MY WORLD OF TRUTH
Monday, 29 January 2018
TEN FILMS TO WATCH IN FEBRUARY
Saturday, 27 January 2018
HOW TO MAKE SLIME
Homemade slime is a gloopy variation of playdough and silly putty, easily made from common household ingredients. What kind will you and the kids dream up?
Friday, 19 January 2018
ARE YOU A SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICT
#LikeMinded
A special series about social media and well-being
This month, BBC Future is exploring social media’s impact on mental health and well-being – and seeking solutions for a happier, healthier experience on these platforms. Stay tuned for more stories, coming soon…
Share your tips for a happy life on social media with the hashtag #LikeMinded on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Describing yourself as ‘a social media addict’ doesn’t usually inspire concern from other people. In fact, it’s frequently included in bio descriptions on Twitter and Instagram. Decorate your LinkedIn profile with such a claim and you may even find yourself receiving interest from media and publishing companies searching for a savvy digital native. But imagine if, one day, it’s not an accolade or joke at all – but a psychiatrist’s diagnosis?
Social media addiction has been a much-flouted term lately; maybe it’s because it’s January and users are looking to be more active and spend less time online, or maybe that’s because social media can have a negative impact on our mental well-being. But a growing body of research is seriously considering whether problematic and excessive social media usage could be pathological and, in turn, designated as a mental health disorder.
There are two established organisations which classify mental disorders – the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the American Psychiatric Association. Any alleged addiction needs to fit certain criteria before it’s considered pathological behaviour, and there needs to be a vast amount of research that confirms it. It was only announced in January 2018 that video gaming addiction – a problem as old as the internet itself – will be listed by the WHO as a disorder.
What’s especially interesting about this new classification is that one of the experts who has been researching it for decades – Mark Griffiths at Nottingham Trent University – has also been investigating gambling addictions, internet addictions and the excessive, perhaps even dangerous, use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Screentime isn’t necessarily an accurate gauge for whether someone is using their favourite platforms problematically
“Do I believe that people can be so engrossed in social media that they neglect everything else in their life?” he asks. “I do think it can be potentially addictive.”
In his research, Griffiths has found that a technological compulsion like ‘social media addiction’ comes with all the behavioural signals that we might usually associate with chemical addictions, such as smoking or alcoholism. These include mood changes, social withdrawal, conflict and relapse.
The most important factor is whether a person can differentiate between healthy use and a relationship with social media sites that is negatively affecting their life.
“If I take video gaming, for example, I’ve come across a lot of very excessive gamers,” Griffiths explains, “but there’s little known negative, detrimental effects in their life. If they did that for two years then maybe obesity or being generally sedentary might bring on some health issues, but in terms of addiction? Excessive enthusiasms add to life and addictions take away from it.”
So, as long as that enthusiastic playing isn’t affecting an individual’s job or personal relationships, then there is no need for concern. Putting a time limit on social media use is, for Griffiths, “a bit of a red herring. You can have two people doing things identically – it makes a big difference if someone has a job, partner and two children.”
This suggests that screentime isn’t necessarily an accurate gauge for whether someone is using their favourite platforms problematically. When we polled BBC Future’s Twitter followers for what they thought was ‘too much’ time on social media, there was little consensus. Of course, our results were from a self-selecting sample so do not necessarily represent the general population, but they were nonetheless interesting.
Over a third (40%) of the 554 people who voted thought that more than two or three hours was too much, but we know that most people spend at least two hours social networking and messaging every day. The majority of internet users do not have pathological relationships with social media, which surely means that two or three hours probably isn’t too much at all. We know that over a third of UK 15-year-olds use the internet for six or more hours a day, with much of that time dedicated to social networking sites. Despite their heavy consumption, such heavy use does not mean these young people are mentally unwell. Time spent online is only one factor. There are clearly other things to consider.
So, if it’s not about the amount of time spent, what else might define social media addiction – or help us understand what sort of person might be most vulnerable to it?
Social media addiction is a long way from being designated as a mental disorder
Griffiths and his colleague Daria Kuss published the first ever review paper for what he calls SNS (social networking sites) addiction in 2011, at a time when there were only three papers on the subject. They found that extroverts appear to use these sites for social enhancement, whereas introverts use them for social compensation. They also found that more time spent on these sites involved less involvement with real-life communities. In 2014, in another overview paper, they added that SNS use provides continuous rewards; users may increase engagement with it to relieve dysphoric mood states, sometimes leading to psychological dependency.
Then in 2017 a large, national survey found that those showing addictive behaviours were more likely to be women, young and single. They also tended to have lower levels of education, income and self-esteem.
“The thing about social networking is that it’s a social behaviour. In terms of general sex differences and gender differences, the typical female tends to be more social than the typical male,” says Griffiths.
