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Study finds no “smoking gun” for mental health issues due to Internet usage (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 year ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute, who said their study was the largest of its kind, said they found no evidence to support “popular ideas that certain groups are more at risk” from the technology.

However, Andrew Przybylski, professor at the institute—part of the University of Oxford—said that the data necessary to establish a causal connection was “absent” without more cooperation from tech companies. If apps do harm mental health, only the companies that build them have the user data that could prove it, he said.

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[–] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

i wonder how they reached this conclusion.

There are many many studies proving internet and social media addiction can cause depression, and internet addiction is extremely widespread especially in teenagers. Also declining mental health and depression are so widespread in young people... this study seems strange.

[–] essellburns@beehaw.org 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The reason is because of the bias in the studies themselves.

For example, there's more studies showing that internet addiction is bad for teenagers because more studies have been run on teenagers.

Addiction of any kind of harmful to all age groups. The ways in which it impacts people depends on their life circumstances. For example, older people are more likely to lose a job or a marriage due to addiction than a teenager is, that's not because of the nature of their addiction.

The simplest explanation is that some teenagers are depressed or otherwise struggling and turn to social media and internet because that's what they have to help them cope. It's a natural correlation, this study is saying that we don't have the evidence to imply causation.

It's easy for some people, especially those unfamiliar with online activities and particularly those who don't value online activity, to see the correlation and blame. This is really helpful as it means they can avoid addressing the cause of the initial depression.

[–] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 1 points 10 months ago

This is a very insightful explanation, thank you

[–] chahk@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago

Maybe it's the opposite - mental health and depression cause Internet!