Link Between Social Media and Depression Stronger In Teen Girls Than Boys, Study Says (cnn.com) 181
According to a new study published in the journal EClinicalMedicine, the link between social media use and depressive symptoms in 14-year-olds may be much stronger for girls than boys. CNN reports: Among teens who use social media the most -- more than five hours a day -- the study showed a 50% increase in depressive symptoms among girls versus 35% among boys, when their symptoms were compared with those who use social media for only one to three hours daily. Yet the study, conducted in the UK, showed only an association between social media use and symptoms of depression, which can include feelings of unhappiness, restlessness or loneliness. The findings cannot prove that frequent social media use caused depressive symptoms, or vice versa. The study also described other factors, such as lack of sleep and cyberbullying, that could help explain this association.
For the study, researchers analyzed data on 10,904 14-year-olds who were born between 2000 and 2002 in the United Kingdom. The data, which came from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, included information from questionnaires on the teens' depressive symptoms and social media use. Depressive symptoms were recorded as scores, and the researchers looked at which teens had high or low scores. They found that on average, girls had higher depressive symptom scores compared with boys. The researchers also found that girls reported more social media use than boys; 43.1% of girls said they used social media for three or more hours per day, versus 21.9% of boys. The data showed that for teens using social media for three to five hours, 26% of girls and 21% of boys had depressive symptom scores higher than those who used social media for only about one to three hours a day. As for the gender gap, Yvonne Kelly, first author of the study and professor of epidemiology and public health, believes it has to do with "the types of things that girls and boys do online."
"In the UK, girls tend to more likely use things like Snapchat or Instagram, which is more based around physical appearance, taking photographs and commenting on those photographs," she said. "I think it has to do with the nature of use."
For the study, researchers analyzed data on 10,904 14-year-olds who were born between 2000 and 2002 in the United Kingdom. The data, which came from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, included information from questionnaires on the teens' depressive symptoms and social media use. Depressive symptoms were recorded as scores, and the researchers looked at which teens had high or low scores. They found that on average, girls had higher depressive symptom scores compared with boys. The researchers also found that girls reported more social media use than boys; 43.1% of girls said they used social media for three or more hours per day, versus 21.9% of boys. The data showed that for teens using social media for three to five hours, 26% of girls and 21% of boys had depressive symptom scores higher than those who used social media for only about one to three hours a day. As for the gender gap, Yvonne Kelly, first author of the study and professor of epidemiology and public health, believes it has to do with "the types of things that girls and boys do online."
"In the UK, girls tend to more likely use things like Snapchat or Instagram, which is more based around physical appearance, taking photographs and commenting on those photographs," she said. "I think it has to do with the nature of use."
Emotional (Score:1)
Females are more emotional then males. We've known this for thousands of years. Cavemen understood this. Was a clinical study really necessary?
Re: Emotional (Score:4, Interesting)
If females are supposedly more emotional than man, why do men commit much more suicides?
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If females are supposedly more emotional than man, why do men commit much more suicides?
Men are more successful at suicide. One more thing that men are better at! Go men!
"Nothing stands in your way, when you're a boy."
-- David Bo(y)wie
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Seems to me like you're the one getting all upset. You can't make a single post without a juvenile insult. The projection is obvious.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_suicide
"Suicide attempts are between two and four times more frequent among females."
Re: (Score:1)
I hope you get some help. It's not healthy to be so full of rage.
They're not (Score:5, Informative)
You get what you measure, and you get what you _can_ measure. It's hard to measure emotional responses from a person actively trying to hide them. Conversely it's easier to measure those responses from people encouraged to show their emotions.
Re:They're not (Score:5, Interesting)
The parent is also incorrect. Women attempt suicide more often than men, and depending on the report you'll see figures indicating somewhere between twice and three times as much. However, men have a much higher suicide rate, in part because of the methods they use (gun, hanging) are more effective.
Re: (Score:2)
All suicide attempts are cries out for help.
