![]() ![]() And, for girls more than boys, social life and status tend to revolve around intimacy and inclusion versus exclusion 4, making them more vulnerable to both the ‘fear of missing out’ and the relational aggression that social media facilitates. Girls use social media much more than do boys (who, in turn, spend more of their time gaming). The sex difference is robust, and there are several likely causes for it. When research papers allow us to zoom in on social media, rather than looking at screen time as a whole, the correlations with depression are larger, and they are larger still when we look specifically at girls ( go./2u74der). ![]() However, I present three arguments against this defence.įirst, the papers that report small or null effects usually focus on ‘screen time’, but it is not films or video chats with friends that damage mental health. And, indeed, several studies 2, 3 show that there is only a small correlation between time spent on screens and bad mental-health outcomes. Some researchers defend social media, arguing that there is only circumstantial evidence for its role in mental-health problems 2, 3. Its use by teenagers increased most quickly between 20, by which point two-thirds of 15–17-year-olds were using it on a daily basis 1. Only one suspect was in the right place at the right time to account for this sudden change: social media. (Data taken from the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health, Table 11.2b go./3ayjaww) JONATHAN HAIDT: A guilty verdictĪ sudden increase in the rates of depression, anxiety and self-harm was seen in adolescents - particularly girls - in the United States and the United Kingdom around 2012 or 2013 (see go./2up38hw). Some researchers think that social media is the cause of this increase, whereas others see social media as a way of tackling it. Rates are higher and are increasing more rapidly for girls than for boys. Rates of depression among teenagers in the United States have increased steadily since 2012. But perhaps digital devices could provide a way of gathering data about mental health in a systematic way, and make interventions more timely.įigure 1 | Depression on the rise.Some evidence indicates that frequent users of social media have higher rates of depression and anxiety than do light users.Rates of teenage depression began to rise around 2012, when adolescent use of social media became common (Fig.Adolescents tend to be heavy users of these devices, and especially of social media.There is an ongoing debate about whether social media and the use of digital devices are detrimental to mental health. ![]()
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