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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 touch on of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram on your mental well-being.

#LikeMinded

A special serial about social media and well-being

This month, BBC Future is exploring social media's impact on mental wellness and well-beingness – and seeking solutions for a happier, healthier feel on these platforms. Stay tuned for more stories, coming soon…

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Iii billion people, effectually 40% of the world'southward population, use online social media – and we're spending an boilerplate of two hours every twenty-four hour period sharing, liking, tweeting and updating on these platforms, according to some reports. That breaks downwards to effectually half a million tweets and Snapchat photos shared every infinitesimal.

With social media playing such a big role in our lives, could we be sacrificing our mental health and well-beingness as well as our time? What does the bear witness 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 united states, conclusive findings are limited. The inquiry that does exist mainly relies on self-reporting, which tin often be flawed, and the bulk of studies focus on Facebook. That said, this is a fast-growing area of research, and clues are start to sally. BBC Future reviewed the findings of some of the scientific discipline and so far:

STRESS

People employ social media to vent about everything from customer service to politics, simply 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 i,800 people, women reported existence more stressed than men. Twitter was constitute to exist a "significant correspondent" because it increased their awareness of other people's stress.

But Twitter as well acted as a coping mechanism – and the more than women used information technology, the less stressed they were. The same event wasn't found for men, whom the researchers said had a more than afar 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 chat, some studies propose (Credit: Getty Images)

MOOD

In 2014, researchers in Austria found that participants reported lower moods later on using Facebook for 20 minutes compared to those who but browsed the internet. The study suggested that people felt that manner because they saw it as a waste material 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 condition updates from more 100 1000000 Facebook users betwixt 2009 and 2012.

Bad weather increased the number of negative posts by 1%, and the researchers institute that one negative post by someone in a rainy city influenced another ane.3 negative posts by friends living in dry cities. The better news is that happy posts had a stronger influence; each ane inspired 1.75 more happy posts. Whether a happy post translates to a genuine heave in mood, however, remains unclear.

ANXIETY

Researchers have looked at general feet 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 Human Behaviour found that people who written report using seven or more social media platforms were more than than three times as likely equally people using 0-2 platforms to take high levels of general anxiety symptoms.

That said, information technology's unclear if and how social media causes anxiety. Researchers from Babes-Bolyai University in Romania reviewed existing research on the relationship betwixt social anxiety and social networking in 2016, and said the results were mixed. They ended 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 take found a link between low and social media use, there is emerging enquiry into how social media can really be a strength for good.

Two studies involving more than 700 students found that depressive symptoms, such equally 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 amid 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 similar time spent on social media is a waste matter.

However, every bit BBC Time to come will explore this calendar 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 before. Researchers for Microsoft surveyed 476 people and analysed their Twitter profiles for depressive language, linguistic style, engagement and emotion. From this, they adult a classifier that can accurately predict depression before information technology causes symptoms in 7 out of 10 cases.

Researchers from Harvard and Vermont Universities analysed 166 people's Instagram photos to create a similar tool last yr with the aforementioned success rate.

SLEEP

Humans used to spend their evenings in darkness, but now we're surrounded by artificial lighting all 24-hour interval and night. Research has found that this tin inhibit the torso's production of the hormone melatonin, which facilitates sleep – and blue lite, which is emitted past smartphone and laptop screens, is said to be the worst culprit. In other words, if you prevarication on the pillow at night checking Facebook and Twitter, you're headed for restless slumber.

Final year, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh asked i,700 eighteen- to 30-yr-olds nearly their social media and sleeping habits. They found a link with sleep disturbances – and concluded blue calorie-free 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 acquired by physiological arousal before sleep, and the bright lights of our devices can delay circadian rhythms. Only they couldn't clarify whether social media causes disturbed sleep, or if those who take disturbed slumber spend more time on social media.

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

Habit

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

That said, social media is changing faster than scientists can continue upward with, and then various groups are trying to study compulsive behaviours related to its utilize – for case, scientists from the Netherlands have invented their own scale to identify possible addiction.

