Social media has little effect on mental health
A new study about Social media has little effect on mental health has shown that prolonged use of
social media platforms has little to no association with mental health indicators such as depression, anxiety and stress.
Another study, published recently, found that men risk developing unhealthy obsessions about fitness
if they place too much importance on likes and comments, according to New Atlas, citing the journal
New Media & Society.
Criticism of social media
In today’s fast-paced society, social media use has received its fair share of criticism. Over the
years, studies have concluded that excessive exposure to social media keeps people awake,
makes them depressed, and may even change children’s brains.
But researchers from the School of Population Health at Curtin University in Australia have a different
take that could put some of the shine back on social media. In a new study, they found little
or no relationship between heavy social media use and mental health indicators like depression,
anxiety, and stress.
Objectively negligible effects
“If you want to make informed decisions in this area, it needs to be based on high-quality data,”
said Chloe Jones, the study’s lead researcher. “The research shows that objectively, when measuring time spent on social media, the effects are small or non-existent.”
Expressive of social media rumors – iStock
Because different social media sites offer a variety of content, features, and platform-specific
interactions, the researchers separately examined the relationship between psychological distress
and the most widely used platforms—Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and X
(formerly Twitter). They also looked at the impact of social media on attentional control, or the
ability to voluntarily allocate attention to specific stimuli while ignoring distractions.
Most used social media
The study involved 425 volunteers. The sample was 74.7% female, with an average age of just over 22. Instead of depending on self-reporting, the study’s investigators objectively assessed
online communication hours by monitoring the duration participants engaged with
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and X individually. smartphone over the course
of one week.
Depression and stress scale
The researchers used the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale( DASS- 21), a set of three tone-
report measures, to measure actors’ emotional countries of depression, anxiety, and stress and
their overall cerebral torture. Attentional control was measured with an antisaccade task. In this
task, actors must suppress the reflexive appetite to look at a visual target that suddenly appears in
their supplemental vision and rather look down in the contrary direction. In other words, they
make rapid, jerky movements of the eyes to reposition their line of sight on a new, interesting
object.
Expressive (Shutterstock), TikTok
Negative association with anxiety
When the researchers compared social media use with participants’ levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and attention control, they found that social media use was very weakly associated with anxiety and not with depression or stress. The researchers found a weak positive association between use and attention control, suggesting that greater social media use was associated with slightly better focus.
Different platform effects
“While all the associations were weak at best, the study set up that different platforms had different goods, ” said Patrick Clarke, a clinical psychologist and speaker in psychology at Curtin University and lead researcher on the study. While Facebook use was associated with less distress among users, better attention control was observed among TikTok users, and while TikTok users “may just be younger, even when age was taken into account, the association was still there.”
complex relationship
The researchers explained that the results do not indicate that social media use is harmless or has no effect on mental health. They are understand that the relationship between the two more complex.
“ for example, Engaging with an instructive online society can be vital for mortals in isolation, yet time spent examining prominent figures is finite. Instagram will not be simply helpful if someone has body image concerns,” Jones said.
unhealthy obsessions
In this regard, another Australian study, recently published, examined the social media platforms TikTok and Instagram, and concluded that they feed men’s unrealistic and unhealthy obsessions with having a fit and muscular body.
Twitter, Instagram (Emoji – iStock)
Previous studies have shown that men who place lesser significance on entering likes and positive commentary on their posts are more likely to suffer from symptoms of “ muscle dysmorphia, ” a common belief in which some people fear that their bodies are small and weak, even though they are actually large and muscular.
Comments and likes
Researchers from the University of Southern Australia conducted an online survey of 95 Australian men aged 18 to 34 to see if there was a link between appearance-based comments on social media sites about celebrities, fashion and fitness and body image concerns.
muscle dysmorphic disorder
The researchers used the Muscle Dysmorphia Index (MDDI) to measure participants’ symptoms of muscle dysmorphia. Items on the MDDI are rated on a five-point scale, with higher scores indicating much more symptom severity. Total scores range from 13 to 65; a score of 39 or higher indicates a high risk of developing the disorder. Participants were also asked how many hours they used social media each day and how much exercise they did each week.
unrealistic concepts
Participants reported using social media for more than two hours per day and participating in an average of three exercise sessions per week. The researchers found that 19% of participants scored higher than 39 on the MDDI, suggesting they were at high risk for holding unrealistic ideals about their bodies. They also found that the importance of likes and comments received significantly predicted MS symptoms more than demographic factors such as age and race.
Social verification. “Prior studies typically targeted female subjects, but now it’s evident that men are equally susceptible to digital body image stressors,” remarked Luigi Donnarumma, an Australian psychology scholar and study lead. Muscle dysmorphia is a rising concern, and research indicates that social media is not solely a channel for content exchange but also a potent source of social affirmation that notably shapes how youth view their bodies.
Harmful behaviors.
Researchers emphasize the importance of recognizing the mental health risks tied to using social media. “Individuals frequently confront unreasonable muscle-related notions across the web, notably via instructional videos and famous figures,” stated John Mingoia, co-researcher and educator in psychology at the University of South Australia. When these publications gather widespread approval and favorable remarks, they underline the ideal male figure to strive for. Repeatedly doing too much exercise or eating too little can lead to unhealthy actions like over-doing workouts, limiting food intake, or even taking medicines that aren’t usually safe.
