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

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What the science suggests so far about the impact of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram on your mental well-being.

#LikeMinded

A special series nearly social media and well-being

This calendar month, BBC Futurity is exploring social media's bear upon on mental health and well-being – and seeking solutions for a happier, healthier experience on these platforms. Stay tuned for more stories, coming soon…

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Three billion people, around 40% of the world's population, use online social media – and we're spending an average of ii 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 large function in our lives, could we exist sacrificing our mental health and well-being as well equally our time? What does the bear witness really propose?

• Facebook responds to mental well-being claims

• Is information technology 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 inquiry that does exist mainly relies on self-reporting, which tin often exist flawed, and the majority of studies focus on Facebook. That said, this is a fast-growing area of research, and clues are first to sally. BBC Future reviewed the findings of some of the science so far:

STRESS

People apply social media to vent near everything from customer service to politics, but the downside to this is that our feeds frequently resemble an endless stream of stress. In 2015, researchers at the Pew Research Heart 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 than stressed than men. Twitter was plant to exist a "significant contributor" because it increased their awareness of other people'southward stress.

Only Twitter also acted every bit 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.

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

MOOD

In 2014, researchers in Austria found that participants reported lower moods after using Facebook for twenty minutes compared to those who just browsed the internet. The study suggested that people felt that way because they saw information technology as a waste of time.

A good or bad mood may likewise spread between people on social media, according to researchers from the Academy of California, who assessed the emotional content of over a billion status updates from more than than 100 1000000 Facebook users betwixt 2009 and 2012.

Bad weather increased the number of negative posts by i%, and the researchers found that one negative mail service by someone in a rainy metropolis influenced another ane.3 negative posts by friends living in dry cities. The better news is that happy posts had a stronger influence; each one inspired i.75 more than happy posts. Whether a happy post translates to a genuine boost in mood, even so, remains unclear.

Feet

Researchers have looked at general anxiety provoked by social media, characterised by feelings of restlessness and worry, and trouble sleeping and concentrating. A written report published in the journal Computers and Man Behaviour found that people who study using vii or more than social media platforms were more than three times every bit likely as people using 0-2 platforms to have high levels of general anxiety symptoms.

That said, information technology's unclear if and how social media causes feet. Researchers from Babes-Bolyai University in Romania reviewed existing research on the relationship between social feet and social networking in 2016, and said the results were mixed. They ended that more than research needs to be washed.

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

Low

While some studies take found a link between depression and social media use, there is emerging research into how social media tin can really exist a strength for proficient.

2 studies involving more 700 students plant 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 like study conducted in 2016 involving 1,700 people found a threefold gamble of low and anxiety among people who used the nigh social media platforms. Reasons for this, they suggested, include cyber-bullying, having a distorted view of other people'due south lives, and feeling similar fourth dimension spent on social media is a waste product.

However, as BBC Future will explore this month in our #LikeMinded flavour, scientists are as well 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 way, appointment and emotion. From this, they developed a classifier that can accurately predict depression before information technology causes symptoms in seven out of ten cases.

Researchers from Harvard and Vermont Universities analysed 166 people'due south Instagram photos to create a similar tool final twelvemonth with the same success charge per unit.

SLEEP

Humans used to spend their evenings in darkness, but at present we're surrounded by bogus lighting all day and nighttime. Enquiry has found that this can inhibit the body'south production of the hormone melatonin, which facilitates sleep – and blueish light, which is emitted past smartphone and laptop screens, is said to exist the worst culprit. In other words, if yous lie on the pillow at night checking Facebook and Twitter, you're headed for restless slumber.

Last twelvemonth, 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 past physiological arousal before sleep, and the brilliant lights of our devices can filibuster circadian rhythms. Simply they couldn't clarify whether social media causes disturbed sleep, or if those who take disturbed sleep spend more time on social media.

1 of the worst times to apply social media may be just before bed (Credit: Getty Images)

ADDICTION

Despite the statement 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 wellness disorders.

That said, social media is changing faster than scientists tin can keep upwards with, so various groups are trying to study compulsive behaviours related to its use – for case, scientists from the Netherlands take invented their own scale to place possible addiction.

