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Social media and its effect on mental health: Friend or foe?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

C. Trivedi ,
Z. Mansuri ,
R. Vadukapuram  and
A. Reddy
C. Trivedi*
Affiliation:
Research, St Davids Healthcare, Austin, United States of America
Z. Mansuri
Affiliation:
Department Of Psychiatry, Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States of America
R. Vadukapuram
Affiliation:
Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, United States of America
A. Reddy
Affiliation:
Psychiatry, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, United States of America
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Recently, several studies have shown both positive and negative impacts of social media on mental health. However, little is known regarding the reasons for the negative impact of social media on mental health.

Objectives

To evaluate the role of social media on mental health.

Methods

We reviewed the documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ released on Netflix in September 2020, which explored the role of social media in our life. The documentary discussed the behind the scene development of the social media world.

Results

The central message from the documentary is that all the social media applications we use are capable of hijacking the thought process of your brain and are consciously designed by the artificial intelligence technology in a way that one spends more time on them. It collects users’ data such as topics they like, follow, search, subscribe, shop, and several others. Based on this data it feeds you the information according to your taste and next time you log in on the website, you spend more time on it. This causes positive reinforcement, the more time you spend on a particular topic, the more you will be presented which results in addictive behavior.

Conclusions

It is known that social media addiction is prevalent, and it affects brain like drug and alcohol addiction. This documentary provided technological insight into this type of behavior. Though social media has its pros, it has numerous cons despite being used for right intentions. Better regulatory measures are needed to prevent psychological disorders related to social media usage.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

Addictionsocial mediaMental Health Policymental health
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S758
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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