While sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were created to connect users and enhance social interactions, many research studies show the opposite is occurring people who use social media heavily throughout their day can experience detachment, boredom and even loneliness. Even looking at pictures of food on Instagram can decrease satisfaction gained from actually eating the same food, according to research published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology this September. Should Tufts students be worried about their social media use?
According to Julie Ross, director of Tufts Counseling and Mental Health Service, the effects of social media on students mental health can change how we connect with one another in person, making relationships more superficial.
Having a constant focus on what is happening somewhere else effectively removes people from staying connected in the face-to-face interactions they could be having, or are having at the moment, as those interactions get constantly interrupted by electronic signals from the phone or computer, Ross told the Daily in an email. Social media can provide the appearance of connection without an authentic connection.
A study conducted by Timothy Wilson, the Sherrell J. Aston professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, showed that college students rely on social media and technology to an unhealthy degree, according to a 2013 article in the New Yorker by Maria Konnikova.
College students start going crazy after just a few minutes in a room without their phones or a computer, Konnikova wrote.
This phenomenon occurs all over campus, with students sitting around tables in the Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center aimlessly scrolling through Twitter and perusing Facebook during lectures instead of taking notes.
One would think we could spend the time mentally entertaining ourselves ... but we cant. Weve forgotten how, Wilson said.
According to sophomore Eyob Sharew, some Tufts students focus on social media more than others.
Everyone has a smartphone, so people use it heavily, definitely more in some circles than others, Sharew said. Some circles will do the thing where everybody is on their phones at dinner, and theyre not talking to each other. Were just of that generation.
Student groups at Tufts, however, see Facebook and other social media outlets as an important way of promoting student groups and events. Junior Dan Jubelirer is an active Facebook user but does not spend the majority of his time perusing other peoples pages. He said that he sees Facebook as a resource, as opposed to a replacement, for social life.
I use Facebook mostly for organizing, for work with Tufts Divest [for Our Future] and Students for a Just and Stable Future and to connect with people all around the country who all are on Facebook, he said. Its just a tool. You can use it well, you can use it poorly, you can use it productively or you can waste time on it.
Sharew found that the time he spends online can usually be better spent studying or spending time with friends. He explained that he deactivated his Facebook account about one year ago.
I cut out Facebook because I realized the time that I was spending on Facebook was making inroads into the time that I shouldve spent studying and connecting with other people, he said. Time spent with real people or time spent doing things I was supposed to be doing was much more valuable time spent than the time spent on Facebook.
A 2010 article in The New Yorker examined various studies linking Facebook use and mood and found that the way in which people use the site and not the duration of use was the deciding factor in determining whether there was an increase or decrease in level of happiness. According to the article, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University observed positive mood changes when participants directly engaged with others through messages, wall posts or likes, but there was an increase in loneliness and disconnect when people passively browsed content.
According to Konnikova, another study at Humboldt-University in Berlin, Germany has suggested that envy, too, increases with Facebook use.
The more time people spent browsing the site, as opposed to actively creating content and engaging with it, the more envious they felt, Konnikova wrote. The effect, suggested Hanna Krasnova and her colleagues, was a result of the well-known social psychology phenomena of social comparison.
Ross said that self-image issues for teens and college students are often brought about or heightened through viewing others Facebook pages. She cited the work of Sherry Turkle, Abby Rockefeller Mauz? Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, who wrote the book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other.
As Dr. Turkle points out in some of her work, people manipulate their images on social media to project whatever they wish to, so that the image that is being connected to by others may not represent the authentic person behind the image, Ross said. If others like this false image, it does not necessarily feel like a real connection and leaves people worried that if they were known more fully, they would not be liked or accepted.12
