“Most members of Generation Z can’t imagine life without Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter,” Carolyn Gregoire reports for The Huffington Post. “Nearly one in four teens reports being online ‘almost constantly,’ with much of that online time dominated by social media.”
“But the effect of social networking on teens’ mental health has been largely unclear, since so little research has been conducted on the matter. A new study warns, however, that frequent social media use may indeed take a toll on a young person’s psychological well-being,” Gregoire reports. “The research comes from Ottawa Public Health, the city of Ottawa’s agency for health information, programs and services.”
“To conduct the study, the researchers analyzed data from 750 students in grades seven through 12, collected for the 2013 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey. The students were asked to answer questions about their social media habits, mental health and psychological well-being, and mental health support. Of those students, 25 percent said that they spent at least two hours a day on social networking sites like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook,” Gregoire reports. “The researchers found that these heavy social media users were more likely to report having poor mental health, psychological distress (symptoms of anxiety and depression), suicidal thoughts and unmet mental health needs.”
“While the study doesn’t prove causality, it’s likely that the direction of influence runs both ways,” Gregoire reports. “Teens who are struggling with their mental health may be more likely to use social media frequently, while excessive use of social media use may over time contribute to poor mental health.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Who doesn’t know by now that Facebook is a land of make-believe, an unending stream of ridiculous self-created advertisements for perfect lives that do not exist. No wonder it attracts the mentally ill and exacerbates mental illness. It’s a beehive for those suffering from narcissistic personality disorder – and NSA spooks.
SEE ALSO:
FYI: Facebook collects all the text you typed but decided against posting – April 22, 2015
European Commission: Don’t use Facebook if you don’t want to be spied on – March 27, 2015
Facebook, Google, and Amazon are getting even creepier – December 9, 2014
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Tim Berners-Lee: You should own your personal data, not Google, Facebook, Amazon, and advertisers – October 8, 2014
How to hide Twitter, Facebook buttons in iOS 8 sharing panel – October 2, 2014
Facebook’s scary Messenger app highlights iOS security vs. Android security – August 8, 2014
Facebook conducts massive psychology experiment on 700,000 unaware users, and you may have been a guinea pig – June 28, 2014
Why Apple really values your privacy – unlike Google, Facebook, or Amazon – June 25, 2014
U.S. NSA used Facebook to hack into computers – March 12, 2014
Young users see Facebook as ‘dead and buried’ – December 27, 2013
How to permanently delete your Facebook account – December 16, 2013
Study finds link between number of Facebook friends and ‘socially disruptive’ narcissism – April 10, 2012
Facebook is stupid and for old people – April 10, 2012
Study, frequent watching of TV shows mental health in adults. Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Sent from my iPhone
>
Macdailynews, I am happy to know that the few of you are alright , even though the 1.5 billion FB users are a little off.
I use Facebook all the time to post bowel movement selfies. Strange I still have Zero Friends or Followers. 😐
That’s why I only frequent MDN, to converse with well balanced, level headed, intelligent and kind individuals such as we have here.
There actually are a few such individuals here, and for their trouble they take flak from Android/Microsoft Axis forces. They are also subject to fragging by miserable Apple grunts, and to sabotage by agents of day traders. Mother Theresa would have thrown up her hands confronting this lot.
Okay, what I want to know is . . .
Where did they find a non social media teenager for the control group?
Oh, I’m sure there are plenty of responsibly parents out there… 🙂
I’m not surprised at all. I have anxiety, and had managed it well enough without drugs until social media started to explode back in 2006. Social media gave me a whole, terrifying new level of anxiety about my posts/ do people like what I have to say/ etc. I’ve mostly gotten over it, but I can’t imagine what it must be like for a teenager for whom peer approval is everything.
Ironically, “social media” causes anti-social behavior in the real world.
Social media is like peanuts. Dangerous for some, ok for others. But I think the real danger is this instant anonymous social thing.
In the real world when you sit face to face with someone, you learn to control what you say because of instant feedback in your face.
On line, you can say what ever you want, when you want, tell everyone else about it, lie thru your teeth about anything. Even if someone dies, there is usually no punishment for it.
So, of course its a dangerous thing to learn. All pleasure and no pain.
Its also like technology. As tv has gotten better at fake aliens and space ships, suddenly teens are sure the govt. is hiding faster than light travel (cause it looks so easy) and teleportation (cause they want to get travel money from us) etc. But if study to be an engineer, you realize how hard it is to do even the simple things we take for granted.
Just saying. 🙂
I call bullshit.
As soon as he said Gen Z I knew it was a retarded article.
I mean consider the source https://twitter.com/carolyn_greg
lolz
Come on! “Retarded” ?!? What are you, 12?
Why is it that every single app that used to be useful has been “upgraded” with links to Twitter, FB, et al? It seems every app owner, including Apple is besotted with the 1.7bn people (is it really that many?), who use social media and have forgotten about that vast army of 5.3bn people who don’t want a bar of that narcissistic shit. As an example, look at the crap that Photos is after Apple dropped Aperture and iPhoto because they didn’t do the whole social media thing well enough. I am sick of being asked with practically every single application I open if I want to log in through Twitter or Facebook! Rant over.
Yet another moronic, lazy “journalist” who CLEARLY has no idea what “Generation X” meant. “Gen Y” and “Gen Z” are more insulting to those respective generations than to the Xers. What’s next “Generation AA, BB, CC?”
smh
But gen x has perfected anail