You did not write on your blog today. You did write on your Facebook
page though. I suggest you drop it in here also and call it a day. - Amorella
** **
"Is social media bad
for you? The evidence and unknowns"
• By Jessica Brown
5 January 2018
Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram.
Three billion
people, around 40% of the world’s population, use online social
media – and we’re spending an" average of two hours
every day sharing, liking, tweeting and updating on these
platforms, according to some reports. That breaks down to around half a
million tweets and Snapchat photos shared every minute.
With social media playing such a
big part in our lives, could we be sacrificing our mental health and well-being
as well as our time? What does the evidence actually suggest?
•
Facebook
responds to mental well-being claims
•
Is it time to rethink how we use social media? An introduction to our
#LikeMinded season
Since social media is relatively
new to us, conclusive findings are limited. The research that does exist mainly
relies on self-reporting, which can often be flawed, and the majority of
studies focus on Facebook. That said, this is a fast-growing area of research,
and clues are beginning to emerge. BBC Future reviewed the findings of some of
the science so far:
STRESS
People use social media to vent
about everything from customer service to politics, but the downside to this is
that our feeds often resemble an endless stream of stress. In 2015, researchers
at the Pew Research Center based in Washington DC sought to find out if social
media induces more stress than it relieves.
In the survey of
1,800 people, women reported being more stressed than men. Twitter was found to
be a “significant contributor” because it increased their awareness of other
people’s stress.
But Twitter also acted as a coping
mechanism – and the more women used it, the less stressed they were. The same
effect wasn’t found for men, whom the researchers said had a more distant
relationship with social media. Overall, the researchers concluded that social
media use was linked to “modestly lower levels” of stress.
MOOD
In 2014, researchers in
Austria found that participants reported lower moods after using Facebook for
20 minutes compared to those who just browsed the internet. The study suggested
that people felt that way because they saw it as a waste of time.
A good or bad mood may also spread
between people on social media, according to researchers
from the University of California, who assessed the emotional
content of over a billion status updates from more than 100 million Facebook
users between 2009 and 2012.
Bad weather increased the number of
negative posts by 1%, and the researchers found that one negative post by
someone in a rainy city influenced another 1.3 negative posts by friends living
in dry cities. The better news is that happy posts had a stronger influence;
each one inspired 1.75 more happy posts. Whether a happy post translates to a
genuine boost in mood, however, remains unclear.
ANXIETY
Researchers have looked at general
anxiety provoked by social media, characterised by feelings of restlessness and
worry, and trouble sleeping and concentrating. A study published
in the journal Computers and Human Behaviour found that people who report using
seven or more social media platforms were more than three times as likely as
people using 0-2 platforms to have high levels of general anxiety
symptoms.
That said, it’s unclear if and how
social media causes anxiety. Researchers from
Babes-Bolyai University in Romania reviewed existing research on the
relationship between social anxiety and social networking in 2016, and said the
results were mixed. They concluded that more research needs to be done.
DEPRESSION
While some studies have found a
link between depression and social media use, there is emerging research into
how social media can actually be a force for good.
Two studies involving
more than 700 students found that depressive symptoms, such as low mood and
feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness, were linked to the quality of
online interactions. Researchers found higher levels of depressive symptoms
among those who reported having more negative interactions.
A similar
study conducted in 2016 involving 1,700 people found a
threefold risk of depression and anxiety among people who used the most social
media platforms. Reasons for this, they suggested, include cyber-bullying,
having a distorted view of other people’s lives, and feeling like time spent on
social media is a waste.
However, as BBC Future will explore
this month in our #LikeMinded season, scientists are also looking at how social
media can be used to diagnose depression, which could help people receive
treatment earlier. Researchers for
Microsoft surveyed 476 people and analysed their Twitter profiles for
depressive language, linguistic style, engagement and emotion. From this, they
developed a classifier that can accurately predict depression before it causes
symptoms in seven out of 10 cases.
Researchers from Harvard and
Vermont Universities analysed 166
people’s Instagram photos to create a similar tool last year with the same
success rate.
SLEEP
Humans used to spend their evenings
in darkness, but now we’re surrounded by artificial lighting all day and
night. Research has
found that this can inhibit the body’s production of the
hormone melatonin, which facilities sleep – and blue light, which is emitted by
smartphone and laptop screens, is said to be the worst culprit. In other words,
if you lie on the pillow at night checking Facebook and Twitter, you’re headed
for restless slumber.
