Back to Blog
Using brain app meme6/3/2023 Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt dug into how the widespread use of social media, specifically Instagram, has played a significant role in the mental health epidemic in teen girls and how studies that claim the impact is simply correlational - not causational, which he believes it to be and illustrates through analysis of social media studies in his Substack, After Babel - are getting the prognosis wrong. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its bi-annual Youth Risk Behavioral Survey (PDF) in February that reported that 57% of teen girls experience persistent sadness or hopelessness, a jump from 36% in 2011. We're all aware of the dangers spending too much time on social media can pose, but recent research is making the problems even clearer. For at least four years, I've been in a cycle of overusing the platform, trying to create some distance, then yearning for digital content and finally returning to the app - with the (fragile) resolution that I would have a healthier relationship with it this time around. It wasn't the first time I deleted Instagram from my phone, either. This wasn't the first time I needed space from the ever-churning content I inconspicuously consume. So I did, figuring that the best way to spend the end of the year was to abandon the app and give my brain a break. Almost immediately, I felt the need to purge the app from my iPhone. I got terribly overwhelmed by being on Instagram, specifically, in the final days of 2022. It was as though I'd hit my content quota for the year and suddenly felt deluged by the sea of media I was swimming in. Before Christmas, I could feel the accumulation of my media usage throughout the year finally adding up.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |