Source/ stern.de: Gossip and crisis – that’s what we get to see in our Instagram feed every day. Nevertheless, we spend a lot of time on social media. A recent study shows that young people in particular want to change that.
A push message here, a Whatsapp message there, and as soon as boredom announces itself, we prefer to quickly scroll through our Instagram feed. The smartphone has long had a permanent place in our lives, just like the Internet. According to the “Digital Report 2022,” around 72 million people in Germany were regularly online last year.
The younger generation in particular is increasingly overwhelmed by its own media use, as a recent study by the VOCER Institute for Digital Resilience shows. According to the study, the many posts about the crises of our time are causing more and more young people between the ages of 14 and 29 to disengage from social networks.
- The Roswell Crash: What’s the Truth Behind UFO Stories?
- McDonald’s raises prices in the UK after 14 years
- Jens Stoltenberg, head of NATO, wants the Western taxpayer to foot the bill for a fire in Ukraine that he assisted in starting.
Stephan Weichert, co-author of the study, explains the phenomenon in an interview with Deutschlandfunk Kultur: “Many people are struggling with the crisis news and can’t really find peace. This excessive consumption of digital media leads to something like news fatigue.” A full 60 percent of respondents said, for example, that Instagram triggers negative feelings in them.
Social media as a psychological risk factor
So social media doesn’t just put people in a good mood? Admittedly, that’s not a big surprise at first. It has long been scientifically proven that too much time spent on Instagram, Facebook and other social networks can have negative effects on our health. For example, there are studies that have demonstrated a link between increased media consumption and the development of depression and anxiety disorders.
A long-term study by the University of Montreal followed around 4,000 teenagers for four years. The result: the more time the teenagers spent on social media, the stronger their depressive symptoms. Sleep disorders, self-esteem problems and addiction are also among the psychological risk factors of excessive media use.
Germans spend between 2.5 and 4 hours a day on their smartphones
But what is actually still normal cell phone use? According to current studies, we use our smartphone between 2.5 and 4 hours a day. That’s the average amount of time an adult spends using it. However, at what level media consumption becomes problematic varies from person to person. However, there are warning signals that alert us to media overconsumption.
If you constantly compare yourself to the edited influencer photos on Instagram and are increasingly critical of your body; have trouble falling asleep because you forget the time while scrolling and feel like you’re missing something all the time – keyword “Fear of missing out” – then it’s worth taking a critical look at your own media consumption.
A quarter of all social media users under the age of 30 feel empty, exhausted and tired inside after using media. This is another finding of the VOCER Institute study. A study by DAK-Gesundheit and the German Center for Addiction Issues confirms that young people between 14 and 24 in particular are at risk from social media. The study authors assume that 2.6 percent of the young generation are already Internet addicts.
Social media can also have advantages
Social networks are actually used to exchange ideas with like-minded people, to keep in touch with friends and to be able to deal with the perspective of strangers. It’s no wonder that we, as social beings, are into it. But how can an app captivate us to such an extent that it may even end up harming us psychologically? The answer is complex. On the one hand, it is assumed that social media strengthens our basic emotions. That is, if I’m prone to depressive thoughts anyway, Instagram or Facebook will make them even more intense in doubt.
More likely, social media can have a negative effect for several reasons. For example, when we get our heads into the digital world, we lose valuable life time for real encounters with friends. At the same time, we provide our brains with an enormous amount of information as a result. But since we can only absorb a limited amount of new input, stimulus overload quickly results, which in turn leads to stress.
A study published in the journal “The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health” concluded that the use of social media leads to adolescents exercising less, sleeping worse and having more contact with bullying. Combined with the fake world that smiles in our faces every day on Instagram, it’s hardly surprising that too much time online can harm us in the long run.
But don’t worry, you still don’t need to throw your smartphone out of the window. Of course, it’s important to find a healthy balance here, too. Properly dosed, media consumption also brings a lot of advantages. For example, the smartphone gives us a quick way to get help in an emergency. We can also find out about things that interest us, form an opinion on current topics, and exchange ideas with other people.
How does healthy media use work?
- But how does healthy media use work? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, because it always depends on individual living conditions. Nevertheless, we have collected a few tips that can help you with conscious media consumption:
- Consume social media with a pragmatic eye. Because on Instagram in particular, influencers like to play tricks on us with their dream lives. Instead of comparing ourselves to them, we should always keep in mind that we are looking at a make-believe world.
- Set time limits for your own media use. Experts recommend not exceeding two hours a day. Many providers even allow you to set time limits for apps in the settings. Then your cell phone will tell you when it’s time to get back to real life.
- Don’t take the cell phone to bed with you. The smartphone’s light suppresses our sleepiness. As a result, we scroll through the Internet instead of sleeping. How about reading a good old book instead?
- Just put your smartphone aside for a while, too. According to a study by the British University of Bath, just one week of Digital Detox is enough to do your psyche some good. So turn off your cell phone and see you in a week.
KRISENSTIMMUNG
