Social media is making young people depressed

That social media It is no exaggeration that our world has fundamentally changed. We’re in our second decade of shared comments, photos and videos. Your family, travel, pets, relatives, accomplishments, and life events – bring people together in so many ways. We are somehow closer to each other, able to connect with people in different ways and not limited by geographical distances.

But there is a darker side to mental illness among young people, and especially teenage girls.

in a row In countries such as the UK, Australia, Canada and the US, there has been an increase in the number of young people, particularly young adults, seeking treatment from the health system who report suffering from ill health or depression. This increase started in 2012 and every year since then has been worse than the previous one. Sweden has one Similar shapesAn increase in mental illnesses followed a few years later.

There can be many reasons. These include poor school attendance, bullying and financial problems for families. But is there any variable that stands out? American psychologist Jonathan Hyde thinks so.

Long for him He is currently writing a book researching mental illness among youth. A newsletter He allows the reader to follow the work process and shares various findings during the work.

The project began with a skepticism: the use of new social media such as Instagram (launched in 2010) would only really take off in 2012. At the same time, the largest increase in depression among boys and girls occurs in many countries where such statistics are available.

Is it just a coincidence?

Those two events Coexistence in time does not mean that one explains the other. A correlation does not mean that there is a causal relationship. Therefore, it is important to find out what mainly explains and leads to mental illness among youth.

Previous studies, for example, have found no such link or only a weak link. But what Haidt is doing in the current project is to look more closely at previous studies and distinguish different groups from each other. In recent years, there have been many researches that have explored this issue in more depth than before.

What emerges Using smart phones does not make people happy by definition. Men and women are not affected equally, and we are affected to different degrees by different types of social media. For example, Instagram has a more significant impact on mood than Facebook.

An important addition to research is that experiments have now begun to be carried out. They split the subjects into different groups and have one group completely stop using social media for a long period of time to see what happens. of Ten experimental studies conducted, eight of these significantly improved psychological well-being, with reduced or no benefit, particularly among adolescent girls and young women.

In a British country study It examined whether social media use is associated with depression among young adults. The relationship between depression and hours spent per day on social media was very strong.

The difference between men and women was also clear. Among those who used social media five hours or more daily, the percentage of depressed women was more than 35 percent. The corresponding figure for boys was 15 percent. Just half an hour a day of using social media increases the percentage of depressed among women, while the threshold is higher for men.

Social media does We are connected to the lives of others in a seemingly deep yet superficial way. This can give an insidious sense of closeness, while many young people feel isolated and alienated from their surroundings.

In particular, visual social media (like Instagram) requires you to present yourself, leading to constant self-reflection. It’s not so bad, some might think. But this self-reflection often leads to deep feelings of doubt and inadequacy. This is especially important for young women. Sitting for hours and taking selfies, editing them, posting them, waiting for comments, comparing them to others and the reactions they get validates one’s look. No one feels better about overindulging, but young women are especially hard hit.

It seems that It’s no coincidence that it’s so intense for young teenage kids: As we humans leave the family and socialize into our neighborhoods, we seek context and a sense of belonging. At the same time, teenagers develop their self-confidence and identity. Searching is a natural part of growing up, but leaves us vulnerable to comparisons and ideal images that seem unattainable.

Jonathan Haidt and the crew around him couldn’t shake the arrival. The conclusions are based on a large body of research that not only shows that social media is one of many variables that explain increasingly worsening mental health. Social media is the main reason.

For large companies As with Meta (which owns both Instagram and Facebook), these findings are troubling. Their entire business concept is based on users staying with us as much as possible. Capturing new groups of users is essential to sustain the advertising business. So, the algorithms are constantly being refined and we remain addicted. Our focus is on hard currency and many talented people in the meta are working to retain users.

But there comes a time for conscious regression. Meta’s natural interest in profit can run counter to another, more important, social interest: the mental well-being of young people. As a parent, the first step is to have a conversation about how social media is good and bad. But the question is whether the use of social media is reasonable. A number of studies cited by Haidt show that young women in particular, for example, are negatively affected by too little use of Instagram.

This is politics Not an issue here. And it would be strange otherwise. What can or should politicians actually do? Regulating the use of phones and, in particular, specific applications is complex and prone to error. But there are solutions.

Today’s thirteen-year age limit for registering on Instagram is almost completely meaningless. There is no way to verify compliance. If it is now established that social media is a major cause of mental illness among young people, its use should be regulated like, for example, alcohol.

Adam Kwejman is a political editor at GP. He writes about both the local and the global – from the urban planning of Gothenburg to the major political changes of our time.