Which social networking site do you use most? Facebook? Instagram? Twitter? Snapchat? Youtube?. Do you know that using some of the social networking sites may show an impact on your health?
Get Mentally Healthy: 5 of the Most Harmful Social Networks for Health
Yes, what you heard is right. Young people are spending many hours in front of their mobiles, tablets and computers. Most of the time is spent on different social networks: A tweet on Twitter, posting on Facebook a comment on Youtube a photo on Instagram, etc.
After spending many hours on these networks will have some influence on their behaviour. That was the premise that the Royal Society of Public Health in the United Kingdom (RSPH), in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, has developed a study to determine which are the most harmful social network sites to health. Do you want to know which are the most harmful for young people? We’ll reveal it to you.
Most Harmful Social Networks for Health
Let us see the list of 5 harmful social networking sites for health.
The study on social networks
The study is called #StatusofMind and was made from 1,500 surveys of young people between 14 and 24 years. The main objective was to see if the use of these platforms ends up generating problems like anxiety or depression and if they end up affecting other issues such as the personal and corporeal image of young people.
Preliminary data encouraged the study: 91% of British youths in these ages use social networks regularly. In addition, anxiety ratios have risen 70% in the last 25 years.
Other data: seven out of 10 girls say they are not happy with their body and also 70% of young people claim to have suffered at some point in cyber bullying. So good time for this study.
Thus, the study asked young people about 14 areas, such as the feelings caused by the use of certain networks (anxiety, depression, the desire to sleep, personal image, if they have suffered harassment) to the use they give and how it affects To their day to day life.
Based on these responses, the ranking of the 5 most harmful social networks for health was elaborated. The result is explained in reverse order.
5. YouTube
Youtube is the social network/service less harmful to young people. By looking from the other point of view: the most positive influence is analysed.
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According to the study, it achieves good scores in regards to issues such as awareness, emotional support, not feeling alone, personal identity or feeling of belonging to the community.
It does, in terms of hours of sleep and in the stereotypes of how the body of young people should be. In any case, it is the only network that approves.
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4. Twitter
After YouTube, the fourth less harmful network to health is Twitter. The network of 140 characters presents some positive values, such as awareness, emotional support, personal identity and expression, as well as the feeling of belonging to a community.
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Instead, it already has more negative points. Among them, they emphasize that it deprives hours of sleep, harassment, many insults and the need to be constantly connected to this network that generates some anxiety.
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3. Facebook
In the middle of the table, the most used social network in the world is Facebook. The multiple options for activity within the network make it get very different scores.
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Thus, in the positive, we find in particular the variable of emotional support, followed by the feeling of belonging to a group, that helps to express better, the consciousness and that helps to improve the relations of the real world.
On the other side, instead, it deprives sleep hours again, there is cyberbullying, generates addiction, causes an idealized image of the human body and generates anxiety and depression, among other issues. Also suspended, but close to approved.
2. Snapchat
The social network that young people use so that their parents do not spy on them, Snapchat, is the second most harmful network.
On the positive side, we have the emotional support, which helps to express and generate an identity, which is related to real friendships and creates group feeling.
Instead, it has more negative aspects: it generates addiction, there is cyber bullying, it creates a stereotype of the body, it generates anxiety and depression. In short, it is suspended.
1. Instagram
Yes, Instagram, one of the most fashionable social networks, is the most harmful for young people.
Instagram attracts young women to ‘ compare themselves against unrealistic, largely filtered and modified versions of reality ‘, says Matt, author of the report.
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Thus, it stands out in the negative for generating anxiety and depression, for the body image it generates, for harassment, for addiction and for the hours of sleep that remains.
On the positive side, it helps to express yourself, generates personal identity, creates community and gives emotional support, according to the report.
Valuable Conclusion
The ranking, of course, does not mean that one network is bad or another is good, but its use (or misuse) can lead to negative consequences.
For example, the study criticises that young people use the net at least two hours a day, especially before going to sleep. ‘ The use of social networks on phones, computers, laptops and tablets at night before bed is associated with poor quality sleep. The use of LED lights can block natural processes in the brain, which triggers the feeling of drowsiness as well as the release of sleep hormone, melatonin. This means that the person takes longer to fall asleep and they end up having fewer hours of sleep each night, ‘he says.
Another recommendation they make is to ask social networks to warn you when an image is not real. ” We are not asking these platforms to ban the edits or filters, but let people know that the images have been altered so that users do not take the images as real,” Keracher said.
In conclusion, the study says: “It is important that we have controls and balances to make social media not so wild when it comes to mental health and the well – being of youth .”
Share your view on the same in the below comment section.
Which social networking site do you use most and how many hours do you spend on it per day?
