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Tag: social media use

  • Study: People Who Post On Social Media While High Regret It

    Study: People Who Post On Social Media While High Regret It

    More than half of the study participants had called or texted someone while high, and more than 30% regretted that decision.

    You wake up the morning after a night out and immediately reach for your phone to see what the damage is: the calls, texts or social media posts you made that never would have gone out if you were sober. 

    It’s a common experience, according to a study released today in the journal Substance Abuse. For the study, researchers from New York University surveyed partygoers about their social media and phone use while high, and how they felt about it after. 

    More than half of the study participants (55.9%) had called or texted someone while high, and more than 30% regretted that decision. Nearly 35% of people had posted on social media high, which 21.4% later regretted; and 47.5% of people had been in a photo high, which 33% regretted. 

    The study shows that drug use has important social implications, said lead study author Joseph Palamar, a researcher at the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research and an associate professor of Population Health at NYU School of Medicine.

    Risky Posts

    “Risky social media posts, including those showing people high on drugs, have the potential to cause embarrassment, stress, and conflict for users and those in their social networks,” Palamar said in a press release. “It can also have adverse implications for one’s career, since the majority of employers now use social media platforms to screen job candidates and may search for evidence of substance use.”

    Palamar said the fact that people regret their posts, texts or calls speaks for itself.

    “At least one in five experienced regret after engaging in these behaviors while high, suggesting that some situations may have resulted in socially harmful or embarrassing scenarios,” he said. 

    Younger people (ages 18-24) and females were the most likely to use social media or phones in a way they later regretted. People who identified as neither heterosexual, gay or bisexual were at an increased risk of social media posts, while black study participants were much less likely to post, text or call. 

    People using marijuana were the most likely to make posts, followed by those who were using cocaine. 

    Palamar and study co-author Austin Le, a research associate in the NYU Langone Department of Population Health, said that their research indicates that harm reduction efforts need to include the social consequences of getting high. 

    “While more research is needed, our findings suggest a need for prevention or harm reduction programs to educate high-risk groups not only about the adverse health effects of substance use, but also about the potential negative social outcomes,” Le said. 

    Palamar agreed. 

    “While prevention programs have largely focused on physical safety—for example, not driving after drinking—such programs can also stress that using a smartphone while high can increase the risk of someone engaging in regretful behavior,” he said. “Tactics such as using apps to prevent texting while intoxicated or delaying posting on social media until one is no longer experiencing drug effects may help to minimize social harm.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Study Challenges Link Between Teen Social Media Use And Depression

    Study Challenges Link Between Teen Social Media Use And Depression

    Researchers explored whether teens are using social media to feel better or if it makes them feel worse.

    Which came first? It has been documented that teen social media use is tied to higher rates of depression, but a new study suggests that experiencing symptoms of depression may actually lead to social media use, rather than the other way around. 

    The study, published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, polled 6th, 7th and 8th graders over the course of two years, and college students over the course of 6 years.

    Researchers asked about weekday and weekend social media use and other screen time, and evaluated the participants for depression using established scales, according to Science Daily. 

    The researchers found that social media use did not predict symptoms of depression.

    Breaking the data down between ages and genders, the researchers found that among people with depressive symptoms, only teen girls are likely to spend more time on social media, said lead study author Taylor Heffer.

    “This finding contrasts with the idea that people who use a lot of social media become more depressed over time. Instead, adolescent girls who are feeling down may turn to social media to try and make themselves feel better,” Heffer said.

    The study differed from previous research because it polled participants over time, rather than relying on information about depressive symptoms and social media use from one specific time. 

    “You have to follow the same people over time in order to draw the conclusion that social media use predicts greater depressive symptoms,” Heffer said. “By using two large longitudinal samples, we were able to empirically test that assumption.”

    The study results may be a welcome relief for parents who are concerned that social media engagement could be detrimental to their children’s health, Heffer said.

    “When parents read media headlines such as ‘Facebook Depression,’ there is an inherent assumption that social media use leads to depression. Policymakers also have recently been debating ways to tackle the effects of social media use on mental health.”

