Smartphone Blues
Over the past decade, the number of American children and teenagers admitted to hospital for reporting suicidal thoughts has more than doubled. Psychologists are striving to understand whether this increase ___ 31 ___ coincides with the rise of social media, or whether something causative is happening.
A big new study suggests a specific explanation for teenage melancholy: the many hours young people spend staring at their phone screens. That might be having serious effects, especially on young girls, according to the study’s author, Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University.
By scrutinising national ___ 32 ___ , with data collected from over 500,000 American teenagers, Ms Twenge found that adolescents who spent more time on social media were more likely to agree with remarks such as: “The future often seems hopeless.” However, those who used screens less, spending time playing sport, doing homework, or socialising with friends in person, were less likely to report mental troubles.
As Ms Twenge herself concedes, this does not ___ 33 ___ causality. Another factor may lie behind the increased diagnosis of depression among adolescents, and that sad teenagers are more likely than their happy peers to seek refuge in their phones. But a growing body of scientific evidence supports the idea that social media can inspire malaise.
One study from 2016 asked a randomly selected group of adults to quit Facebook for a week; a ___ 34 ___ group continued browsing the site as usual. Those who gave up Facebook reported feeling less depressed at the end of the week than those who continued using it. Another experiment found that the more participants used Facebook, the gloomier they felt about their lives.
Not all studies are equally damning. Research suggests that social-networking sites can indeed ___ 35 ___ happiness if used to engage directly with other users, rather than just to covet glossy photos of someone else’s exotic holiday or lavish wedding.
THE ECONOMIST