PsyPost reports:

A study of adult social media users in Italy suggested that loneliness and death anxiety might mediate the relationship between attachment anxiety and problematic social media use. The paper was published in Death Studies.

Attachment anxiety is a form of insecure attachment characterized by fear of rejection and excessive need for closeness in relationships. People with attachment anxiety constantly worry that their partner does not love them enough or will eventually leave them.

This persistent fear can lead to clingy or overly dependent behaviors as they seek reassurance. Even minor signs of distance or withdrawal from a partner can trigger intense distress or jealousy. Such individuals tend to be highly sensitive to changes in tone, attention, or affection. Their self-esteem is often highly dependent on how they are treated by significant others.

Attachment theory proposes that this form of anxiety develops from inconsistent caregiving during childhood, where affection and attention were unpredictable. In adulthood, it can make relationships emotionally exhausting and unstable.

Study author Alessandro Musetti and his colleagues hypothesized that attachment anxiety contributes to problematic social media use through a chain of psychological factors. They proposed that this relationship is mediated first by loneliness and then by death anxiety. Citing Terror Management Theory, they noted that individuals often cope with existential anxiety by seeking “symbolic immortality”—a sense of being part of something larger that will outlast them. The authors suggest that individuals with attachment anxiety may turn to social media to build a lasting digital presence as a way of achieving this symbolic immortality. [Continue reading…]