Not really, at least not from the person's own perspective. Sometimes they don't inherently want to die, but feel their situation is so terrible they can't get the necessary attention any other way. This is presumably often the case with people with a history of lesser self-harm, they take it one step too far and actually die. It's like an adrenaline junkie trying increasingly extreme stunts, technically not seeking death but taking it to the edge. Other times there's nothing to be done, like in Terry Pratc [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
All suicide attempts are cries out for help.
Nonsense. People with chronic unmanageable pain often chose that path. I had this discussion long ago with my spouse, saying that if I were in a position where my quality of life had deteriorated to the point that I would never be able to get out of bed, that I would prefer to end it. This is a conscious decision made before the fact in my case.
Re: (Score:2)
So any time someone states a genuine difference between males & women, they are being sexist???
You are being way too simplistic, the comment you object to has little to do with competence, as other people have covered in more detail.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Show a man he is wrong.
Show a woman she is wrong.
From their reactions you will immediately realize that women are many levels more emotional than men.
Re: (Score:2)
If females are supposedly more emotional than man, why do men commit much more suicides?
Because the females drive them crazy.
Re: (Score:2)
Better just to go fishing. Monthly fishing trip!
Proximity axiom: Pussy makes you crazy. Think how crazy the relatively little bit you get makes you, woman are attached!
Then understand: Good crazy and bad crazy.
Re: (Score:1)
Females are more emotional then males. We've known this for thousands of years. Cavemen understood this. Was a clinical study really necessary?
Cavemen "understood" a lot of things that turned out to be completely wrong. Proper studies are the difference between science and superstition.
And even assuming that you are right about females being more emotional (I think you are), what can you make of that affirmation? What does "emotional" means? How do you apply that knowledge to the link between social media and depression? These preconceptions can guide your research, they can even be taken into account into your calculations (Bayesian statistics),
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Emotional (Score:5, Insightful)
Women are on average more neurotic than men. James Damore got fired for saying this.
Women are on average higher in neuroticism, one of the Big-5 personality traits.
This is unfortunately named, as it is not the same as being neurotic.
Re: Emotional (Score:2)
How much you wanna bet that people who score high on neuroticism are far more likely to be neurotic?
Re:Emotional (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, and this is the reason why he got fired, that difference is minor and the author of the study he cited for it has said publicly that the conclusion it affects women's performance in or preference for engineering jobs is unwarranted.
It's a very old argument. It's odd that Damore didn't discover it and read the extensive debunkings that have been written over the centuries, and particularly in the modern era. It's almost as if he had a conclusion and googled evidence to support it.
Re: (Score:2)
Also, and this is the reason why he got fired, that difference is minor and the author of the study he cited for it has said publicly that the conclusion it affects women's performance in or preference for engineering jobs is unwarranted.
Well, that's definitive. I mean, it's not like you could get fired for saying that it does affect anything ...
Re: (Score:2)
Also, and this is the reason why he got fired, that difference is minor and the author of the study he cited for it has said publicly that the conclusion it affects women's performance in or preference for engineering jobs is unwarranted.
The average differences are quite small. The differences on the extremes are significantly pronounced - that's how this kind of math works out.
You should go read the studies about the impact of gender-egalitarian policies on the career choices of men and women in Scandinav
Re: (Score:2)
I've read those studies, have you? They didn't "want" to find anything. The follow up studies have mostly found the reasons for the results seen, and they appear to be cultural.
Re: (Score:2)
No, except that culture reflects nature.
Sexual differences in personality and preference in occupational activities appear to be hard wired, and cross-cultural. Cross-species even - we see similar sexual dimorphism in other primates.
It can be observed from an early age in the toys and activities that children use. As they get older and more socially conditioned, the sexual differences become smaller, not greater. Women like people, men like things. (talking tendency in averages of course, if that does not
Re: (Score:1)
If it is cross cultural how do you explain places like Iran where more than half the STEM graduates are female? How about China where there is a much higher proportion of female engineers in the Shenzhen area than in most western countries?
