There has recently been a lot of noise in the media about a new study that PROVES that social media is making you depressed Fortunately, it's a bit more complicated than that
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The study in question looked at a small sample of US university students, and found that those who reduced their use of social media - specifically Facebook, Insta, and Snapchat - improved on some measures of
#Mentalhealthpic.twitter.com/JJIAgcOLle
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However, the researchers only saw an improvement on measures of depression and loneliness - but they measured ~10 different factors!
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The headlines could've just as easily said that social media isn't a problem for anxiety, FOMO, social support, autonomy, self-acceptance, and self esteem, but that doesn't make such a good story
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There were also other issues with the study: it wasn't randomized, the reported variables were minimal, and a number of other problems
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It's also hard to generalize from 100 US undergrads to, well, anybody else So the results probably mean nothing to YOU, unless you're part of that group
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We also don't know if these results mean anything for OTHER social media platforms. What about Twitter, for example?
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There's also other research that is a) more comprehensive and b) shows that the depression/loneliness/social media question is a lot more complicated than this one study might demonstrate
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If you want to know more, read the blog!https://medium.com/@gidmk/social-media-doesnt-make-you-depressed-and-lonely-6a47d62a5d83 …
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End of conversation
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New blog on social media and mental health FYI
@MackayIM@sapphixy@Takethatdoctors@AlanLevinovitz@synapse101@gorskon@theitskeptic@schneiderleonid@CoyneoftheRealm@HislopMDShow this threadThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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