Social media and television time has been linked with depression. (I guess this statement would not surprise us anymore, as we have seen a lot of research about this for a while now.) However, there is a new research that suggests that not all types of screen time give depression.
Researchers studied 3,826 adolescents entering seventh grade, almost evenly split between boys and girls, over the course of four years in the greater Montreal area. The study, led by Patricia Conrod at Université de Montréal and published in JAMA, looked at how self-reports of depressive behavior correlated with using four types of screens: computer, social media, television, and video games.
Can you guess which of the four does not necessarily give depression? You might be surprised at what the researchers found.
...what’s surprising about the study is that it isolates video games as the one form of screen time that is neutral in its effects on teen depression. That could be because video games often don’t depict teens or people, Conrod said. Social media and television, on the other hand, may be associated with drops in self-esteem because of what Conrod called “images of idealized lives,” which lead kids to compare themselves with the glossy, filtered, unrealistic images they’re shown.
Know more about the findings over at Technology Review.
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