    Instead of looking to broad trends in the cause and effect of social media use, Heffer said it’s important that individuals pay attention to how they particularly are affected by heavy social media use, if at all. 

    “There may be different groups of people who use social media for different reasons. For example, there may be a group of people who use social media to make social comparisons or turn to it when they are feeling down, while another group of people may use it for more positive reasons, such as keeping in contact with friends.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Connection Between Addiction, Excess Social Media Use Explored

    Connection Between Addiction, Excess Social Media Use Explored

    A new study’s results could potentially change the way excessive social media use is treated.

    There’s been a lot of debate over whether technology and social media can be addictive, and a study has strengthened the connection between the behaviors of people with substance use disorders and those who use social media excessively. 

    “This result further supports a parallel between individuals with problematic, excessive [social media] use, and individuals with substance use and behavioral addictive disorders,” the authors of the study wrote in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions. 

    As part of the study, researchers asked individuals about their social media use and its effects on their lives and had them complete the Iowa Gambling Task, a measure used by psychologists to determine decision-making abilities. They found that people who performed poorly on the task were more likely to have excessive social media use. People who abuse drugs also generally performed poorly on the task. 

    “With so many people around the world using social media, it’s critical for us to understand its use,” lead study author Dar Meshi, an assistant professor at Michigan State University, said in a press release. “I believe that social media has tremendous benefits for individuals, but there’s also a dark side when people can’t pull themselves away. We need to better understand this drive so we can determine if excessive social media use should be considered an addiction.”

    Meshi added that with one-third of people on the planet using social media, researchers and health care providers need to better understand the ways this can affect health and social functioning. 

    “Our findings will hopefully motivate the field to take social media overuse seriously,” Meshi said. 

    People with substance use disorders are known for not making the best decisions, something that was also found in people who used social media heavily. 

    Meshi explained, “Decision-making is oftentimes compromised in individuals with substance use disorders. They sometimes fail to learn from their mistakes and continue down a path of negative outcomes. But no one previously looked at this behavior as it relates to excessive social media users, so we investigated this possible parallel between excessive social media users and substance abusers. While we didn’t test for the cause of poor decision-making, we tested for its correlation with problematic social media use.”

    In the study, authors concluded that the results could change how we as a society perceive and potentially treat excessive social media use. 

    “Our results have important societal implications,” they wrote. “Taking this into consideration, our current finding, which demonstrates a behavioral similarity between excessive [social media] use and substance use and behavioral addictive disorders, can influence the beliefs and practices of policy makers, therapists, and tech industry leaders.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Could Limiting Social Media Use Improve Your Mental Health?

    Could Limiting Social Media Use Improve Your Mental Health?

    A new study examined whether excessive use of social media contributed to feelings of depression and loneliness.

    The more time you spend scrolling through social media, the more likely you could be contributing to your own feelings of depression and loneliness. 

    A new study from Penn State researchers has determined that social media use correlates with both depression and feeling lonely. 

    The study was led by Melissa Hunt of Penn State’s psychology department and involved 143 students from the university. The students were broken into two groups—one being told to limit social media use (Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat) for 10 minutes per app, the other instructed to continue using it as normal—and then monitored for three weeks. 

    Over the course of the study, students were assessed each week through testing for depression, social support and more. Their social media use was monitored through the iOS battery use screen.

    According to the study authors, levels of loneliness and depression decreased significantly over the three weeks. 

    “The limited use group showed significant reductions in loneliness and depression over three weeks compared to the control group,” authors wrote. “Both groups showed significant decreases in anxiety and fear of missing out over baseline, suggesting a benefit of increased self-monitoring. Our findings strongly suggest that limiting social media use to approximately 30 minutes per day may lead to significant improvement in well-being.”

    On the other hand, areas such as self-esteem and social support did not increase over the three weeks. Following up with the students was difficult, so authors were unable to fully determine if prior feelings returned or habit changes were implemented. 

