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Study: emotional support from social media found to reduce anxiety

I think there's a non-trivial probability that concern over social media is a moral panic, and it's being used as a scapegoat for larger social forces. I wonder if much of what it does is surface our neuroses and issues into public, and thus here we are only shooting the messenger.

This may prove out if after 5yr+ of it being banned or limited, nothing changes in the youth (et al.) -- that would be my prediction.

I think there are deeper long term trends causing psychological problems in the west: move away from physical to cognitive labour; increasing community isolation and lack of social institutions; various failures of the state; lack of meaningful wage growth in key brackets, and failure of the "aspiration engine" to create opportunities; lack of time for parenting, moving to dual working-parent households; helicopter parenting caused by breakdown of social trust; lack of infrastructure and provision of environments where children can be known safe in public. etc. etc.

The major forces here are: move to a services economy; dual parent working households; lack of social services in state provision; state infrastructure moving away from providing for the young to paying for the old. This means much of how children grow up in the world is unphysical, disconnected, time-poor, risk adverse, overly demanding, etc.

3 days agoby mjburgess

Giving an addict a hit also reduces anxiety.

3 days agoby golol

> Anxiety is the second leading cause of disability and mortality worldwide.

I think this comes from WHO, but isn't consistent with other information from WHO, so it's pretty debatable.

I believe the source is this[0], which says "Mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression are highly prevalent in all countries and communities, affecting people of all ages and income levels. They represent the second biggest reason for long-term disability, contributing to loss of healthy life."

However, elsewhere on their site[1], WHO lists the top 3 global causes of death and disability in 2021 as heart disease, COVID-19, and stroke.

[0] https://www.who.int/news/item/02-09-2025-over-a-billion-peop...

[1] https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/theme-details/GHO/m...

3 days agoby munchler

Social media: the solution to, and source of, all your anxiety!

3 days agoby andrewmutz

It does I am sure in small instances, but isn't it established that it causes more anxiety in general ? I read a linkedin post about this guy on Linkedin asking a lady to "fix her hair" as a comment to something he probably found offending and to that another guy was asking the lady to shut up and that she was wrong to call out this man in the first place. I wanted to add my comment to this other guy and I could instantly feel all adverse emotions and eventually had to calm myself down and stay out. So when someone supported her , she definetly found her support and courage but many still find the anxiety in all kinds of social network, even with a verified person.

3 days agoby srameshc

Research supported by the Fine Foundation, that has a mission statement that includes "works to sustain Jewish life by combating antisemitism"... Funny how the timing of this "research" coinciding with the new owners of TikTok indicating their new stance on censorship of criticism of Israel.

2 days agoby ZenoArrow

Maybe social media is like cigarettes, in that it cures the anxiety it causes. A powerfully addictive cycle.

3 days agoby elliottkember

A product that is both the cause and solution to your problem. An MBA's wet-dream

3 days agoby b00ty4breakfast

I think that the whole discussion about the impact of social media on people, especially the young ones, would change if people started calling social media what it should have been called from the beginning, namely anti-social media.

2 days agoby senorqa

The intersection of dark patterns, addiction, and support networks really creates probably more variability than this study is accounting for.

Youtube, Reddit, and a few other networks I could name off the top of my head were pro-support networks, pro-identity building at once time. It seems impossible to keep the profit motive from transitioning to an addictive/neuroticism-feeding paradigm.

You end up with the weird reality that some types of websites just need to be user-supported/run because any other motive ultimately breaks them and seems to make them toxic. I'd also add the reality that neurotic/polemic content seems to spike any sort of algorithm based on engagement.

Basically our closest metric for monetization is inherently toxic.

2 days agoby boondongle

Haven’t read the article (wouldn’t load for me) but what type of content you watch makes a difference too. I watch funny cats and dogs videos with my daughter all the time and they 100% make us feel better. But finding those said videos on social media is a “process” - it’s like going through a pile of rotting fruits to find something to feed your kid.

