Summary: According to a national study. Young people who used a lot of media significantly developed depression within 6 months.

Young people with increased media use are significantly more likely to develop depression within 6 months, summarizes a national study by Dr. Brian Primack, head of the department. College and health training as well as a professor of public health at the University of Arkansas.

When compared with those who use media for less than 120 minutes per day, young people who use more than 300 minutes per day are more than 2.8 times more likely to become depressed in 6 months.

The study, published publicly online December 10, and also scheduled to appear in the February 2021 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, is the first major national study to show the temporal link between social media and depression.

“Much of the early work in this field left us with the question of eggs and chickens,” Primack said. “We know from many other large studies that depression and social media use are often associated, but it’s hard to figure out which comes first. It is this new study that sheds light on those questions, because heavy media use in the first place leads to increased rates of depression. However, your pre-existing depression does not lead to a change in your use of social networks.

In 2018, Primack and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh studied 1,000 adults in the US aged 18 to 30. They used a reliable measure of depression, the 9-question Patient Health Table. and asked attendees about how much time they spend on social media on several platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and SnapChat. Their analysis controlled for demographic factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, education, personal income, and even employment, and they added the weight-related survey to the results. reflects the majority of the population of the United States.

Dr Cesar Escobar-Viera, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and co-author of the study, said: “Another reason for these results could be social media. Society consumes a lot of time.” “Using excess time on social media can replace more important things like forming person-to-person relationships, achieving personal or professional goals, or simply spending time on social media. value contemplation.

The authors also suggest that social comparison may also be the basis for this result.

“Social media is often managed to emphasize positivity,” said Jaime Sidani, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and a co-author of the study. “This can be especially difficult for young people, at critical points in their lives, that can be relied upon to define their own growth and feel that they cannot be measured. the unreal ideals they are working on.”

The results of this study are particularly important given that depression, recently declared by the World Health Organization, is the leading global cause of impotence and reduced life expectancy, compared with other disorders. other mental disorders.

“This result is also important, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Primack said. “Nowadays, it’s hard to socialize by meeting face to face, we all use more technology like social media. While I think those technologies are valuable, I also encourage people to think carefully about which technologies are really needed and useful for them and which ones make them feel empty.”

Translated by: Quoc Dung

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201210074722.htm

StorySource:

Materials provided by University of Arkansas.

Journal Reference:

1. Brian A. Primack, Ariel Shensa, Jaime E. Sidani, César G. Escobar-Viera, Michael J. Fine. Temporal Associations Between Social Media Use and Depression. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2020.09.014

Self-translated article at ykhoa.org, please do not reup!