    According to TechCrunch, Hunt states that by taking time away from social media, people are likely to instead focus on more fulfilling things in their lives. 

    “Some of the existing literature on social media suggests there’s an enormous amount of social comparison that happens,” she said. “When you look at other people’s lives, particularly on Instagram, it’s easy to conclude that everyone else’s life is cooler or better than yours. When you’re not busy getting sucked into clickbait social media, you’re actually spending more time on things that are more likely to make you feel better about your life.”

    The researchers did point out that their study was limiting. In future studies, they state, it could help to have a more diverse group of participants, include more social media outlets, extend the timeframe of the experiment and allow for more comprehensive follow-up with participants. Researchers also state that the set time for social media use could sway results.  

    Whatever the case, Hunt says, it’s important to take time away from technology to connect with others in your life. 

    “In general, I would say, put your phone down and be with the people in your life,” she stated. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Can Social Media Predict Depression?

    Can Social Media Predict Depression?

    A new study examined whether social media data could be used to find markers for depression.

    Social media could be an accurate predictor of depression, new research has found.

    According to Medical News Today, researchers utilized an algorithm to examine data from social media that could pick out “linguistic cues that might predict depression.” 

    “We’re increasingly understanding that what people do online is a form of behavior we can read with machine learning algorithms, the same way we can read any other kind of data in the world,” lead author Johannes Eichstaedt, founding research scientist at the World Well-Being Project (WWBP) in Philadelphia, told Wired. 

    Eichstaedt’s team, co-led by H. Andrew Schwartz, a principal investigator of the WWBP, studied data from nearly 1,200 social media users who agreed to grant access to both their posts and their electronic medical records (EMR). Of those who participated, only 114 had dealt with depression in the past. 

    “For each of these 114 patients, we identified 5 random control patients without a diagnosis of depression in the EMR, examining only the Facebook data they created before the corresponding depressed patient’s first date of a recorded diagnosis of depression,” study authors wrote. “This allowed us to compare depressed and control patients’ data across the same time span and to model the prevalence of depression in the larger population.”

    Researchers were then able to determine whether what they refer to as “depression-associated language markers” depicted “emotional and cognitive cues.” These included sadness, loneliness, hostility, rumination and increased self-reference. 

    The linguistic markers, according to researchers, could predict depression fairly accurately as soon as three months before the individual received a diagnosis.

    Still, Eichstaedt says, there is a different method before turning to social media as a reliable tool to diagnose depression. “It would be irresponsible to take this tool and use it to say: You’re depressed, you’re not depressed,” he told Wired. 

    Eichstaedt also stated that the social media algorithm is comparable to a DNA analysis. 

    “Social media data contain markers akin to the genome,” Eichstaedt said, according to Medical News Today. “With surprisingly similar methods to those used in genomics, we can comb social media data to find these markers. Depression appears to be something quite detectable in this way; it really changes people’s use of social media in a way that something like skin disease or diabetes doesn’t.”

    Eichstaedt says he is hopeful one day that this type of information could prove helpful in making diagnoses and treatments. 

    “The hope is that one day, these screening systems can be integrated into systems of care,” he said. “This tool raises yellow flags; eventually the hope is that you could directly funnel people it identifies into scalable treatment modalities.”

    The report was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Can Social Media Reduce Depression In Older Adults With Chronic Pain?

    Can Social Media Reduce Depression In Older Adults With Chronic Pain?

    A recent study examined how social media use affected the mental health of elderly adults living with pain.

    There’s been lots of information put forward about the toll that social media can take on our mental health, with excessive use of social media linked to depression and addictive behaviors.

    However, a new study indicates that there may be a silver lining: social media use might be associated with lower depression levels in older adults with pain. 

    The study, published in Journals of Gerontology, Series B and reported by Reuters Health, followed 3,401 people ages 67 or older. The people in the study all lived in the community, rather than in an assisted living or nursing facility, and 54% of them said they’d been bothered by pain in the past month. 

