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Study Shows Higher Anxiety Level in Social Media Over Users
28 Nov, 2019 / 02:25 PM / Anas Barbarawi

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There has been lot of speculation among social media users regarding its bad effects . People who use Social media platforms like Facebook ,Twitter, Instagram etc says that after a certain point of time they get addicted to these platforms. Many studies are going on about this to find out the authenticity of this argument. Researchers have found that social media use, television viewing and computer use, but not video gaming, are linked to an increase in anxiety symptoms among adolescents.

The study, published by Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, shows that a higher-than-average frequency of social media use, television viewing and computer use over four years predicts more severe symptoms of anxiety for the same time frame.

"These findings suggest that one way to help teens manage anxiety could be to help them limit the amount of time they spend in front of screens," said a study researcher Patricia Conrod from the University of Montreal in Canada. Over and above a potential common vulnerability to both sets of behavior, the study demonstrates that if a teen experienced an increase in their social media use, television viewing and computer use in a given year which surpassed their overall average level of use, then his or her anxiety symptoms also increased in that same year.

When adolescents decreased their timings they spend on social media , their symptoms of anxiety came down. "It appears that computer use is uniquely associated to increases in anxiety, potentially in relation to using the computer for homework activities, but this needs further research," said the study lead author Elroy Boers.

The study findings indicate social media use, television viewing, and computer use are predictors of anxiety in adolescence. "While our results are based on observational research design, the nature of statistical approach that we used to test possible causal effects robustly controlled for any potential common underlying vulnerability to high levels of screen time and anxiety," Conrod said.

Many adolescents across the world are addicted to social media and television and the matter needs to be attended seriously. China has already limited the duration for online video gaming for teenagers on health grounds. Parents and the government should jointly put some restriction on social media usage for the teenagers to curb the psychological issues associated with it.