Sep 16, 2015
Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and other sites that encourages teens to be updated and be online 24/7 in fear of missing out (FOMO) is taking toll on the health of students all over the world.
A study by researchers from University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom found that the anxiety, despite that technology today has given us more means of connection and communication to others, has kept us stressed over the need to be online, to respond to every post or text, and to glaze over other's feeds in these sites just to see what's going on with their life.
In the research led by Dr. Heather Cleland Woods and Holly Scott, 467 students between the ages 11 and 17 years were asked about their social media habits and how they feel about it. Questions like "How many hours do you use social media on a typical day?" and "How long do you use social media after the time you intended to fall asleep?" are asked, and they are also told to describe their own psychological health like anxiety, self esteem and quality of sleep.
The teens who were extremely active in the social media are the ones who have the worst sleep quality and are vulnerable to anxiety and depression. FOMO, or the Fear of Missing Out, is defined as the anxiety that occurs when an interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website, this could also be a feeling of regret for missing an opportunity and makes you think how things would be different if we only made another decision.
A proposal was presented by the team called "digital sunset" that would disable devices later in the evenings to somewhat help youngsters improve their quality of sleep. Those who spend too much time especially at night are more susceptible to negative effects.
Overall, this study only shows that we need to use of social media moderately and use our time productively as this could cause more harm than we see it.
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