Is Social Media changing you? According to some recent studies, the answer is yes, but it isn't all bad.
Social Media intensifies experiences both good and bad
When we share a moment through social media, it intensifies our experience. In a study conducted by researchers Toma and Choi, participants were asked to describe instances of social sharing (Choi 2014). The researchers then asked the participants to describe their experience around social sharing. Choi and Toma found that subjects had intensified experiences both positive and negative surrounding social shares compared to events they did not share on social media.
This makes sense. If someone shares and experience with you verbally, you can picture it, but it floats out of your mind shortly after you hear it. Now picture the events you see posted on social media. You have a picture, or text, and sometimes video. This multi-media experience provides you with a richer experience than the event alone.
Social Media can deprive you of sleep
This is really a statement about screens, but if you are on your phone at night, there is a good chance you are on social media. Freakonomics released a podcast called The Economics of Sleep. In this two part series, one of the topics explored was the effects of screens on sleep. Anne Marie Chang, a researcher at Harvard, conducted a study along with her team. Some participants where given books to read and others given eReaders. The researchers found the group given eReaders took longer to fall asleep and the eReader group had lower quality sleep.
The researchers noted that the light emitted by eReaders is present in LED monitors, phone screens, and laptops. The subjects who slept less also had less melatonin secretion. Chronic melatonin suppression has been linked to long term health problems such as breast cancer, colorectal cancer and prostate cancer (St. Peter 2015).
Social Media lowers stress (in women)
The Pew Research Center conducted a survey on the level of stress related to social media use. In a nutshell, Social Media use was linked to lower stress for woman and doesn't have much of an effect on men.
According to the study, the researchers actually found a net benefit from being connected to others' significant life events. The researchers found a benefit from the awareness of a larger support structure. Instead of the events causing more stress in the subject’s life, they saw they community support effect helped to lower the level of stress. This effect was only observed in woman. Men did not a significant trend either way.
I must admit I was surprised when I researched this topic. I was expecting a much more negative findings of the effect of social media on our brains. It should be noted that I didn't discuss the effects of interruptions and notifications on attention span or on productivity. More to come on that topic.
References:
St. Peter, E. (2015, January 5). eReaders foil good night’s sleep. HMS. Retrieved July 21, 2015. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/e-readers-foil-good-nights-sleep
http://freakonomics.com/2015/07/16/the-economics-of-sleep-part-2-a-new-freakonomics-radio-episode/
Choi, M., & Toma, C. (2014). Social sharing through interpersonal media: Patterns and effects on emotional well-being. Computers in Human Behavior, 530-541.
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