by Suzanna
Part time actor | Drama coach | Blogger
The conversation about social media, and the effect it has on our social lives, and on our collective mental health, has been going on for years, coming to a head in 2017 when Facebook itself, as the biggest social media platform in the world, used by more than a billion people worldwide, released an article on the platform titled 'Hard Questions: Is Spending Time on Social Media Bad for Us'.
In the article, Facebook referenced studies indicating a correlation between teen depression and technology use, but brushed these claims off, stating that the research ignored the benefits of social media, which are gained when users use Facebook to message their friends, interact with loved ones' posts, and receive interaction from friends on their content, in turn.
On the other hand, the Facebook article admits that when users passively scroll through their timelines looking through content which provides them with no social benefit, this is when social media can become damaging and timewasting, and Facebook conducted a study which supports these conclusions.
