Depressed people who use social media don’t get worse over time, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Hundreds of people in the 18 to 25 year old range who were studied by Johns Hopkins child and adolescent psychiatrist Carol Vidal for depressive symptoms and social media use seem to reveal at least one unexpected finding.

Vidal: I think the only thing that a little surprising is that we didn't see social media use at baseline making depression worse over time. Because there's all this talk about this social media causing depression, even if you look at it longitudinally, like over time it's not so much that it causes it, it's just that people that tend to use more social media or spend more time on it also be more depressed, at least in this sample.    :26

Vidal says the study also confirmed previous research looking at green space exposure, exercising and regular sleep times that were earlier rather than later associated with less depressive symptoms, so clearly many more factors than simply social media are interacting. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.