"Overeating" social media is harmful to mental health! Study: Using IG and TikTok for too long can lead to depression
Many young people are wandering in the world of social media after get off work or school, with their smartphones never leaving their side. This state of passive exposure to a large amount of information may have a negative impact on mental health! Research in “Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking” shows that unrestrained browsing of social content is related to an increased prevalence of mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression.
“Overeating” social media is harmful to mental health! Research: Using IG and TikTok for too long may lead to depression and anxiety
A research team from Baylor University in the United States focused on understanding the “flow” state of young people when browsing social media. The concept of flow was first proposed by Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to describe the mental state that occurs when someone is “completely immersed in an activity.” Flow experiences may also occur when an individual is engrossed in browsing social media.
The research team recruited a total of 420 subjects with an average age of about 37-38 years old. They are all heavy users of the current mainstream social media “TikTok” and “Instagram”. In order to evaluate the subjects’ flow experience, the research team adjusted the original Facebook questionnaire, replaced it with the above two social media, and measured “concentration”, “enjoyment”, “curiosity”, " Five major aspects are used for evaluation: “sense of presence” and “sense of passage of time”.
After the assessment was completed, the subjects also completed measures of social media addiction, anxiety and depression for fear of missing out (FOMO). The results show that 24% of Douyin users and 28% of Instagram users have social media addiction; in the assessment scale, the “sense of presence” item is related to social media addiction, easy to let go, social phobia, and Anxiety has the highest correlation with depression.
The study further compared Douyin users with Instagram users and found that Douyin users are more likely to enter a “flow” state, gain a higher sense of satisfaction from posting, and feel that time passes faster. When it comes to the psychological state of the subjects, they believe that when they are scrolling on their mobile phones, the world on the screen is more real than the real world; they often forget where they are and what is happening in their surroundings.
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James A. Roberts, the author of the study, said that in this study, the most significant impact of social media on the subjects was the “sense of presence”, which was also a key factor that made the subjects easily enter a flow state. “It is generally believed that flow state can improve performance at work or competition, but when it comes to using social media, it may have a negative impact on mental health.”
Roberts noted that previous research has shown that passive use of social media and viewing of posts, such as so-called “doom scrolling” (the behavior of spending a lot of time reading negative news), is indeed associated with lower mental health. However, there are also studies showing that active use of social media, such as talking, interacting with others, or simply sharing daily life, can improve personal happiness.
“Further research is still needed to understand why people use specific social media.” Roberts said that passive or active use of social media has varying degrees of impact on users’ psychological states. Relevant units should include the psychological problems caused by social media into their assessment, especially for teenagers who generally have low self-confidence and are prone to self-doubt.
Social media not only affects personal psychological state, but also causes young people to go “collectively crazy”
Frequently browsing a large number of social posts not only affects an individual’s mental state, but can even lead to “group madness” and mass psychogenic diseases? Robert H. Shmerling, a professor of rheumatology at Harvard Medical School in the United States, believes that the bodies of social girls may trigger “Mass Hysteria” in teenagers, which is a “contagious” mental illness, and the source of infection is often unknown. .
Shmerling said that patients with mass hysteria are prone to have the illusion of “having been exposed to dangerous substances or sources of pollution”, such as food poisoning or large-scale infectious diseases, and can cause unexplained symptoms in a certain population size, such as nausea, headaches or shortness of breath; Outbreak sites are often in group spaces, such as schools or large offices.
Shmerling pointed out that the increase in cases of mass hysteria may be related to the previous closure policy of the new crown epidemic. “One or two years ago, there was a significant increase in the number of teenagers visiting the neurology department. Young patients had unusual movements or sounds, which were very similar to the symptoms of Tourette’s syndrome and Havana syndrome.” Dr. Shmerling targeted this group of teenagers. Based on the analysis of life behaviors, it is speculated that it may be caused by watching a large number of videos on Douyin, YouTube and other platforms.
“The spread of social media not only promotes anxiety symptoms, but may also be one of the root causes of a new generation of social psychological diseases.” Shmerling said that symptoms of mass hysteria caused by social media often appear quickly and usually disappear quickly. Patients are not necessarily affected through physical contact or group membership. “It is undeniable that due to the impact of the epidemic, millions of people have used social media without restraint, which has contributed to the occurrence of social psychological diseases.”
source:
Instagram and TikTok Flow States and Their Association with Psychological Well-Being
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