lower perceived social isolation scores. Moreover, compared to never users of social media, individuals using social media 1–3 times a month reported lower loneliness scores. Due to the limited knowledge in this area, we also highlight the urgent need to clarify the association between these factors.
