Weekly Roundup #21
12 November 2021
Welcome to this week’s round up, where we’re reviewing research on the impacts of social media on mental health. There is a huge volume of research out there — here we’re focusing on how negative effects can be mitigated, positive effects amplified, and recognising that different ways of using social media, and different platforms, can have different outcomes.
How to Combat Doomscrolling
Kathryn Buchanan and colleagues conducted research to find out the effects of “doomscrolling” - a term to describe passively scrolling through lots of negative headlines and content - on mental health, and what users could do instead. In The Conversation, they describe how they showed participants different types of content: news headlines with negative content such as the rise in covid-19 cases, or positive content, like wearing something fun for a Zoom call.
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Their research demonstrated that scrolling through negative content on these platforms, even for only a couple of minutes, did contribute to worsening mood. While many articles suggest deleting social media accounts, it is clear that during a pandemic, many of us are getting value from connecting with others online. So Buchanan et al suggest reflecting on what you are consuming, finding good examples of content you enjoy (like cats!), and sharing positive content about your own life.
Healthy Tech Myths
When talking about health and tech, particularly in terms of the effect of social media on teens, it is really important to not be alarmist about what the data shows. Data & Society put together this report Good Intentions, Bad Inventions: The Four Myths of Healthy Tech in October 2020, and it still has a lot of relevance now. They caution against using “addictive” to describe behaviour online, noting that this removes human agency, and implies that people are unable to control themselves. In reality, people use these platforms differently, and also for good! They point to the ability of marginalised communities to use the internet to organise and create community.
They also tackle the issue of screen time, which has existed for some time (television, video games, etc), and again, there has been a tendency to assume all screen use is bad. It is important to remember that technology can be educational, contain supportive communities, and allow people to meet with others and groups that they may not have access to in real life. It is worth reading the whole report, and looking at the book recommendations at the end for further resources on these topics.
Not All Platforms Are The Same For Wellbeing
A piece of research by Alexandra Masciantonio and colleagues looked at wellbeing and social media use, but investigated whether there was a difference depending on the platform used. Some research looking at social media tends to lump all the platforms together, whereas it may be that particular platforms have different effects. This is indeed what the researchers discovered, with Facebook found to be more negative than Instagram and Twitter. The research distinguished between actively using the platforms (commenting and posting) and passive use (scrolling). It appears that users on Twitter and Instagram received higher levels of social support than users on Facebook.
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Events in Tech
12 November
- Planetwork is hosting a half day unconference “Logging Off Facebook: What Comes Next?” at 17:00 GMT.
15 November
- At 20:00 GMT, the Aspen Institute is holding “Towards a Stronger Information Ecosystem: Commission on Information Disorder Report & Recommendations”, with Katie Couric, Christopher Krebs, Rashad Robinson and Vivian Schiller.
- Harvard WIT+ and The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program are holding “#NoTechforICE: Big Tech, Bureaucratic Violence, and Immigrant Justice” on Zoom at 20:00 GMT.
17 November
- Rights X Tech, who explore the intersections of power and technology, is hosting a discussion with Neema Iyer and Sabrina Hersi Issa on “The Future of Solidarity and Technology”, at 18:00 GMT.
18 November
- The University of Michigan’s Public Interest Technology is holding a presentation of their Public Interest Knowledge Network, at 17:30 GMT.
