Popular discourse on the effect of social media use on well-being has grown sensational & irrational. It's reminiscent of similar panics where
it was once taken for granted that serial dramas on the radio, comic books, going to the cinema, and arcade games were all once considered to be undeniably harmful, particularly for the youth.
Since these discussions can get awfully cringe, I've decided to inject some goddamn science into this discussion by referring to and summarizing a recent scientific review of common myths. The full article fills in the details with links to scientific research.
- Myth: There is undeniable evidence that time spent on social media has a toxic effect on its users.
- Warranted claim: Time spent on social media does not have a strong effect on the well-being of its users.
- Myth: Social media addiction is pervasive and harmful.
- Warranted claim: Experts disagree on whether social media addiction exists, what the diagnostic criteria are, and how it should be measured.
- Myth: Spending more time on social media will inevitably make users depressed, anxious, sad, and lonely.
- Warranted claim: Over time, declines in well-being are associated with increased social media use.
- Myth: Social media are the main cause of the problems teens are facing.
- Warranted claim: Preexisting vulnerabilities (eg, poverty, mental health, lack of family support) are associated with both adolescent social media use and adolescent ill-being.
- Myth: Compared with other harms, the harm of social media use is far greater.
- Warranted claim: Once the primary predictors of well- and ill-being are accounted for, social media use is a negligible factor in explaining variance in well- and ill-being.
- Myth: The adoption of social media, especially on mobile devices, perfectly coincides with the beginning of the contemporary adolescent mental health and loneliness crises.
- Warranted claim: Longitudinal studies do not support the conclusion that the adoption of mobile or social media preceded or caused declines in adolescent mental health or the adolescent loneliness epidemic.
- Myth: Social media are the reason people don’t spend time together.
- Warranted claim: Social media use does not cause people to stop people from talking to each other face-to-face, rather they are used to help people keep in touch when face-to-face interactions decrease.
- Myth: Teens using their smartphones around each other is a sign of a disconnected and discontented generation.
- Warranted claim: The effects of co-present mobile use are highly situational and influenced by social norms.
- Myth: The solution is to quit or ban social media.
- Warranted claim: The benefits of social media abstinence vary by person and by patterns of use.
- Myth: We do not need another study on social media.
- Warranted claim: The research on the harms or benefits of social media must continue as platforms, features, habits, contexts, and users constantly change.