For Griffiths, the potential for SNS addiction lies in content and context of excessive use – not the time spent. However, at a conference about social media and mental health at the Royal Society of Medicine, he concluded that the reasons behind such an addiction are still unclear. It could be to do with Fomo, the fear of missing out. Smartphone addiction might also be a part of it, as well as nomophobia – the fear of not having your phone with you at all times. More importantly, the data on SNS research is skewed toward Facebook, little is available about photo-based platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.
This means that social media, or SNS addiction, is a long way from being designated as a mental disorder. Amy Orben, a social media psychologist at the University of Oxford, says that for now, she has strong reservations about defining social media as an addiction. “The evidence is still so scarce it is difficult to even know whether the effect of social media is positive or negative. We need to make sure we don’t overpathologise regular behaviours.”
Moderate digital technology use is not intrinsically harmful and may be advantageous in a connected world
Whether it is one day classified or not – it is clear that there are downsides to using social media platforms. Research has suggested that young people who spend more than two hours a day on social networking sites are more likely to report poor mental health. If you’re on Instagram, there are examples aplenty of overly-filtered simulations of life that are supposed to be ‘aspirational’ but instead make many users feel like we’re having a worse life than our peers. It’s of little surprise that Instagram was rated as the worst social media platform for young people’s mental health in a UK survey. Yet its audience is growing – there are now over 800 million users worldwide.
We do know there is a direct link between social-media use and depression but other research shows that social media use is not always negative. One 2017 study found that the relationship between digital screen time and mental well-being works in a sort of upside-down u-curve. They call it the Goldilocks Hypothesis: - increasing doses of time on your smartphone or your computer is actually positively associated with well-being, but only to a point. Then, the dose is associated with lower levels of well-being, as the graph below shows.
The team found that moderate digital technology use “is not intrinsically harmful and may be advantageous in a connected world.” One of its authors, Andrew Przybylski from the University of Oxford, told BBC Future that “if you don’t have any access, or if there’s a no screen policy in a home, there are ways that that home or that childhood might be fundamentally different".
He added: “There’s a sweet spot where it looks like it’s part of kids’ lives, but it really doesn’t start getting disruptive until you start going to five, six, seven hours a day.”
When it does begin to get disruptive, or someone is online far too much, one solution could come in the form of pop-up warning signs. Griffiths says that they’re currently used by online gambling sites and, more importantly, they’re working.
“The way that we’ve designed these for companies is to make sure that all the messaging is done in a non-judgmental, non-confrontational way. You incorporate normative information to let people know how their behaviour compares with other people – you’ve gambled this much and it’s 10 times what the normal person does. It doesn’t say that’s good or bad.”
Encouraging users to self-appraise in this way could pave the way for a similar move in social media. These social comparisons could help individuals understand whether their use is comparative to their peers. A teen spending hours online during the day might be ok, but if a sign popped up at three in the morning saying “3% of your age group are online right now” you might recognise this as detrimental.
Unfortunately, if social media addiction is ever a recognised disorder – self-appraisal, and the realisation that heavy social media use is affecting us more than we think, might happen too late. Until then, a little self moderation might go a long way.
Thursday, 11 January 2018
VEGETARIAN FAMILY CLASSICS
Try cooking classic recipes from shepherd's pie to a rich and warming Bolognese, all minus the meat. Our delicious vegetarian swaps will wow the family.
THE VITAL TIME YOU SHOULDN'T BE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
#LikeMinded
A special series about social media and well-being
This month, BBC Future is exploring social media’s impact on mental health and well-being – and seeking solutions for a happier, healthier experience on these platforms. Stay tuned for more stories, coming soon…
Share your tips for a happy life on social media with the hashtag #LikeMinded on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Today’s teens and tweens have built up an impressive amount of daily screen time. Figuresput it at between six to eight hours a day for 11-15 year-olds, and that’s not including time spent on a computer for homework. In fact, even the average UK adult spends more time looking at a screen then they do sleeping, according to one analysis.
It starts early. A third of UK children have access to a tablet before they are four.
It’s no surprise, then, that today’s youngest generations will be exposed to (and no-doubt join) the social networks their elders already use. Snapchat, for instance, is extremely popular among teens. One December 2017 survey found that 70% of US teens aged 13-18 use it. Most of those questioned also have an Instagram account. Figures are similar in the UK.
Over three billion of us are now registered on a social network, many of us on more than one. We spend a lot of time there - US adults spend an average of 2-3 hours a day.
This trend is now exposing some worrying results and, staying hot on the heels of social-media’s popularity, researchers are interested in the impact it is having on many aspects of our health, including sleep, the importance of which is currently gaining unprecedented attention.
So far it does not look good. We’re now coming to terms with the fact that social media has some clearly negative impacts on our sleep and with that, our mental health.
Ever since the meteoric rise of social media, Brian Primack, director of the Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health at the University of Pittsburgh, has been interested in its impact on society. Along with Jessica Levenson, he examines the relationships between technology and mental health, looking at the good and the bad.
When considering a link between social media and depression, they expected there to be a dual effect – that social media might sometimes alleviate depression, and sometimes exacerbate it, results which might plot out nicely in a “u-shaped” curve on a graph. However, a survey of almost 2,000 people revealed something much more surprising. There was no curve at all, the line was straight, and in an undesirable direction. Put another way, an increase in social media is associated with an increase in the likelihood of depression, anxiety, and a feeling of social isolation.
“In an objective way, you might say: this person is interacting with friends, passing on smiles and emojis, you might say that person has a lot of social capital, that they are very engaged. But we found those people seem to have more feelings of perceived social isolation,” says Primack.
What is unclear, however, is the exact causal direction: does depression increase social media use, or does social media use increase depression? Primack suggests it could be working both ways, making it even more problematic as “there’s a potential for a vicious cycle". The more depressed a person is the more social media they might then use, which worsens their mental health further.
Thoughts and feelings come back to haunt us as we try go to sleep
But there’s another worrying impact. In a September 2017 study of over 1,700 young adults, Primack and colleagues found that when it comes to social media interaction, time of day plays a fundamental role. Engagement during the last 30 minutes before bed was found to be the strongest indicator of a poor night’s sleep. “It was completely independent of the total amount of time of use in the day,” says Primack.
Something about keeping those last 30 minutes tech-free, it seems, is crucial to a restful slumber.
There are several factors that could explain this. A now well-told caution is that the blue light emitted from our screens inhibits our melatonin levels – a chemical that effectively tells us that it’s time to nod off. It could also be possible that social media use increases a person’s anxiety as the day goes on, making it hard to switch off when we finally go to bed. “Then thoughts and feelings come back to haunt us as we try go to sleep,” says Primack. Or a more obvious reason might be that social media is deeply alluring and simply reduces the time we have for sleep.
We know that physical activity helps peoplesleep better. More screen time is also likely to reduce time spent for physical activity, a link that has been established by research. “It induces more sedentary behaviour during the day. If you have a smart phone in your hand, you won’t be swinging your arms as quickly or moving your legs. If you add that up over six months, you may have a new generation who are not moving as much each day,” says Aric Sigman, an independent lecturer in child health education.
If social media use is exacerbating anxiety and depression, it could then, in turn, impact sleep. If you lay in bed awake comparing yourself to other people’s posts ranging from #feelingblessed, #myperfectlife to air-brushed holiday snaps, you might well believe that your life is somewhat drab in comparison, which could make you feel worse and keep you up.
And so it seems there is a merry-go-round of interrelated issues at play. Social media is linked to increased depression, anxiety and sleep deprivation. And a lack of sleep can both worsen mental health and be a result of metal health issues.
A lack of sleep has other side-effects: it has been linked to an increased risk of heart diseases, diabetes, obesity, poor academic performance, slower reaction times when driving, risky behaviour, increased substance use… the list goes on.
What’s worse is that when it comes to sleep deprivation, it’s usually young people who are most adversely affected. That’s because adolescence is a time of important biological and social changes that are critical to development.
We should all ring-fence particular times throughout the day in which we can distance ourselves from our screens
Adolescents also take longer to build up what’s called a “sleep drive” – which is the drive that helps you to fall asleep the longer you have been awake, explains Jessica Levenson, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. This contributes to teens in particular having a harder time falling asleep at night, she says.
Levenson now worries that social media use, and the literature and research around it, is growing and changing so quickly, that it is difficult to keep up. “It’s our responsibility to explore the impacts, good or bad,” she says. “We are just starting to cover the impact of social media use. Teachers, parents and paediatricians need to be asking teens: how often? When? How do they feel when using it?”
To combat any downsides of social media use, it’s clear that moderation is key. Sigman says we should all ring-fence particular times throughout the day in which we can distance ourselves from our screens, and do the same for children. Parents, he argues, need to have set places in their homes where devices can or cannot be used “so it’s not a fluid situation where social media is bleeding into every part of your life without any buffer zones”. This is especially important as children have not yet developed adequate levels of impulse control to know when is enough, he explains.
Primack agrees. He is not calling for people to stop using social media, but to consider how much – and exactly when in the day – they do so. “The bottom line is, when there is all of this power trying to keep us glued to these sites, that’s going be hard for us to compete with,” he says. He hopes that strong research and engagement management advice, particularly when it comes to no-go social media times, will even the playing field.
As for adults, if you were on your phone before bed last night, and you feel a bit groggy today, it may be in your control to fix it. You may well sleep better if you put your phone away.
