DUBAI: While an apple a day keeps the doctor away, study has shown that limitng the use of Facebook to just 30 minutes a day may improve mental health.
A report published on the portal Medical News Today, cited a professor of media and information at Michigan State University in East Lansing, who has analyzed the effects of Facebook use on adults and found that social media users were less likely to experience mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, than those not using these sites.
The key, Prof. Keith Hampton said, is in the connectivity. He further suggested that this is so because social media made it easier for people to stay in touch with extended family members.
Hampton has access to 2015 and 2016 data from thousands of adults who were participating in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the “world’s longest-running household panel survey,” and based his findings on this.
“Taking a snapshot of the anxiety felt by young people today and concluding that a whole generation is at risk because of social media ignores more noteworthy social changes, such as the lingering effects of the Great Recession, the rise in single-child families, older and more protective parents, more kids going to college, and rising student debt,” said Hampton.