I can give an hour long monologue on YouTube’s continued exploitation of children. Their half assed attempts to fix this (by some well intentioned Googler’s, who I’m sure must have had a lot of pushback) aren’t enough. Just try unblocking a channel for your kid’s account (you can’t - the only option is to unblock EVERYTHING).

3 days agoby sheepscreek

When a single correlation of social media use with a positive outcome is found, it immediately becomes headline, while hundreds of other evidence are discarded because they are 'boring'. Well, even this correlation is of little benefit. Anxious people cover their stress while engaging online and postpone their improvement while they are distracted from building real, healthy interpersonal relationships that will help them.

Smoking is correlated with lower risk of Parkinson's disease but it's not suggested in any setting.

2 days agoby tsoukase

Social media use can be fine for people who are well-grounded grass-touchers in their everyday life, but this grounding comes with maturity and typically isn’t found in younger people, for whom abstract online spaces can be powerfully dissociating and are very unlikely to be healthy.

We are starting to understand the impact of ultra-processed food. When will we clue up to ultra-mediated social interaction?

2 days agoby jl6

This is the equivalent of saying that a cigarette reduces anxiety. The overall habit absolutely does not reduce anxiety.

3 days agoby samtheprogram

I skimmed the important parts of the paper. This is akin to finding that cigarettes reduce stress. Any smoker/former smoker will tell you this is true (in the immediate sense).

Does that give any weight to the stance that smoking is good for you and society at large? No.

We are right to panic about social media.

2 days agoby ohrus

I am determined to find real life local connections. No doom scrolling, no “social” media no hacker news

3 days agoby anoplus

Yep, when I see those 12 ads in 5 minutes of browsing it sure lowers my anxiety!

When I comment on something disturbing that I don't think I want to see again they think I love it and give me more. This is great for my emitional well being too!!!

3 days agoby starkeeper

The journal Psychiatry International, it is part of the MDPI publisher, which sometimes faces scrutiny regarding rapid, high-volume, and sometimes inconsistent peer-review processes. Be skeptical of its contents.

2 days agoby xlaacid

Why does this "study" feel like those "studies" from the 50s about the benefits of smoking, which were later discovered to have been (surprise!) financed by the nicotin industry ?

2 days agoby hansmayer

2 days agoby deafpolygon

Social media is a Dunning Krueger support network.

3 days agoby WhatIsDukkha

I thought HN truncated the title removing the trialing 'caused by social media'

2 days agoby 6LLvveMx2koXfwn

1. (Big one) For virtually EVERY study, and especially human science studies like psychology, sociology, health; The Headline of the Press Release will imply things that the study does not claim, and especially that the study does not provide evidence for.

This headline seems to imply quite a lot for a relatively small study based on survey responses.

2. For the mass market social media platforms, it's pretty easy to get emotional support inside your bubble, at the cost of ... everything else.

I feel like the huge and obvious problems with social media hide a small and subtle, but insidious problem: How do I show that I care about you?

I feel like there is a range that might be described:

    I don't care very much about you one way or another. (Small/no signal on social media, very unlikely to be boosted)

    I care enough to fight for you. (Big Signal on social media, likely to be boosted)

    I care enough to calmly discuss the problem. (Small signal on social media, unlikely to be boosted, likely to be trolled, unsatisfying in the face of active fighting words)

To be explicit: because fights are boosted, fights are expected. People are prepared to fight about things offline.

2 days agoby csours

Anxiety is the second leading cause of disability and mortality worldwide.

Uh, what? That's a patently ridiculous assertion to lead with (and not support).

3 days agoby alistairSH

Breaking news: MMORPGs are less fun when doctors keep calling mom to ask how the MMORPG is because it kicks you off of the dial up. News at 9: is my iPhone actually an iPod with a cellular dial up modem glued inside. Late night: Stick around to watch an old man yelling at clouds.

2 days agoby bluebxrry

In men? The study claims half the participants were guys age 18-30.

3 days agoby unsupp0rted

Is this another part of this third?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46682534

3 days agoby jllyhill