And how do you explain that in the US the number of women in CS peaked in the 80s and has declined since? The usual answer is that men are dumb and women got out of CS when it turned bad, but if you want to go with that I'd ask you to state where you think they went as an
Re: (Score:2)
If it is cross cultural how do you explain places like Iran where more than half the STEM graduates are female? How about China
Less gender equality and personal freedom in those countries. More equality and freedom means men and women are more able to make choices and express their differences.
https://www.theatlantic.com/sc... [theatlantic.com]
But: Gender disparities in science and engineering in Chinese universities:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/... [sciencedirect.com]
Re: (Score:2)
You are arguing that gender inequality somehow forces more women into studying STEM, leading to better paid jobs and more opportunities? Are you suggesting that men are the ones being oppressed in Iran?
Re: (Score:2)
I'm looking at the data, instead of twisting it to fit my prejudices.
I might hypothesise that in Iran or China, parents contribute more to the choice of field of study, compared to Scandinavia.
Greater freedom of choice by young people leads to greater expression of their differing preferences.
Re: (Score:2)
So you agree with me? Your theory is that it's a social issue, particularly parental influence.
That being the case, why do you assume that in Scandinavian countries there is less influence, not more? That is in direct opposition to what studies looking at this question found.
Re: (Score:2)
I think I have made myself clear. But Amimojo, I've read your posts and no idea what you really think.
Do you believe sexual dimorphism in humans stops at the neck?
What intrinsic differences are there between men and women?
Do you believe that male domination of records in sport is due to biological causes, or it it oppression of female athletes?
What about chess?
Re: (Score:1)
Of course there are many differences between men and women. But probably not as many as people think.
As for chess... Well there are female chess grand masters who manage to beat the best men. It's impossible to know if excluding all other factors there would be no differences between the genders in that game, because we can't run that experiment, but so far no-one has put forward a compelling reason to suggest that there would be.
Which brings us back to engineering and Damore. In that case there actually is
Re: (Score:2)
"Which brings us back to engineering and Damore. In that case there actually is some evidence - women used to be more involved the field of CS, but there has been a decline since the mid 90s. Any explanation of the disparity in participation has to explain that to be credible."
This is just my personal observation so clearly not scientific...
I did my first coding back in the early 70s, and it seemed at the time to be a fairly even mix of men and women. As AmiMoJo stated, there was clearly a drop off of fema
Re: (Score:1)
The "flamebait" mod needs to be renamed to ***triggered snowflake***.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Women are on average more neurotic than men. James Damore got fired for saying this.
That's a massive misrepresentation of what he wrote: he said so, so much more than that.
Here's the funny thing though you can't actually defend what he did write, you're defending a fantasy version of what he wrote. So, why are you defending it?
Re: (Score:2)
Cavemen understood this.
You know this how? Have you spoken to some cavemen or analysed their writings?
Yeah didn't think so. Sounds more like it's a "fact" you made up because you think it sounds true.
Was a clinical study really necessary?
It sure beats making wild-as guesses about cave-men.
And in other news (Score:2)
Using social media for several hours a day is pathological behavior already by itself.
I mean 1...3 hours/day as "normal" and >5h/day as the group that has a problem is pretty insane.
Re: (Score:2)
Meh, I am perfectly well able to have a depression without using any social media.
Re: (Score:2)
Like your sig. Seems to sum up most of the followers pretty well.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. Found that little gem in a discussion on "the Guardian" and since Slashdot is full of conservative kiddies these days I instantly knew I would piss them off with this sig. Never had so many enemies here before that, hehe.
Re: (Score:2)
Meh, I am perfectly well able to have a depression without using any social media.
I know, right?
Pfft, amateurs.
# Dvorak - From The New World (Score:2)
In the old days we didn't have the internet. We had to make our own mental illnesses.