    Researchers found that among people with pain, 15% of those who did not use social media showed signs of depression. That dropped to just 6% among people who did engage with social media.

    “Using online social media to maintain contact with family members and friends is a good way to compensate for seniors who restrict their social activities due to pain. It is not going to replace seeing people in person, but it will help supplement their reduced activities,” said Shannon Ang, a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and co-author of the study. “For us, this study is about preserving mental health.”

    Despite the connection with better mental health, only 17% of participants were using social media, Ang found. He said that programs that teach the elderly how to use computers and engage online could be beneficial.

    In the future, Ang wants to research the connection between social media and mental health further, looking at what social media platforms and patterns of use are most closely connected with mental health benefits. 

    Healthcare providers say it isn’t necessarily surprising that social media could reduce depression symptoms, since it can alleviate feelings of isolation.

    “It’s very well known that social support is helpful for depression and physical symptoms. It’s a growing area of interest in research and clinical care,” said Dr. William Pirl of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who wasn’t involved in the study. 

    However, people should proceed with caution, Pirl said.

    “People respond differently to it. Some people can become more anxious hearing other peoples’ stories or about other treatments for what they’re experiencing. There’s a lot of variability of whether social media is right for you.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • YouTube Creators Detail Their Mental Health Struggles

    YouTube Creators Detail Their Mental Health Struggles

    “My life just changed so fast. My anxiety and depression keeps getting worse and worse. This is all I ever wanted, and why…am I so unhappy? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s stupid. It is so stupid.”

    For many, having a YouTube channel with millions of subscribers would be a dream come true. From the outside, it looks like a fun way to avoid having a real job and rake in a ton of money. But it’s certainly not as easy of a life as it looks. There’s a lot of pressure to keep cranking out content to keep your channel going, and there’s no promise of a steady income.

    As Engadget reports, a number of YouTube creators have been speaking out about their mental health struggles. One YouTube creator, Elle Mills, who has over one million subscribers, posted a video called “Burnt Out at 19,” where she said, “My life just changed so fast. My anxiety and depression keeps getting worse and worse. This is all I ever wanted, and why the fuck am I so unfucking happy? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s stupid. It is so stupid.” 

    Many YouTube creators also feel the pressure of having to constantly crank out content without a break. Jacques Slade, whose channel has close to one million subscribers, tried to take several days off and relax, but he panicked. “I don’t have content for the next four or five days,” he said to himself. “What’s that gonna do to me? What’s that gonna do to my bottom line? When I come back, are people still gonna watch my videos?” 

    Where people with “regular” jobs can count on a regular paycheck, people with YouTube channels make money depending on how many ads their videos have, the length of the videos, and how many people are tuning in. With Google’s ad guidelines, videos can be removed for trivial reasons, which can cut down on a creator’s income. And it isn’t just the pressure of cranking out new videos that can take its toll. There’s also the fear of not staying relevant with a very fickle audience.

    As Karen North, a professor of communication at USC explains, “For YouTubers, the entire relationship [with their audience] is based on what they upload. Therefore there’s a tremendous amount of pressure to maintain not just the quality but the image that they manufacture on a daily basis… [If someone is] absent due to illness or vacation for a few days, audiences want entertainment, and they won’t just wait for next week’s episode. Instead they’re going to go search for something else to fill their time.”

    One full-time YouTube creator, Sam Sheffer, still recommends taking mental health breaks from social media, “even if that means not uploading for two weeks. As long as you do things with the right intent and come back strong, things will work out.”

    To try and make YouTube a healthier environment for creators, the company has now set up a $4.99 membership fee for some channels and others can sell merchandise from their pages to boost their income as well. (You have to have at least 100,000 members to charge the membership fee, and you have to have over 10,000 subscribers to sell merchandise.)

    There has also been an effort to provide YouTube creators with mental health services, and there have also been support groups at events like the VidCon conference.

    One YouTube creator says, “I’d like to see YouTube take a more active and actionable role in helping creators outside of the platform, which itself still needs a lot of work.”

    View the original article at thefix.com