Social media may not have rotted our brains as much as we think, the twins study
A new study this week may include an account of the effects of social media addiction on mental health. It showed only a small connection between social media use and well-being – one that was explained by half of our species.
Researchers in the Netherlands analyzed data from thousands of twins. They found small associations between more social media and mental health, but also that this association was often influenced by shared genetic factors. The findings suggest that social media may not be as harmful to our mental health as is commonly believed, the researchers said.
“Our research helps to move the discussion away from simple social claims that Social Media is ‘Good’ or ‘Lelim Sametoglu’ author,” says the author of LeaLim Sametoglu, “says the Movie researcher” “We show that the results are modest, and more importantly, at least in part different by genetic type.”
The specificity of twin research
Twins are very important in science. Because they are genetic and often similar in nature, it makes it easy for scientists to isolate the effects of people’s genetics on a particular field, condition, or health outcome. If identical twins are more similar to each other in some way than twins or siblings, for example, their forms may be the main reason for the similarity.
In this new study, researchers analyzed data from the Netherlands Twin register, a long-running project that keeps track of the mental and physical health of twins born in the country. As part of the project, the twins and their families are asked various questions about their lives, including how often they use social media.
All told, they studied more than 6,000 twins, both identical and rare. The use of social media, counting the time spent browsing and posting on popular platforms such as Facebook and Snapchat, apart from related activities such as playing video games. They also tracked various measures of well-being, including whether people reported having anxiety disorders and depressive symptoms.
Like previous research on the topic, they found modest links between social media use and negative social-related outcomes. But upon examination, a person’s genetics appear to play a major role in driving this link. People tend to spend more time on social media, for example, and may be genetically more prone to poor mental health because of that time. The researchers estimate that genetics alone can account for 72% of the variation in how often people use social media.
Notably, they found even healthier people looked at a wider variety of social media platforms, while worse people were more likely to post more often across a small group of social media sites. And while many of the possible associations were negative or non-existent, researchers found that high media consumption was associated with a greater sense of prosperity in their lives (a person who feels prosperous can report that they are more involved and interested in their daily activities, for example).
The group’s findings were published earlier this month in Behavioral Genetics.
What you think about your social media time
The authors say that their work should add more nuances to the discussion about the harm experienced by social media, and they also say that the broad actions of using the right to communicate with them.
“We shouldn’t let topics like ‘toxic media’ distract us from what’s really important about social media, because we need to focus on Social Media Stratests, because it’s our health genes.
Personally, I’m of the mindset that, like most things in life, a little moderation goes a long way. So while it’s okay to know that my time on reddit is probably not thanking my brain (much), I’m still going to take a regular break from the same destruction.