And if social media addiction does exist, it would exist a blazon of net habit – and that is a classified disorder. In 2011, Daria Kuss and Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University in the Britain take analysed 43 previous studies on the affair, 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 issues, worse academic achievement and less participation in offline communities, and establish that those who could be more vulnerable to a social media habit include those dependent on alcohol, the highly extroverted, and those who employ 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 immature women. But now, social media, with its filters and lighting and clever angles, is taking over as a chief concern amongst 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 disability charity Scope, and half of eighteen- to 34-year-olds say it makes them experience 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 Academy of Iowa also found that women compare themselves negatively to selfies of other women.

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

But information technology'south not just selfies that take the potential to paring self-esteem. A report of 1,000 Swedish Facebook users plant that women who spent more fourth dimension on Facebook reported feeling less happy and confident. The researchers ended: "When Facebook users compare their own lives with others' seemingly more than 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 contour, not others, might offer ego boosts. Researchers at Cornell Academy in New York put 63 students into different groups. Some sabbatum with a mirror placed against a computer screen, for example, while others sat in forepart of their ain Facebook profile.

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

WELL-Being

In a report from 2013, researchers texted 79 participants five times a twenty-four hours for xiv days, asking them how they felt and how much they'd used Facebook since the last text. The more fourth dimension people spent on the site, the worse they felt subsequently on, and the more their life satisfaction declined over time.

Only other research has found, that for some people, social media can assistance boost their well-being. Marketing researchers Jonah Berger and Eva Buechel found that people who are emotionally unstable are more likely to post most their emotions, which can help them receive support and bounce back after negative experiences.

Overall, social media's effects on well-being are cryptic, according to a paper written concluding year by researchers from the Netherlands. Nonetheless, they suggested in that location is clearer evidence for the touch on one group of people: social media has a more than negative outcome on the well-beingness 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 scroll through Instagram, you lot might have wondered what social media is doing to relationships.

Even the mere presence of a phone can interfere with our interactions, particularly when nosotros're talking near something meaningful, co-ordinate to 1 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 effect that had happened to them recently. Each pair saturday in private booths, and half had a mobile telephone on the top of their table.

Those with a telephone 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 near any jealousy they felt when on Facebook, asking questions such as, 'How probable are you to become jealous after your partner has added an unknown fellow member of the contrary sex activity?'.

Women spent much more time on Facebook then men, and experienced significantly more jealousy when doing so. The researchers concluded they "felt the Facebook surroundings created these feelings and enhanced concerns about the quality of their relationship".

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

ENVY

In a report involving 600 adults, roughly a 3rd said social media fabricated 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'south travel photos. Feeling envious caused an "envy screw", where people react to envy by calculation to their profiles more than of the aforementioned sort of content that made them jealous in the first place.

However, envy isn't necessarily a destructive emotion – it tin can oftentimes make us work harder, according to researchers from Michigan Academy and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They asked 380 students to await at "green-eyed-eliciting" photos and texts from Facebook and Twitter, including posts about buying expensive goods, travelling and getting engaged. But the blazon of envy the researchers establish is "benign green-eyed", which they say is more likely to make a person work harder.

LONELINESS

A written report published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine terminal twelvemonth surveyed seven,000 xix- to 32-yr-olds and found that those who spend the nigh time on social media were twice as probable to report experiencing social isolation, which can include a lack of a sense of social belonging, appointment with others and fulfilling relationships.

Spending more than time on social media, the researchers said, could readapt face-to-confront 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 conventionalities that others lead happier and more than successful lives, which may increase perceived social isolation."

CONCLUSIONS?

It's clear that in many areas, not enough is known nevertheless to draw many strong conclusions. Even so, the evidence does point ane way: social media affects people differently, depending on pre-existing conditions and personality traits.

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

We'll exist exploring this tension more over the next calendar month, in a series of articles and videos in our special series #LikeMinded – and hopefully providing solutions that could help u.s. 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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