New Study Explains Why We Should Limit Social Media Use

This news comes as little surprise to us but now, even more research has outlined the correlation between our obsession with social media and our less than favourable mental health states, particularly among teens.

A study, published by the journal of Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking, has concluded that the more American teens spend their time scrolling through their Facebook feeds and Snapchatting their peers, the more prone to sadness they become. Focusing on 753 teens, those who claimed to spend at least two hours a day on social media reported “unmet mental health needs”, which, we’ve read, can range between suicidal ideation to “high levels of psychological distress.”

#ICYMI: Social Media Makes You Feel Bad

Though the benefits of social media have been well documented, it’s always important to be mindful of the ‘fomo’ effect and the self-comparisons that can be made by observing an edit of someone else’s ‘best bits’, which is all we’ll ever see on social media. We’ve noticed it ourselves too; a bored evening spent scrolling through someone else’s high-flying life never results in a good feeling.

#ICYMI: Rule #1 Stop Comparing Yourself To Others

The solution? Spend more time in the real world and as far as kids and adolescents are concerned, limit their social media consumption to avoid such harmful mindsets setting in.

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