A new study has synthesized data to take stock of the damage caused by social networks on adolescents. The balance sheet is without appeal.
Anxiety, addiction, depression… For many years, some scientists have been working to obtain data to demonstrate the effects of social networks on mental health, and in particular among the youngest users of the platforms. It is by examining the results of 68 studies on the subject carried out from 2004 to 2022 that a group of Italian researchers was able to synthesize the links established by science between social networks and certain disorders.
Published on August 12, 2022 in the magazine International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Healthand identified by Vanity Fairthe study reveals that 27% of the research analyzed established a link between depression and social media use. One of the studies used, carried out in Egypt, had highlighted the correlation between excessive use of the Web and a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.
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Social networks and the cult of the image
Another problem related to the time spent in front of social networks: self-perception and eating disorders. One of the studies showed that 30% of adolescents used photo retouching before posting them. “Today, children and young people are more willing to use image editing tools to find models of beauty that are not the ones that correspond to reality”, assured Dr. Elena Bozzola, author of the study. In addition, the researchers note a drop in the age of onset eating disorders. If anorexia in particular was more associated with puberty, there are more and more “requests for hospitalization for girls aged 8 or 9 who arrive with a state of severe food restriction”, reported the doctor.