Last year, researchers
from the University of Pittsburgh asked 1,700 18- to
30-year-olds about their social media and sleeping habits. They found a link
with sleep disturbances – and concluded blue light had a part to play. How
often they logged on, rather than time spent on social media sites, was a
higher predictor of disturbed sleep, suggesting “an obsessive ‘checking’”, the
researchers said.
The researchers say this could be
caused by physiological arousal before sleep, and the bright lights of our
devices can delay circadian rhythms. But they couldn’t clarify whether social
media causes disturbed sleep, or if those who have disturbed sleep spend more
time on social media.
ADDICTION
Despite the argument from a few
researchers that tweeting may be harder to
resist than cigarettes and alcohol, social media addiction
isn’t included in the latest diagnostic manual for mental health disorders.
That said, social media is changing
faster than scientists can keep up with, so various groups are trying to study
compulsive behaviours related to its use – for example, scientists from the
Netherlands have invented
their own scale to identify possible addiction.
And if social media addiction does
exist, it would be a type of internet addiction – and that is a
classified disorder. In 2011, Daria Kuss and Mark Griffiths from Nottingham
Trent University in the UK have analysed 43
previous studies on the matter, and conclude that social media addiction is a
mental health problem that “may” require professional treatment. They found
that excessive usage was linked to relationship problems, worse academic
achievement and less participation in offline communities, and found that
those who could be more vulnerable to a social media addiction include those
dependent on alcohol, the highly extroverted, and those who use social media to
compensate for fewer ties in real life.
SELF-ESTEEM
Women’s magazines and their use of
underweight and Photoshopped models have been long maligned for stirring
self-esteem issues among young women. But now, social media, with its filters
and lighting and clever angles, is taking over as a primary concern among some
campaigning groups and charities.
Social media sites make more than
half of users feel inadequate, according to a survey of
1,500 people by disability charity Scope, and half of 18- to 34-year-olds say
it makes them feel unattractive.
A 2016 study by
researchers at Penn State University suggested that viewing other people’s
selfies lowered self-esteem, because users compare themselves to photos of
people looking their happiest. Research from the
University of Strathclyde, Ohio University and University of Iowa also found
that women compare themselves negatively to selfies of other women.
But it’s not just selfies that have
the potential to dent self-esteem. A study of 1,000
Swedish Facebook users found that women who spent more time on Facebook
reported feeling less happy and confident. The researchers concluded: “When
Facebook users compare their own lives with others’ seemingly more successful
careers and happy relationships, they may feel that their own lives are less
successful in comparison.”
But one small study hinted that
viewing your own profile, not others, might offer ego boosts. Researchers at
Cornell University in New York put 63 students into different groups. Some sat
with a mirror placed against a computer screen, for instance, while others sat
in front of their own Facebook profile.
Facebook had a positive effect on self-esteem
compared to other activities that boost self-awareness. Mirrors and photos, the
researchers explained, make us compare ourselves to social standards, whereas
looking at our own Facebook profiles might boost self-esteem because it is
easier to control how we’re presented to the world.
WELL-BEING
In a study from
2013, researchers texted 79 participants five times a day for 14 days, asking
them how they felt and how much they’d used Facebook since the last text. The
more time people spent on the site, the worse they felt later on, and the more
their life satisfaction declined over time.
But other research has found, that
for some people, social media can help boost their
well-being. Marketing researchers Jonah Berger and Eva Buechel
found that people who are emotionally unstable are more likely to post about
their emotions, which can help them receive support and bounce back after
negative experiences.
Overall, social media’s effects on
well-being are ambiguous, according to a paper written last
year by researchers from the Netherlands. However, they suggested there is
clearer evidence for the impact on one group of people: social media has a more
negative effect on the well-being of those who are more socially
isolated.
RELATIONSHIPS
If you’ve ever been talking to a
friend who’s pulled their phone out to scroll through Instagram, you might have
wondered what social media is doing to relationships.
Even the mere presence of a phone
can interfere with our interactions, particularly when we’re talking about
something meaningful, according to one small
study. Researchers writing in the Journal of Social
and Personal Relationships tasked 34 pairs of strangers with having a 10-minute
conversation about an interesting event that had happened to them recently.
Each pair sat in private booths, and half had a mobile phone on the top of their
table.
Those with a phone in eyeshot were
less positive when recalling their interaction afterwards, had less meaningful
conversations and reported feeling less close to their partner than the others,
who had a notebook on top of the table instead.
Romantic relationships aren’t
immune, either. Researchers at
the University of Guelph in Canada surveyed 300 people aged 17-24 in 2009 about
any jealousy they felt when on Facebook, asking questions such as, ‘How likely
are you to become jealous after your partner has added an unknown member of the
opposite sex?’.
Women spent much more time on
Facebook then men, and experienced significantly more jealousy when doing so.
The researchers concluded they “felt the Facebook environment created these
feelings and enhanced concerns about the quality of their relationship”.
ENVY
In a study
involving 600 adults, roughly a third said social media
made them feel negative emotions – mainly frustration – and envy was the main
cause. This was triggered by comparing their lives to others’, and the biggest
culprit was other people’s travel photos. Feeling envious caused an “envy
spiral”, where people react to envy by adding to their profiles more of the
same sort of content that made them jealous in the first place.
However, envy isn’t necessarily a
destructive emotion – it can often make us work harder, according to
researchers from Michigan University and the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They asked 380 students to look at
“envy-eliciting” photos and texts from Facebook and Twitter, including posts
about buying expensive goods, travelling and getting engaged. But the type of
envy the researchers found is “benign envy”, which they say is more likely to
make a person work harder.
LONELINESS
A study
published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine
last year surveyed 7,000 19- to 32-year-olds and found that those who spend the
most time on social media were twice as likely to report experiencing social
isolation, which can include a lack of a sense of social belonging,
engagement with others and fulfilling relationships.
Spending more time on social media,
the researchers said, could displace face-to-face interaction, and can also
make people feel excluded.
“Exposure to such highly idealised
representations of peers’ lives may elicit feelings of envy and the distorted
belief that others lead happier and more successful lives, which may increase
perceived social isolation.”
CONCLUSIONS?
It’s clear that in many areas, not
enough is known yet to draw many strong conclusions. However, the evidence does
point one way: social media affects people differently, depending on
pre-existing conditions and personality traits.
As with food, gambling and many
other temptations of the modern age, excessive use for some individuals is
probably inadvisable. But at the same time, it would be wrong to say social
media is a universally bad thing, because clearly it brings myriad benefits to
our lives.
We’ll be
exploring this tension more over the next month, in a series of articles and
videos in our special series #LikeMinded – and hopefully providing solutions
that could help us all live a happier, healthier digital life.
** **
orndorff's response:
This
is a good article on a relatively new social phenomena, or so it appears to
this seventy-five year old. Personally, I try not to overuse it (I am not
active on Facebook everyday). As many of my FB friends are former students and
colleagues I enjoy it very much because it helps me remember who you were when
younger and who you are now in juxtaposition to who you were. I do write on my
blog most every day. Why, because outside of the old days in the classroom I am
relatively quiet and like
to keep most of my thoughts to myself. Blogging is good for me because it
allows me to show who I am inside. Sharing what I think and feel is important
to my mental health. Back in 2010 one of my former students suggested I join
Facebook. I was rather shy to do so and it took me several months before I
built up the courage to do so mainly because of my age. In any case I see the
Internet for sharing and for gathering information. I love Wikipedia and now
contribute to them yearly to help keep them going. I love BBC. What would I do
without Wikipedia and BBC almost every day? Friends and information, this in
itself is positive enough for social media. It brings me closer to the here and
now around the world it brings me closer to the humanity of the world and the
humanity drilled down within myself. These are matters that bring us together
as the mix of biological cousins we all are. The other day while thinking
philosophically I wondered what I would miss most upon finding myself
physically dead -- after a day I came to the conclusion, I would miss the sun
first. What about friends and family? No more human interactions, no more
Facebook, no more Internet, no more books, no more sun. No, but memories of
heart would be in their places. The human heart is the social media we bring and take
with us. That's my thought. Until then though I will also keep Facebook and
Wikipedia in mind while physically living too. Thoughts alone can be almost as good as
being there. Facebook is even better. -- Thumb's up.
** **
Post. - Amorella
2250 hours. This seems like an odd request. I wasn't thinking about the blog when composing the above.
That's the point. - Amorella
No comments:
Post a Comment