Social media use has been linked to depression, especially in teenage girls. But a new study argues that the issue may be more complex than experts think.
The research involved interviews with 10,000 teenagers in England. “Our results suggest social media itself doesn’t cause harm, but that frequent use may disrupt activities that positively impact mental health such as sleeping and exercising, while increasing exposure of young people to harmful content, particularly cyberbullying (网络欺凌),” study co-author Russell Viner said in a statement.
Bob Patton, a lecturer of the University of Surrey, said this means strategies focusing only on reducing social media use to improve mental health might not help. He said, “Building strategies to increase resilience (适应力) to cyberbullying and promote better sleep and exercise is needed to reduce psychological (心理的) harm.”
The research was conducted by interviewing teenagers once a year. They would report the frequency of their using social media. More than three times daily was considered “very frequent”. The researchers noted that they did not capture how much time the participants spent on these websites, which was a limitation of the study. “For boys, the impact on their mental health may result from other reasons,” the authors said.
The researchers found that, in both sexes, very frequent social media use was associated with greater psychological harm. The effect was especially clear among girls: The more often they checked social media, the greater their psychological harm was.
But most impact on psychological harm in girls could be accounted for by lower sleep quality and greater exposure to cyberbullying, with decreased physical activities playing a lesser role. But for boys, those factors explained only 12% of the effects of very frequent social media use on psychological harm.
“It’s an important distinction,” said Ann DeSmet, a professor at Ghent University in Belgium. “If healthy lifestyles can be replaced, the positive effects of social media use, such as encouraging social interactions, can be more supported.”
8. What does paragraph 2 mainly talk about?
A.The risk of cyberbullying. | B.The report of the statement. |
C.The findings of the research. | D.The functions of social media. |
9. What did Bob Patton mainly tell us?
A.The need to fight against mental harm. | B.The proper way to improve mental health. |
C.The benefit of limiting social media use. | D.The impact of social media use on people. |
10. What can we know about the research?
A.It had shortcomings. | B.It needed more attention. |
C.It was the first in its class. | D.It was difficult to carry out. |
11. Which of the following may be the best title for the text?
A.The research on teenage girls | B.The harm of using social media |
C.Social interactions are encouraged | D.Social media use influences girls especially |