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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : November 15, 2018 3:30 PM IST
Spending too much time on social media can cause depression. ©Shutterstock
A new research warns billions of young people who seek community and connection on social media, as their search may be in vain. According to the News Max report, the research also found that spending too much time on Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook may actually increase the risk of loneliness and depression.
The researchers analyzed 143 social media users aged between 18 and 22, especially they tracked the impact of such sites had on their mental health. Some participants were told to use the sites as often as they normally would, which typically came to about an hour a day, over the course of a week. Amounting to a total of about 25 minutes per day, others were asked to limit their usage to just 10 minutes a day per site.
The study author Melissa Hunt, an associate director of clinical training in the department of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania reportedly said that their study is the first study to establish that reducing social media use can actually reduce depression.
The findings will be published in the December issue of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.
She also said that the main finding of the paper is that limiting your use of Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram to 30 minutes total or less per day result in reductions in depression and loneliness, especially for people who were moderately depressed to start with.
After tracking each participant's normal use of all three sites for a week, the team observed that, for the most part, those struggling with greater mental "distress" did not typically spend more time on social media. However, those who struggled with FOMO (Fear of missing out) were the exception; they did tend to spend more time using social media.