Of course we didn't all them that. You were just a bit tapped, or not right in the head.
OMG i forgot to click like for like 5 min (Score:4, Informative)
My life is over!!!!!
Best advice ever: don't ever buy kids anything other than a flip phone and set it so it can't send texts
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah right, just like teaching abstinence reduces pregnancy rates (hint: it increases pregnancy rates). You can try all you want but the kid will find a way to get or use a normal phone. All you're doing is making them have to hide the behavior which means they're even more likely to have issues.
You can't change the world and the world is all about handheld computing devices right now. Better to teach responsible use because they're going to have to use tech at some point in life.
Re: (Score:2)
Not being able to properly participate in their friend's social circle due to lack of a phone/chat apps will hurt them.
Why not try talking to them about it, and about body image?
How else does this relate (Score:1)
Does this have any correlation to the metoo movement? Real question, not a snarky comment.
SMAD (Score:2)
Why doesn't this rampant condition have a formal name yet?
Social Media Affective Disorder is practically screaming from the womb.
Re: (Score:2)
Considering your post is now three days old w/o any replies, I think the screaming is going unheard.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:So sick of fucking gender gap (Score:4, Informative)
In the charmingly titled "When You Can't Throw All Men Into The Ocean And Start Over, What CAN You Do? Ijeoma Oluo - the mother of two boys, God help them - writes,
"This society is doing everything it can to create rapists, to enable rapists, and to protect rapists. This society is broken, abusive, patriarchal (and white supremacist, ableist, hetero-cisnormative) trash. This entire patriarchal society is responsible for every single sexual assault that occurs."
https://medium.com/@anthoknees/women-have-a-right-to-hate-men-df41b4de3842 [medium.com]
Re:So sick of fucking gender gap (Score:4, Insightful)
I think what this study illustrates is that there are intrinsic gender differences that ought to be better understood and explored, rather than suppressed, ignored, or dismissed as products of socialization.
Re: (Score:2)
Everything in the fucking world is about this stupid fucking gender gap shit. Is there not a single site I can go to which isn't infected with this crap? If there's a "gender gap" and females are more negatively affected then it's a disaster and something needs to be done. If there's a "gender gap" and males are doing worse then there's no problem at all and maybe even a sign of progress. What a bunch of toxic shit. Let's just do what we can to help HUMANS. Stop dividing everyone, pitting everyone against each other, and generally finding any conceivable way we can to create civil war. Jesus christ people. I've had it.
Well there are differences between men & women in many areas that are statistically significant. These are due to biological, cultural, and other causes. Unfortunately, a lot of political agendas confuse the issue (just look at the issue of marital violence -- it is a very real problem, leading to many people being seriously hurt).
This causes at least 3 types of problems:
(1) People who insist that there are no differences, either due to ignorance or ideology (or both). This leads to stupid things lik
Re: (Score:2)
(1) People who insist that there are no differences
That's pretty rare. I mean I'm sure you can find them but you can find flat-earther's too so there's not much to be found cherrypicking nutters.
This leads to stupid things like insisting that exactly half of the students in computer science classes should be female
Like when? What we do know is there was a dramatic drp down from about 37% in the early 1980s. Biology doesn't change significantly over the course of 1 generation.
or that 50% of nurses should b
Re: So sick of fucking gender gap (Score:2)
Like when? What we do know is there was a dramatic drp down from about 37% in the early 1980s. Biology doesn't change significantly over the course of 1 generation.
Biology doesn't have to; societal factors are sufficient. People - men and women - don't just pick careers based on what they're good at or interested in; they also consider things like opportunity, cost, social standing, stabiliy, etc. Early on women were overrepresented in computing because they had few other good opportunities. It didn't mean that women were better at it than men. The percentage had already dropped significantly by the 80s, and it continued to drop as our societies became more equal in o
Re: (Score:2)
I noticed that you didn't say there are no significant voices saying that women should be 50% of computer scientists though.
