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Does time spent on social media impact mental health? New study shows screen time isn't the
problem
Critique Paper
Background
Many studies have found a link between time spent using social media and mental health
issues, such as depression and anxiety. However, the existing research is plagued by cross-
sectional research and lacks analytic techniques examining individual change over time.
Methods
The current research involves an 8-year longitudinal study examining the association between
time spent using social media and depression and anxiety at the intra-individual level.
Participants included 500 adolescents who completed once-yearly questionnaires between the
ages of 13 and 20.
Results
Results revealed that increased time spent on social media was not associated with
increased mental health issues across development when examined at the individual level.
Hopefully these results can move the field of research beyond its past focus on screen time.
Conclusion
The time spent on social media research sustained a longitudinal study that showed the positive
effects of using social media in a span of time that provides suggestions to improve the use of
social media in to balance mental health.
I. Summary
The amount of time teenagers spend on social networking sites has risen 62.5
percent since 2012 and continues to grow. Just last year, the average time
teenagers spent on social media was estimated as 2.6 hours per day. Critics have
claimed that more screen time is increasing depression and anxiety in teenagers.
However, new research led by Sarah Coyne, a professor of family life at Brigham
Young University, found that the amount of time spent on social media is not directly
increasing anxiety or depression in teenagers. "We spent eight years trying to really
understand the relationship between time spent on social media and depression for
Human Behavior. "If they increased their social media time, would it make them
more depressed? Also, if they decreased their social media time, were they less
depressed? The answer is no. We found that time spent on social media was not
syndrome where no one stressor is likely the cause of depression or anxiety. This
study shows that it is not merely the amount of time spent on social media that's
leading to an increase in depression or anxiety among adolescents. "It's not just the
amount of time that is important for most kids. For example, two teenagers could use
social media for exactly the same amount of time but may have vastly different
outcomes as a result of the way they are using it," Coyne said. The goal of this study
is to help society as a whole move beyond the screen time debate and instead to
examine the context and content surrounding social media use. Coyne has three
Limit social media use at least an hour before falling asleep. Getting enough sleep is
Be intentional. Look at your motivations for engaging with social media in the first
place "If you get on specifically to seek out information or to connect with others, that
can have a more positive effect than getting on just because you're bored," Coyne
said. In an effort to understand teenagers' mental health and their social media use,
researchers worked with 500 youth between the ages of 13 and 20 who completed
measured by asking participants how much time they spent on social networking
questions with different scales to indicate depressive symptoms and anxiety levels.
These results were then analyzed on an individual level to see if there was a strong
correlation between the two variables. At age 13, adolescents reported an average
social networking use of 31–60 minutes per day. These average levels increased
steadily so that by young adulthood, they were reporting upwards of two hours per
day. This increase of social networking, though, did not predict future mental health.
That is, adolescents' increases in social networking beyond their typical levels did
Advantage
The study actually implies the state of teenagers in the presence of social media
in a span of time affecting behaviors. The research is an eye catching one since it
was unusual from other researches that most studies are focused on the obvious
states like social media has a bigger negative impact to teenagers or how some
researches are centralizing the idea of how social media causes mental disabilities,
disorders, anxiety, depression, insecurities and the like. This context brought up
answers that can explain reasons as to why social media as not as negative as it
seems to teenager’s psychological state. It gave points to support that social media
is not just the factor for mental capabilities but in fact shows that mental health is a
multi-process syndrome. In this case it’s not merely the time spent on social media is
study was organized in terms of the sequence; they introduced the arguments first
then the data or the statistics and lastly the supporting evidences to the issue. The
author suggested healthier ways as well to use social media to which aims to prevent
mental disabilities and to seek for positive effects. One of the keys that made the
study strong was the longitudinal method, showing the effort of the researchers to
work with 500 youth between the ages of thirteen and twenty who completed once
yearly in an eight-year span. The research was maintained and was flowing in one
path. It was also advantageous because it was based on the present times making it
relatable for majority since social media is the platform of productivity in the
generation z.
Disadvantage
One of the disadvantages of the research paper is their target audience and there
were no test before that that the audience or population they are getting are not
clinically diagnosed as depressed and they immediately concluded that social media
is not affecting mental health. But in order for this to be fixed they should have run a
test or experiment the level of their depression plus the timed used in front of the
social media take note that environment is also a proponent of occurring depression
and this is being supported by an article intitled "Lifestyle Factors and Environmental
Causes of Depression”. Lifestyle Factor stated that People who are not physically
depression. And this article both contradicted each other that people who spend
more in front of the social media would tend to exercise the least. Factors such as
the following made the context questionable regarding the facts; survey question
answer options could also lead to unclear data because certain answer options may
“somewhat agree” may represent different things to different subjects, and have its
own meaning to each individual respondent. ‘Yes’ or ‘no’ answer options can also be
problematic. Respondents may answer “no” if the option “only once” is not available.
Respondents may not feel encouraged to provide accurate, honest answers as well
and respondents may not be fully aware of their reasons for any given answer
creating gaps and holes that makes some points fall and incomplete.
Conclusion
This research was actually a good one but holes were on the line of it, leading
to a weak point but at least the study has a goal, that is to help teenagers
prevent mental disabilities through balancing ways of using social media. The
make a positive difference around the world. Social media has the potential to create
powerful positive change but when used with bad intentions, it can have equally bad
repercussion that can affect mental health. Basically, it talks about the discipline
responsibility and respect as the key to achieve equal status in all aspects that can
Buckley, C., & University, B. (2019, October 21). Does time spent on social media
impact mental health? New study shows screen time isn’t the problem. Retrieved
from medicalxpress.com/news/2019-10-spent-social-media-impact-mental.html
Pros and cons of social media. (2019, June 13). Retrieved from
ontheline.org.au/blog/pros-and-cons-of-social-media-for-mental-health/
Nemade, R., Nemade, Ph. D., Patricelli, edited, & Patricelli, M. (n.d.). Gulf Bend
MHMR Center. Retrieved from gulfbend.org/poc/view_doc.php