Seeing your friends hang out without you is affecting your cognitive ability
It’s not smart to overindulge in social media.
Your friends may be accidentally making you feel excluded on social media — and that can harm your ability to think intelligently, according to a recent study of 194 individuals conducted by New York’s University at Buffalo and published in the journal Social Science Computer Review.
Indeed, the study, which looked at Facebook and other similar social media platforms, found that many social media posts — even when they aren’t intended to — make us feel excluded. And those feelings of social exclusion can evoke “various physical and psychological consequences such as reduced complex cognitive thought,” says lead author Jessica Covert, a graduate student in UB’s Department of Communication.
Though the study notes that social exclusion is often unintentional, the sheer ability to remain informed of where one’s friends are at any given time can be interpreted in ways that make people feel left out. University at Buffalo associate professor Michael Stefanone said, “We’re using these technologies daily and they’re pushing information to users about their networks, which is what the sites are designed to do, but in the end there’s negative effect on people’s well-being.”
“Social exclusion, even something that might seem trivial, is one of the most powerful sanctions people can use on others and it can have damaging psychological effects,” said Stefanone. He explains that after experiencing and exchange like this, the brain’s self-regulating function takes over and moderates a range of feelings, but that process requires mental resources that in turn inhibit intelligent thought. And it’s not just social media addicts who are susceptible: “Regular, benign and common use of this platform can lead to short-term inhibition of intelligent thought,” Stefanone said.
This comes at a time when Americans are spending an average of 24 hours per week online according to the MIT Technology Review. Of that, people between the ages of 35 and 49 spend almost seven hours a week on social media according to a 2017 report from Nielsen, while millennials ages 18 to 34 spend just over six hours per week using social media services.
And thought inhibition is just one of the negative effects social media has on people. It can decrease your productivity and increase your chances of getting bullied, according to a 2015 study by Penn State. It can up your risk of depression and anxiety, according to a 2017 study published in the journal Computers and Human Behavior.
Licensed therapist Gemma Quick told Moneyish, “Most social media is a curated snapshot of people’s lives and it doesn’t accurately reflect the full range of the human experience. Many people can feel more anxious or depressed when they compare their lives to what they see on social media, even if it’s an inauthentic representation of someone’s life.”
Furthermore, social media can be so detrimental to one’s psyche that there are rehab centers devoted to helping people cope with social media addictions. And teenagers are most at risk according to Business Insider. A study from Pew Research revealed that a quarter of teens ages 13 to 17 say the effect of social media is mostly negative because of bullying, it’s potential to harm relationships, creating unrealistic views of others’ lives and peer pressure.
Quick says a recurring issue she sees are people having a hard time moving on from past relationships because they’re still connected via social media. “I like to offer the friendly reminder that you actually get to choose what you look at on social media, so every once in a while, take stock of whether or not your feed is helping or harming your mental health,” said Quick.
© 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved