Social Media and Mental Illness
Human beings are social creatures.
We want the companionship of others to flourish in daily life. The power of our connections has a significant influence on psychological health and our well-being.
Being socially linked to others can ease depression, anxiety, and stress, boost self-worth, provide joy and comfort, prevent loneliness, and add many years to a person’s life.
On the other hand, lacking strong interpersonal connections can create a significant threat to your emotional and mental health.
Nowadays, most people depend on social networking platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram to locate and join. While each has its advantages, it is crucial to remember that social media can’t ever be an alternative for real-world human connection.
It takes in-person communication with other people to cause the hormones which alleviate stress and make you’re feeling more, healthier, and happier optimistic.
Ironically for a technological innovation that is made to bring folks closer together, spending a lot of time engaging with social networking may make you feel much more lonely and isolated – & exacerbate mental health problems, including anxiety and depression.
When you are spending an excessive amount of your time on social networking and feelings of loneliness, frustration, dissatisfaction, or sadness are affecting the life; it might be some time to re-examine the internet habits and discover a healthier balance.
Researchers from Stony Brook University and the University of Pennsylvania developed an algorithm that can accurately predict future depression by analyzing the words a person uses on Facebook posts.
The findings suggest that four specific words are reliable indicators of a future depression diagnosis.
‘Linguistic Red Flags’
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used a newly developed algorithm to spot “linguistic red flags” that could signal depression.
“What people write in social media and online captures an aspect of life that’s very hard in medicine and research to access otherwise.
It’s a dimension that’s relatively untapped compared to biophysical markers of disease,” says study author H. Andrew Schwartz, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science at Stony Brook University.
“Conditions like depression, anxiety, and PTSD, for example, you find more signals in the way people express themselves digitally.”
The 4 Warning Words
In a study of nearly 1,2000 people, researchers found indicators of depression included:
- Words like “tears” and “feelings.”
- Use of more first-person pronouns like “I” and “me.”
- Mentions of hostility and loneliness
The Social Media-Mental Illness Connection
Other research focuses on filter selection. As it turns out, the Instagram filter someone chooses can clue us into their mental state.
According to a study published in the journal EPJ Data Science, social media and mental illness are linked.
And the images a person shares on Instagram (and the way they’re edited) could offer insight into signs of depression.
The study examined more than 40,000 Instagram posts from 166 subjects. Researchers first identified study participants who were previously diagnosed with depression.
Next, they used machine-learning tools to identify patterns in people’s posts. It turns out there were differences between how depressed people and non-depressed people posted.
Those folks who were depressed tended to use filters less frequently than those who weren’t depressed.
And when they did use filters, the most popular one was “Inkwell,” which turns photos black and white.
Their photos were also more likely to contain a face in them. In contrast, non-depressed Instagrammers were partial to the “Valencia” image filter, which lightens photos.
This isn’t the first time researchers examined the role social media plays in mental health.
As social media continues to become more ingrained in our society (when’s the last time you spent an entire day away from Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Snapchat?), its role in our mental wellbeing is being studied, too.
And some of the findings are, well, troubling. Let’s break down the role social media plays in mental illness.
Social Media and Depression
Social media can exacerbate feelings of depression.
One study found that the more social platforms people are actively engaged in, the more likely they’ll feel depressed and anxious.
People who are stuck with two or fewer platforms experienced a decreased risk of depression and anxiety than those engaging with seven to 11 different media, even after controlling for other issues that could contribute to mental health illness and total time spent on the platforms.
Though seven platforms sound like a lot, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn add up to seven.
Throw in a dating app like Tinder or social chat apps like Kik and WeChat, and it becomes easy to see how someone could be on that many platforms.
In a small study of young people in the UK, researchers identified Instagram as the most associated social media platform associated with negative feelings, including depression, anxiety, loneliness, trouble sleeping, and bullying, with Snapchat following closely behind.
These platforms focus heavily on images, which can promote feelings of inadequacy and encourage low self-esteem as people compare themselves to others.
And another study found that Facebook uses negatively impacted how people felt moment-to-moment and how satisfied they were with their lives.
The more often people used Facebook over two weeks, the more their life satisfaction levels declined, no matter why they were using Facebook or how big their Facebook network was.
Though the study looked at just two weeks, it’d be interesting to see the cumulative life satisfaction toll would be over months and years.
Social Media and Loneliness
Though we have more ways than ever to keep in touch with people, including social media, loneliness is rising, particularly amongst older adults.
An AARP study of aged 45 and older found that 35 percent of them were lonely and that 13 percent of remote respondents felt “they have fewer deep connections now that they keep in touch with people using the Internet.”
Just because we’re liking friends’ statuses or checking out their vacation photos doesn’t mean we feel connected to them;
we might even be spending less time on activities that build in-person networks, like volunteering, pursuing a hobby, or getting involved in organizations we care about.
Researchers call it a loneliness epidemic — it increases the risk factor of premature death as much or even more than being obese.
It’s not just adults who are affected, either. One well-known study found that, even after controlling for factors like sex, age, and perceived social support, the more extensive an adolescent’s Facebook network, the more diurnal cortisol they produced.
Cortisol is known as the stress hormone, and elevated levels can lead to anxiety and sleep disorders, among other things.
The investigators theorized that the number of friends people have on Facebook is complimentary up to a certain point, but then reaches a point of diminishing returns. Higher stress and cortisol levels take over.
Social Media and Narcissism
Social media also provides a platform for narcissists and people with narcissistic tendencies.
