The Independent
LONDON: The more time young adults spend on social media, the more likely they are to become depressed, a study has found.
The 1 787 US participants, aged from 19 to 32, used social media for an average 61 minutes every day, visiting accounts 30 times per week. Of them a quarter were found to have high indicators of depression.
Dr Brian Primack, the director of Pitt’s Centre for Research on Media, Technology and Health, who led the study, said: “It is important to explain that because this was a cross-sectional study, directionality is not clear.
“One strong possibility is that people who are already having depressive symptoms start to use social media more, perhaps because they do not feel the energy or drive to engage in as many direct social relationships.”
However, he said there are several reasons why increased social media could lead to more depressive thoughts. One example he cited was a phenomenon which is sometimes referred to as “Facebook depression”.
“People who engage in a lot of social media use may feel they are not living up to the idealised portraits of life that other people tend to present in their profiles… People who become depressed may also turn to social media for support, but their excessive engagement with it might only serve to exacerbate their depression.”
There are currently over a billion people actively using Facebook daily, while Twitter attracts 320 million active users every month.
The World Health Organisation published a report in October 2015 which said depression is now the leading cause of disability worldwide.
However, Primack said social media itself could become a tool to combat the problem.
“This research may provide one piece to the puzzle of how we can best use powerful tools such as social media to our advantage and not our detriment… We certainly do not recommend that people stop using social media.
“Hopefully the knowledge that there can be emotional risks may help individuals make better choices about the extent to which they use social media and the way in which they use it.”