And if social media habit does exist, it would be a type of net addiction – and that is a classified disorder. In 2011, Daria Kuss and Marker Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University in the Uk take analysed 43 previous studies on the thing, and conclude that social media habit is a mental wellness 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 plant that those who could be more vulnerable to a social media addiction include those dependent on alcohol, the highly extroverted, and those who utilise social media to recoup for fewer ties in existent life.

SELF-ESTEEM

Women'southward magazines and their use of underweight and Photoshopped models have been long maligned for stirring cocky-esteem bug amidst immature women. But now, social media, with its filters and lighting and clever angles, is taking over as a master business organization 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 past inability charity Scope, and half of xviii- to 34-year-olds say it makes them feel unattractive.

A 2016 study by researchers at Penn Land University suggested that viewing other people's selfies lowered cocky-esteem, because users compare themselves to photos of people looking their happiest. Research from the University of Strathclyde, Ohio University and University of Iowa likewise plant that women compare themselves negatively to selfies of other women.

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

But it'due south not just selfies that have the potential to dent self-esteem. A written report of 1,000 Swedish Facebook users found that women who spent more than fourth dimension on Facebook reported feeling less happy and confident. The researchers concluded: "When Facebook users compare their ain lives with others' seemingly more than successful careers and happy relationships, they may feel that their own lives are less successful in comparing."

But one minor study hinted that viewing your own profile, not others, might offering ego boosts. Researchers at Cornell Academy in New York put 63 students into different groups. Some sat with a mirror placed against a estimator screen, for instance, while others sabbatum in front of their own Facebook contour.

Facebook had a positive effect on cocky-esteem compared to other activities that heave self-awareness. Mirrors and photos, the researchers explained, brand us compare ourselves to social standards, whereas looking at our own Facebook profiles might boost self-esteem because information technology is easier to control how nosotros're presented to the earth.

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 final text. The more fourth dimension people spent on the site, the worse they felt afterwards on, and the more their life satisfaction declined over time.

But other research has plant, 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 probable to post most their emotions, which tin assistance them receive support and bounce dorsum after negative experiences.

Overall, social media'due south effects on well-beingness are cryptic, according to a paper written final year by researchers from the Netherlands. Even so, they suggested at that place is clearer show for the impact on 1 grouping of people: social media has a more than negative effect on the well-existence of those who are more socially isolated.

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

RELATIONSHIPS

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

Fifty-fifty the mere presence of a phone can interfere with our interactions, especially when nosotros're talking about something meaningful, according to i small study. Researchers writing in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships tasked 34 pairs of strangers with having a x-minute chat about an interesting issue 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 tiptop 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 equally, 'How likely are you to become jealous after your partner has added an unknown member of the opposite sex?'.

Women spent much more than fourth dimension on Facebook then men, and experienced significantly more jealousy when doing so. The researchers ended they "felt the Facebook environment created these feelings and enhanced concerns near the quality of their relationship".

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

Envy

In a study involving 600 adults, roughly a third said social media made them experience negative emotions – mainly frustration – and envy was the principal crusade. 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 green-eyed by adding to their profiles more of the same sort of content that made them jealous in the offset identify.

Still, envy isn't necessarily a destructive emotion – it can frequently make us work harder, according to researchers from Michigan Academy 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 constitute is "benign envy", which they say is more than likely to make a person piece of work harder.

LONELINESS

A written report published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine final year surveyed 7,000 xix- to 32-year-olds and institute that those who spend the most time on social media were twice as likely to written report experiencing social isolation, which tin 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 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 increment perceived social isolation."

CONCLUSIONS?

It'southward clear that in many areas, not enough is known yet to depict many potent conclusions. Still, the show does point one way: social media affects people differently, depending on pre-existing weather and personality traits.

As with food, gambling and many other temptations of the modernistic age, excessive use for some individuals is probably inadvisable. But at the same fourth dimension, it would be wrong to say social media is a universally bad thing, considering clearly it brings myriad benefits to our lives.

We'll exist exploring this tension more over the side by side calendar month, in a serial of articles and videos in our special serial #LikeMinded – and hopefully providing solutions that could help usa all live 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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