Interestingly, one small study from 2010 found that selfish people with low self-esteem were more active on Facebook.
That’s in line with another study that found that being addicted to Facebook often predicted narcissistic behavior and low self-esteem.
These people likely use social media to “feed the ego” and tamper down on low self-esteem feelings with online validation.
Warning Signs of a Social Media Problem
Not everyone who uses social media has a mental health issue. Some people enjoy getting the latest cat videos or seeing photos of their grandchildren.
But being too reliant on social media can be a problem for some and can make mental health problems, like depression or anxiety, even worse.
Could you have a social media problem?
Here are some warning signs:
- You’re addicted to your smartphone — also known as nomophobia — and, in particular, checking social media platforms.
- You keep in touch with family and friends by commenting on their status updates, but you can’t remember the last time you spoke with one of them on the phone or even — gasp! — I saw them in person.
- Checking your social media platforms is the last thing you do before turning in at night, and the first thing you do upon waking.
- You feel panicky if several hours have gone by, and you haven’t checked your social media accounts.
- You obsess over the best way to “capture the moment” so you can post about it.
- You’re often comparing yourself to people online.
- You get upset if people haven’t commented on your updates and might even take down posts that haven’t garnered a significant reaction from others.
- Whether you’re waiting in line at the bank, are on the toilet, or are stuck at a red light, you find yourself “just checking in” on social media platforms no matter where you are or how much time you have.
Social Media and Mental Illness: How to Find Balance
Did you recognize yourself in the warning signs? It might be time to find some balance in your social media life.
It’s unrealistic to think that we will entirely cut ourselves off social media, mainly because all of the effects aren’t negative.
After all, it’s fantastic to find a community that loves long-haired Chihuahuas as much as you do or seek information on difficult topics, including mental health issues, from people who have experienced it already.
There are even websites where you can connect with licensed therapists to seek out care from the comfort of your own home.
According to the researchers who identified the link between people’s filter choice and depression, there could be a bright side to all of this.
It could help target and better aid depressed people in underserved communities.
“This computational approach, requiring only patients’ digital consent to share their social media histories, may open avenues to care which are currently difficult or impossible to provide,” the researchers say.
Here are some steps to take to develop a healthier relationship with social media:
Get an alarm clock. One way to get a handle on your social media use is to use an actual alarm clock. So many of us keep our phones in arm’s reach at night because we use them as an alarm clock.
But that usually means late-night scrolling and checking to see what happened overnight before we’re even out of bed. Turn your phone off overnight and use an old-school alarm instead.
Barring that, keep your phone on airplane mode starting at least an hour before bedtime.
Challenge yourself to see how long you can go in the mornings before turning it back on. Your alarm will work in airplane mode, but you won’t wake up to a social media assault of the senses.
Call and meet up with friends. It’s helpful to “check-in” with friends online, but if you have friends and family with who you haven’t had a real conversation within some time, give them a call or schedule a catch-up to see them in person.
Liking someone’s status can’t take the place of a real-life conversation. It’s also likely that, just like you curate what you share online, your friends and family are, too.
They could be experiencing things that you wouldn’t know anything about because they aren’t posting publicly about them.
Remember that everything you see online isn’t real. Filters and self-editing and witty captions look great, but they don’t tell the whole story.
While it can be tough not to compare yourself with others, remember that what you see on social media is just a tiny piece of someone’s life and one that’s usually edited to look as high as possible. It’s not their entire reality.
The Psychology of Your News Feed
“It’s not just taking away our agency — to spend our attention and live the lives that we want;
It’s changing how we have our conversations, changing our democracy, and improving our ability to have the conversations and relationships we want with each other.
And it affects everyone,” Tristan Harris, a former in-house ethicist at Google, proclaimed on his TED Talk, “How a Handful of Tech Companies Control Billions of Minds Every Day.”
Technology is designed to grab and keep our attention by understanding the science behind how our brains work, and it manipulates that.
As Tristan states, technology is not neutral.
The former Google ethicist urges us to consider an alternative where Facebook no longer attempts to keep us disconnected and absorbed on the internet. Instead, imagine a social media platform that helps you connect with your friends in real life.
Waking up to the harm these platforms are causing society, technology experts, including former Google and Facebook employees like Tristan, have united together to form the Center for Humane Technology.
The group plans a campaign called “The Truth About Tech,” which will educate students, parents, and teachers about depression as a side effect of heavy use of social media and other social media dangers.
In addition to educating the youth, the team wants to provide resources for engineers concerned about the programs they are building by showing data on the health effects of different technologies and ways to make healthier products.
The group’s plans also include lobbying for laws to reduce the power of large tech companies.
Two examples include a bill that would commission research on technology’s impact on children’s health and a bill that would prohibit the use of digital bots without identification.
While changing your social media habits must come from within yourself,
more humane technology offers healthier ways to use these apps and websites without always fighting off signals to keep you on the page, and it provides a brighter future for our children’s mental health and stress levels.
Final Thoughts on Social Media and Mental Illness
- The filters someone uses on Instagram can signal whether or not they’re depressed.
- Social media has been associated with mental illnesses ranging from depression and anxiety to loneliness and narcissism.
- Checking every few months on warning signs of a social media problem can help you keep yourself in check and make sure social media isn’t contributing to poor mental health.
- Social media can play a decisive role in mental health, too, mainly when used to guide people to resources or find help.
- Finding a balance between yourself and social media allows you to enjoy what social media has to offer without having it take over your life and mental state.
References
Stony Brook University
University of Pennsylvania
National Academy of Science
