.png)
Growing access to the internet is linked with better well-being around the world, a large study has concluded. The finding seems to be at odds with concerns that smartphones have led to a tsunami of mental health problems. So, where does the truth lie?
While concerns over excessive use of phones, computers and other devices may seem like a modern phenomenon, in fact they echo similar fears over past tech trends, such as that people would get hooked on TV or computer games. Yet the rapid and widespread adoption of smartphones does seem a more extreme social phenomenon. It has also coincided with rising levels of mental health problems in younger people in recent years, especially teenage girls.
Most studies that have tried to investigate whether the two trends are linked have looked at people in Western countries. Instead, a study Tilburg University in the Netherlands used figures from a large and long-running study called the Gallop World Poll, which included questions about their use of the internet and internet-connected phones. The survey asked people about eight different indicators of well-being, including life satisfaction and positive or negative experiences, as well as collecting demographic data. The researchers analysed figures for more than 2 million people from 168 countries between 2006 and 2021.
Because of the large number of factors recorded in the survey, the massive dataset could be examined in thousands of different ways, so the pair used a computer to carry out more than 30,000 analyses for each country and year.
The vast majority found that people were more likely to have higher well-being if they had internet access. These positive associations remained even when the analyses were adjusted to account for people being more likely to use the internet if they had a higher income or level of education.
While this kind of analysis couldn’t prove that internet access increases people’s happiness, it may help them make friends or have access to more job opportunities. These are social technologies.
Unfortunately, the findings are unlikely to settle any arguments. For one thing, the primary concern about the harms of social media relates to its impact on children, teenagers and young adults, such as whether it may facilitate bullying, promote unrealistic body images or even allow radicalisation.
The Gallop poll covered people aged between 15 and 99, so it is possible that any harms specific to younger people were masked by the fact that older people could be more resilient.
Another issue is that the survey questions about internet use required a simple yes or no answer – they didn’t ask people about how long they spent using it. It is possible that having some access to the internet is better for your mental health than none, but that excessive use is indeed harmful.
In other words, the new findings may tell us that a farmer in Kenya becomes happier when they can use their phone to check which markets will give them the best price for their produce, but it doesn’t tell parents in the UK if they should let their pre-teen start using WhatsApp.
Nevertheless, the findings bring a new slant to the debate about how the internet and social media are changing the world. The vast majority of studies done so far have looked at teenagers in high-income countries. This is a timely reminder that new media could be beneficial in many countries.
It really does open you up to a lot of good stuff, [as well as] scams and different types of exploitation. It fundamentally upsets or challenges whatever the incumbent social structure is.
Opmerkingen