Researchers Investigate Social Media’s Negative Impacts
In a recent study conducted by Canadian research groups have found that social media sites have a wide range of negative mental health effects on individuals. The study tended to zone in on the specific effects on Facebook. With more than 800 million users accessing Facebook regularly, and roughly 425 million utilizing the site using a mobile device, the service's reach has become all-encompassing. There are 18 million Canadians on Facebook - more than half our population. More than 12 million of us visit the site daily. On a per-capita basis, Canada has the highest number of Facebook users in the world. The average Canadian has 225 "friends" on the social network, though recent studies from the University of Waterloo have shown that as many as half of our "friends" are people we don't even really know.
In a speech delivered to the American Psychological Association, Larry Rosen, professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who assisted with the study’s research, outlined the results of some recent research, which also points to the darker side of social media. Three of the major trends found were:
- Teens using Facebook have more narcissistic tendencies, while young adults who have a strong Facebook presence show more signs of other psychological disorders, including anti-social behaviors.
- Daily overuse of media and technology has a negative effect on the health of all children, preteens and teenagers by making them more prone to anxiety, depression and other psychological disorders.
- Facebook can be distracting and can negatively impact learning. Studies found that middle school, high school and college students who checked Facebook at least once during a 15-minute study period achieved lower grades.
The study expresses warnings about monitoring the time spent on services, like Facebook, are timely given the steady increase in what some psychologists are calling “Facebook Addiction Disorder.” This occurs and is noted when people are afraid to disconnect from social media services because they think they're going to missing something important. The disorder, which is not a clinical diagnosis and is not yet recognized by the broader medical community, is attracting attention. In a paper that studies similar social networking negatives, a group of researchers from Chicago University's Booth Business School, led by Wilhelm Hofmann, has found that Facebook and social media websites may be as addictive as alcohol or cigarettes. For example, the researchers gave internet enabled cell phones to 205 people between the ages of 18 and 85 in the German city of Wurzburg. Then, researchers tracked how much they wanted to use social media. The study found that their desire to participate in social media websites, such checking Facebook or Twitter, was only surpassed by their desires to sleep and have sex.
Overall, I understand that the desire for individuals to stay constantly connected is actually plaguing society in diverse aspects, like many of the researchers discovered in this article. However, I do believe that there are numerous benefits to these services. Before those positives can appear and become widespread though, people of all ages need to learn to control their social media usage, so that society does not further the already developed negative trends. What do you think could be done to combat these trends?
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