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

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

#LikeMinded

A special series about social media and well-being

This calendar month, BBC Time to come is exploring social media'due south touch on on mental health and well-being – and seeking solutions for a happier, healthier experience on these platforms. Stay tuned for more stories, coming presently…

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This story is featured in BBC Future's "Best of 2018" collection. Discover more than of our picks.

Three billion people, around 40% of the world'south population, use online social media – and we're spending an average of ii hours every day sharing, liking, tweeting and updating on these platforms, co-ordinate to some reports. That breaks down to effectually 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-beingness also as our time? What does the prove actually suggest?

• Facebook responds to mental well-being claims

• Is it time to rethink how we utilise social media? An introduction to our #LikeMinded flavour

Since social media is relatively new to usa, conclusive findings are express. The research that does be 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 expanse of inquiry, and clues are beginning to emerge. BBC Hereafter reviewed the findings of some of the science and so far:

STRESS

People use social media to vent near everything from customer service to politics, only 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 notice out if social media induces more stress than it relieves.

In the survey of i,800 people, women reported being more than stressed than men. Twitter was institute to be a "significant contributor" considering 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 outcome wasn't found for men, whom the researchers said had a more distant relationship with social media. Overall, the researchers ended that social media utilise was linked to "modestly lower levels" of stress.

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

MOOD

In 2014, researchers in Austria establish that participants reported lower moods after using Facebook for 20 minutes compared to those who just browsed the internet. The report suggested that people felt that way considering they saw it as a waste of time.

A expert or bad mood may also spread between people on social media, co-ordinate to researchers from the University of California, who assessed the emotional content of over a billion status updates from more 100 million Facebook users between 2009 and 2012.

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

Feet

Researchers have looked at full 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 vii or more social media platforms were more than three times as likely every bit people using 0-2 platforms to have high levels of general feet symptoms.

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

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

Low

While some studies have plant a link between depression and social media utilise, there is emerging research into how social media can actually exist a forcefulness for good.

Two studies involving more than than 700 students found that depressive symptoms, such every bit low 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 written report conducted in 2016 involving 1,700 people plant a threefold run a risk of low and feet amid people who used the most social media platforms. Reasons for this, they suggested, include cyber-bullying, having a distorted view of other people'south lives, and feeling similar fourth dimension spent on social media is a waste.

However, as BBC Futurity will explore this month in our #LikeMinded season, scientists are too looking at how social media tin be used to diagnose low, 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 adult a classifier that tin can accurately predict depression before information technology 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 past artificial lighting all day and nighttime. Research has found that this can inhibit the trunk's production of the hormone melatonin, which facilitates slumber – and blue 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 nighttime checking Facebook and Twitter, you're headed for restless sleep.

Last yr, researchers from the Academy of Pittsburgh asked 1,700 xviii- to 30-year-olds near their social media and sleeping habits. They found a link with sleep disturbances – and concluded blueish light had a part to play. How oft they logged on, rather than fourth dimension 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 bright lights of our devices tin can delay circadian rhythms. But they couldn't clarify whether social media causes disturbed slumber, or if those who have disturbed sleep spend more time on social media.

One of the worst times to use social media may exist just before bed (Credit: Getty Images)

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 go on upwards with, so various groups are trying to report compulsive behaviours related to its use – for instance, scientists from holland have invented their own scale to place possible addiction.

And if social media addiction does exist, it would exist a blazon of cyberspace addiction – and that is a classified disorder. In 2011, Daria Kuss and Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University in the Britain have analysed 43 previous studies on the matter, and conclude that social media habit is a mental health problem that "may" crave professional person treatment. They found that excessive usage was linked to human relationship issues, worse academic achievement and less participation in offline communities, and institute 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 existent life.

Self-ESTEEM

Women's magazines and their utilize of underweight and Photoshopped models take been long maligned for stirring self-esteem issues among young women. But at present, social media, with its filters and lighting and clever angles, is taking over as a primary business organization amid 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 inability clemency Scope, and half of 18- to 34-yr-olds say it makes them feel unattractive.

A 2016 study past researchers at Penn State Academy suggested that viewing other people'due south selfies lowered self-esteem, because users compare themselves to photos of people looking their happiest. Inquiry from the Academy of Strathclyde, Ohio University and University of Iowa too establish that women compare themselves negatively to selfies of other women.

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

Only information technology'southward not just selfies that have the potential to dent self-esteem. A study of 1,000 Swedish Facebook users plant that women who spent more fourth dimension 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 report hinted that viewing your ain profile, non others, might offer ego boosts. Researchers at Cornell University in New York put 63 students into dissimilar groups. Some saturday with a mirror placed confronting a computer screen, for instance, while others sat in forepart of their own Facebook profile.

Facebook had a positive effect on self-esteem compared to other activities that boost cocky-awareness. Mirrors and photos, the researchers explained, make us compare ourselves to social standards, whereas looking at our own Facebook profiles might boost cocky-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 5 times a twenty-four hours for xiv days, request 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 institute, that for some people, social media can aid boost their well-beingness. Marketing researchers Jonah Berger and Eva Buechel found that people who are emotionally unstable are more likely to mail service near their emotions, which tin assistance them receive back up and bounce back after negative experiences.

Overall, social media'due south effects on well-being are ambiguous, according to a paper written final twelvemonth past researchers from kingdom of the netherlands. Still, they suggested there is clearer testify for the touch on on one grouping of people: social media has a more negative outcome 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 lot've ever been talking to a friend who'due south pulled their telephone out to scroll through Instagram, you might accept 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-scale 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 saturday in private booths, and half had a mobile telephone on the superlative of their table.

Those with a phone in eyeshot were less positive when recalling their interaction afterward, had less meaningful conversations and reported feeling less close to their partner than the others, who had a notebook on superlative 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 virtually any jealousy they felt when on Facebook, asking questions such as, 'How likely are y'all to become jealous afterwards your partner has added an unknown member of the opposite sexual practice?'.

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

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

Envy

In a written report involving 600 adults, roughly a third said social media made them feel negative emotions – mainly frustration – and envy was the main crusade. This was triggered by comparing their lives to others', and the biggest culprit was other people's travel photos. Feeling envious acquired an "envy spiral", where people react to green-eyed by adding to their profiles more of the aforementioned sort of content that fabricated them jealous in the start place.

However, envy isn't necessarily a subversive emotion – information technology tin can often brand usa 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 almost buying expensive goods, travelling and getting engaged. But the type of green-eyed the researchers plant is "beneficial envy", 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 yr surveyed vii,000 xix- to 32-twelvemonth-olds and found that those who spend the almost fourth dimension on social media were twice as likely 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 displace contiguous interaction, and can as well brand people experience 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?

Information technology's articulate that in many areas, non plenty is known yet to draw many stiff conclusions. However, the show does point one mode: social media affects people differently, depending on pre-existing atmospheric condition and personality traits.

As with food, gambling and many other temptations of the mod age, excessive use for some individuals is probably inadvisable. But at the aforementioned time, it would be wrong to say social media is a universally bad affair, because clearly it brings myriad benefits to our lives.

We'll be exploring this tension more over the adjacent month, in a serial 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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