Flawed data led to findings of a connection between time spent on devices and mental health problems – new research
You’re probably wrong about how much time you spend on your devices, and that has big implications for the link between device use and mental health.
theconversation.com
Alternative title: self-report studies once again prove unreliable.
Back in 2019, I remember reading an article summarizing the "The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use" paper. It had quite a funny take:
:D
Genius suggestion on the title. Scientific studies are so hard to implement and the so-called details may be enough to invalidate the results (ie. self-feeding data capture, or identifying the relationship between wrong variables)
💯% agree. It shouldn't have been a surprise that the replication crisis claimed lots of (study) victims.
I'm really not a specialist on the field but it seems to me that scientific studies are so broken. They cost a fortune, are financed by entities that usually have agenda, and move on a jurassic pace.
This isn't saying there's no link, rather, that better methodology needs to be used to determine one. I'm intrigued by this idea, though. So much of the "tech is harmful" discourse seems based almost entirely on people's untested intuitions, fears, biases, and anecdotes that highlight a few bad stories while ignoring millions of good ones.
Most people seem to have a healthy relationship with their screens, and successfully balance them with other forms of leisure time, social interaction, work and child-rearing responsibilities, etc.
Of course, screens still take up an incredible amount of our time. But isn't that because they have an incredible amount of versatility? Just today I've used a screen to buy furniture, talk to my mom, play chess, pay a bill, deploy some code, and type this comment.
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I echo your thoughts here Mick. Further to that, my main concern with my kids is not being able to protect them from information and stimulations in early stages of their life.
They will have to learn on the go to be mature and deal with being bombarding with information and experiences that we only had to deal with in our 20's. That's a big ask for these kids.
this study must've been sponsored by Samsung or something ;)
I have just finished reading the article, and I'd like to add something. Indeed, cyber-victimization and exposure to lots of different harmful content damage our mental health, and there can arise many negative consequences because of that. However, many teens don't realize that spending too much time on social media platforms can also damage their mental health. My nephew, who is only 14 years old, has been diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression. He was even having suicidal thoughts. Fortunately, we found a very skilled professional who's been helping him ever since. He's doing intense Psychoanalysis Therapy London , and we're so proud of his progress.
This is hard to believe!