Under the dual context of labor market transformations and the widespread adoption of social media, college students face increasingly severe employment pressure. This study integrates social comparison theory and stress coping theory to systematically explore the complex relationships among social media use, social support, and employment anxiety through structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis of questionnaire data from 400 Chinese college students. The findings reveal that: (1) High-frequency social media use is significantly positively correlated with employment anxiety, with mechanisms involving the depletion of psychological resources due to information overload and passive social comparison; (2) Social support exhibits a paradoxical mediating role: while online support is strongly associated with social media use, its indirect effects suggest that online interactions may exacerbate anxiety through irrational competition and superficial emotional feedback. This phenomenon is termed the “reinforcement paradox” of online support—a paradoxical mechanism where digital socialization, intended to alleviate stress through peer connection, instead amplifies anxiety by creating self-reinforcing cycles of social comparison and emotional dependency. This paradox arises from the dual-edged nature of online interactions: while providing perceived support, they simultaneously normalize competitive benchmarks and reduce emotional feedback to performative gestures, which collectively heighten psychological strain;(3) Significant gender and grade differences exist, with female participants exhibiting significantly higher anxiety levels than males, and upperclassmen showing escalating anxiety as job-seeking deadlines approach. This study is the first to uncover the theoretical framework of the “reinforcement paradox” in digital social support systems, providing a breakthrough in understanding how virtual networks simultaneously buffer and exacerbate mental health challenges. On a practical level, it is recommended to establish a collaborative online-offline support system and optimize social media information filtering mechanisms to alleviate anxiety. Future research should expand cross-cultural comparisons and incorporate variables such as psychological resilience and self-efficacy to further refine intervention frameworks.
Li et al. (Thu,) studied this question.