According to the first author of the new study published in the Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology , no scientific research has shown a causal connection between social media and loneliness so far.
Psychologist Melissa G. Hunt from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) believes her team is responsible for the first experimental study of the use of Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. The expert argues that previous studies were limited in scope or used “unrealistic situations,” such as monitoring participants for short periods in laboratory settings.
“We set out to do a much more thorough and rigorous study that was also more ecologically sound,” says Hunt.
Why Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram?
They focused on these three social networks (Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram) because they are the most popular platforms among college students.
The experiment included 143 college students from the University of Pennsylvania, who completed a survey to determine their mood and well-being at the beginning of the study. All of them also contributed a week of data from their smartphones to demonstrate their current social media habits.
The results showed that the group that reduced their use of social media experienced significant decreases in depression and loneliness. These effects were “particularly pronounced for people who were most depressed when they started the study.”
The study only investigated three social media platforms, so it is not yet possible to determine whether the results could also be applied to other platforms. However, the experts intend to expand the work in future studies.
Should we put social media aside?
Based on these findings, they offer some advice for social media users who are concerned about the effect these platforms may have on our well-being:
“ It’s kind of ironic that cutting back on social media actually makes you feel less alone . When you look at other people’s lives, particularly on Instagram, it’s easy to conclude that everyone else’s life is better than yours.” Hunt says.
However, although experts believe that there are many reasons to limit the time of use in these applications, it emphasizes that the study does not conclude that young people should completely abandon social networks.
In February this year, Jeffrey Hall, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, claimed that two of his studies had debunked the “social displacement” theory that the more time people spent on social media. the less likely they were to spend less time socializing with people in “the real world.”
“I am trying to reject the popular conception of how this works. That is not to say that excessive use of social networks is good, but it is not bad in the way people think it is, ” says Hunt.
Reference: Melissa G. Hunt, Rachel Marx, Courtney Lipson, and Jordyn Young (2018). No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. e-View Ahead of Print. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751
