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Is social media bad for you? The prove and the unknowns

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What the science suggests so far well-nigh the impact of platforms such equally Facebook, Twitter or Instagram on your mental well-beingness.

#LikeMinded

A special series most social media and well-beingness

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Three billion people, around 40% of the earth's population, employ online social media – and we're spending an average of two hours every mean solar day sharing, liking, tweeting and updating on these platforms, according to some reports. That breaks down to around half a meg tweets and Snapchat photos shared every minute.

With social media playing such a big function in our lives, could we be sacrificing our mental wellness and well-being as well as our time? What does the prove actually suggest?

• Facebook responds to mental well-being claims

• Is it fourth dimension to rethink how we employ social media? An introduction to our #LikeMinded season

Since social media is relatively new to united states of america, conclusive findings are limited. The inquiry that does exist mainly relies on self-reporting, which can often be flawed, and the bulk of studies focus on Facebook. That said, this is a fast-growing area of research, and clues are beginning to emerge. BBC Time to come reviewed the findings of some of the science so far:

STRESS

People employ social media to vent about everything from customer service to politics, but the downside to this is that our feeds ofttimes resemble an countless stream of stress. In 2015, researchers at the Pew Research Eye based in Washington DC sought to find out if social media induces more stress than information technology relieves.

In the survey of one,800 people, women reported being more than 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 information technology, the less stressed they were. The same effect wasn't institute 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.

The presence of a phone affects the quality of conversation, some studies advise (Credit: Getty Images)

MOOD

In 2014, researchers in Austria found that participants reported lower moods after using Facebook for 20 minutes compared to those who merely browsed the internet. The report suggested that people felt that mode considering they saw it every bit a waste matter of time.

A adept or bad mood may as well spread betwixt people on social media, according to researchers from the University of California, who assessed the emotional content of over a billion condition updates from more than 100 one thousand thousand Facebook users between 2009 and 2012.

Bad weather increased the number of negative posts by 1%, and the researchers institute that i negative post past someone in a rainy metropolis influenced some other 1.3 negative posts by friends living in dry cities. The ameliorate news is that happy posts had a stronger influence; each one inspired 1.75 more happy posts. Whether a happy postal service translates to a genuine boost in mood, withal, remains unclear.

ANXIETY

Researchers take looked at general feet provoked past 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 written report using vii or more social media platforms were more three times as likely as people using 0-2 platforms to have high levels of general anxiety symptoms.

That said, it'south unclear if and how social media causes anxiety. Researchers from Babes-Bolyai Academy in Romania reviewed existing inquiry on the human relationship between social anxiety and social networking in 2016, and said the results were mixed. They concluded that more inquiry needs to be done.

Social media mimics many of the rewards of games and play, which can pose an attractive lure (Credit: Getty Images)

DEPRESSION

While some studies have found a link between depression and social media use, there is emerging inquiry into how social media can actually be a strength for good.

Two studies involving more than than 700 students found that depressive symptoms, such equally depression mood and feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness, were linked to the quality of online interactions. Researchers found college levels of depressive symptoms among those who reported having more negative interactions.

A similar study conducted in 2016 involving one,700 people found a threefold risk of depression and feet among people who used the virtually social media platforms. Reasons for this, they suggested, include cyber-bullying, having a distorted view of other people'due south lives, and feeling like time spent on social media is a waste product.

Still, as BBC Future will explore this month in our #LikeMinded season, scientists are as well looking at how social media tin be used to diagnose low, which could assist people receive treatment earlier. Researchers for Microsoft surveyed 476 people and analysed their Twitter profiles for depressive linguistic communication, linguistic style, engagement and emotion. From this, they developed a classifier that can accurately predict depression before it causes symptoms in seven out of x cases.

Researchers from Harvard and Vermont Universities analysed 166 people's Instagram photos to create a similar tool last year with the same success charge per unit.

Slumber

Humans used to spend their evenings in darkness, but at present 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 facilitates slumber – and blueish low-cal, which is emitted by smartphone and laptop screens, is said to be the worst culprit. In other words, if you lot lie on the pillow at night checking Facebook and Twitter, you're headed for restless sleep.

Last yr, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh asked one,700 eighteen- to xxx-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 oft they logged on, rather than time spent on social media sites, was a college predictor of disturbed sleep, suggesting "an obsessive 'checking'", the researchers said.

The researchers say this could be caused past physiological arousal before sleep, and the bright lights of our devices can filibuster circadian rhythms. Merely they couldn't clarify whether social media causes disturbed sleep, or if those who have disturbed slumber spend more than fourth dimension on social media.

1 of the worst times to use social media may be merely earlier bed (Credit: Getty Images)

ADDICTION

Despite the argument from a few researchers that tweeting may exist harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, social media habit isn't included in the latest diagnostic manual for mental health disorders.

That said, social media is changing faster than scientists can continue up with, then various groups are trying to report compulsive behaviours related to its use – for case, 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 habit – and that is a classified disorder. In 2011, Daria Kuss and Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland accept analysed 43 previous studies on the thing, and conclude that social media habit is a mental health trouble that "may" require professional handling. 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 than 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.

Cocky-ESTEEM

Women's magazines and their employ of underweight and Photoshopped models have been long maligned for stirring self-esteem problems among young women. Only now, social media, with its filters and lighting and clever angles, is taking over every bit a master concern amidst some campaigning groups and charities.

Social media sites make more than than half of users feel inadequate, co-ordinate to a survey of 1,500 people by disability charity Scope, and half of 18- to 34-year-olds say information technology makes them feel unattractive.

A 2016 written report by researchers at Penn State Academy suggested that viewing other people'southward 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 establish that women compare themselves negatively to selfies of other women.

Selfies may have downsides for the viewer (Credit: Getty Images)

But information technology'south non just selfies that have the potential to dent self-esteem. A study of 1,000 Swedish Facebook users constitute that women who spent more time on Facebook reported feeling less happy and confident. The researchers concluded: "When Facebook users compare their ain lives with others' seemingly more successful careers and happy relationships, they may feel that their ain lives are less successful in comparison."

But 1 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 example, 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 ain Facebook profiles might boost cocky-esteem because it is easier to command how we're presented to the world.

WELL-BEING

In a study from 2013, researchers texted 79 participants 5 times a solar 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 than their life satisfaction declined over time.

But other enquiry has found, that for some people, social media can aid boost their well-being. Marketing researchers Jonah Berger and Eva Buechel establish that people who are emotionally unstable are more likely to mail service about their emotions, which tin help them receive support and bounce back after negative experiences.

Overall, social media's furnishings on well-being are ambiguous, according to a newspaper written last year by researchers from the Netherlands. All the same, they suggested there is clearer testify for the touch on on i group of people: social media has a more negative consequence on the well-being of those who are more than socially isolated.

In some cases, social media may raise well-being (Credit: Getty Images)

RELATIONSHIPS

If you've always been talking to a friend who'south pulled their telephone out to coil through Instagram, you might have wondered what social media is doing to relationships.

Even the mere presence of a telephone can interfere with our interactions, especially when nosotros're talking about something meaningful, co-ordinate to one pocket-size study. Researchers writing in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships tasked 34 pairs of strangers with having a 10-infinitesimal conversation most an interesting upshot that had happened to them recently. Each pair sabbatum in private booths, and half had a mobile telephone on the top of their tabular array.

Those with a phone in eyeshot were less positive when recalling their interaction after, had less meaningful conversations and reported feeling less close to their partner than the others, who had a notebook on elevation of the table instead.

Romantic relationships aren't allowed, 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 y'all to become jealous after your partner has added an unknown member of the opposite sex?'.

Women spent much more fourth dimension on Facebook and 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 human relationship".

In ane survey of 1,800 people, women reported beingness more than stressed by social media than men (Credit: Getty Images)

ENVY

In a study involving 600 adults, roughly a tertiary said social media made them experience negative emotions – mainly frustration – and envy was the chief cause. This was triggered by comparing their lives to others', and the biggest culprit was other people's travel photos. Feeling envious caused an "green-eyed spiral", where people react to envy by adding to their profiles more than of the aforementioned sort of content that fabricated them jealous in the offset place.

Withal, envy isn't necessarily a destructive emotion – it tin often brand united states of america work harder, according to researchers from Michigan University and the Academy of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They asked 380 students to look at "envy-eliciting" photos and texts from Facebook and Twitter, including posts about ownership expensive goods, travelling and getting engaged. But the blazon of envy the researchers found is "benign envy", which they say is more than probable to make a person work harder.

LONELINESS

A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine last twelvemonth surveyed 7,000 19- to 32-year-olds and institute that those who spend the most time on social media were twice as likely to study 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 tin as well brand people feel excluded.

"Exposure to such highly idealised representations of peers' lives may elicit feelings of green-eyed and the distorted belief that others lead happier and more successful lives, which may increase perceived social isolation."

CONCLUSIONS?

It's articulate that in many areas, not enough is known notwithstanding to draw many strong conclusions. Nonetheless, the evidence does indicate one way: social media affects people differently, depending on pre-existing conditions and personality traits.

Equally with food, gambling and many other temptations of the modernistic age, excessive employ for some individuals is probably inadvisable. But at the same time, it would be incorrect to say social media is a universally bad thing, because clearly it brings myriad benefits to our lives.

We'll exist 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 alive a happier, healthier digital life.

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Source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180104-is-social-media-bad-for-you-the-evidence-and-the-unknowns

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