Yes I did, specifically I said "like when" in response to the original claim. You even fucking quoted it.
Re: So sick of fucking gender gap (Score:2)
I must have misinterpreted that. In that case you're just being willfully obtuse.
Re: (Score:2)
Right. Me not blindly agreeing with your flagrantly exaggerated/outright false claims is me being "wiillfully obtuse". LOL.
Re: (Score:2)
(1) People who insist that there are no differences
That's pretty rare. I mean I'm sure you can find them but you can find flat-earther's too so there's not much to be found cherrypicking nutters.
It's really not rare at all among people on the left, if you're talking about differences above the neck. Many insist that all cognitive and emotional differences among men and women are due to socialization, and that if boys and girls were treated identically we would see no differences whatsoever in non-physical abilities and inclinations.
Even people who will readily concede that we see large differences in other species deny that there can be any in our own, and insist that any that we see are due to s
Re: (Score:2)
It's really not rare at all among people on the left,
Yes it is. I've nt actually ever met a person who has said this. Never. Not once.
the fact you've already dragged politice into this as "the left", while applying sweeping generalisations says to me that you're far more interested in banging a partisan drum than actually having anything approaching a sensible discussion.
Many insist that all cognitive and emotional differences among men and women are due to socialization, and that if boys and girls were tr
Re: (Score:2)
(1) People who insist that there are no differences
That's pretty rare. I mean I'm sure you can find them but you can find flat-earther's too so there's not much to be found cherrypicking nutters.
This leads to stupid things like insisting that exactly half of the students in computer science classes should be female
Like when? What we do know is there was a dramatic drp down from about 37% in the early 1980s. Biology doesn't change significantly over the course of 1 generation.
or that 50% of nurses should be male
There are no significant voices saying that.
( I suspect most people, of any gender, would prefer most nurses to be female!)
Why on earth would people care? Especially as the majority of people are tending towards overweight or obese and one job of nurses is to move people who can't move themselves easily. At some point that requires upper body strength.
One place I worked there was female colleague I chatted with occasionally. She was, as far I can remember technically competent -- and definitely feminine. I remember talking to her husband who claimed there was no difference between men & women. I've never met anyone who insists the world is flat. I made no comment on how frequent problem (1) was.
Your comment wrt Computer Science, is not relevant to what I stated. I made no comment about percentages of females vs males in Computer Science. I als
Re: (Score:2)
Why on earth would people care? Especially as the majority of people are tending towards overweight or obese and one job of nurses is to move people who can't move themselves easily. At some point that requires upper body strength.
Having spent a lot of time in nursing homes with my mom over the last several years, I found that they have no trouble moving patients with a lifting device http://www.hoyerlift.com/ [hoyerlift.com]
Re: (Score:2)
I even been wiped of the chess board by an old woman who was probably at least 30 years older than myself
Anecdote...
Had to laugh at your comment there. I played my first chess tournament in DC back in '82 with around 300 other people. While I was in the registration line, talking to the man behind me, we both noticed a woman about ten yards away from us, who was talking to herself with her head down and holding a coffee cup. When she looked up, she saw us and said, "don't mind me, I'm just writing letters", and proceeded to talk with us for the next couple minutes. During that time, I noticed she was sippi
Re: (Score:2)
I even been wiped of the chess board by an old woman who was probably at least 30 years older than myself
Anecdote...
Had to laugh at your comment there. I played my first chess tournament in DC back in '82 with around 300 other people. While I was in the registration line, talking to the man behind me, we both noticed a woman about ten yards away from us, who was talking to herself with her head down and holding a coffee cup. When she looked up, she saw us and said, "don't mind me, I'm just writing letters", and proceeded to talk with us for the next couple minutes. During that time, I noticed she was sipping from an empty coffee cup. Of those people, who do you suppose I played in my very first ever tournament game?...Joan Slilch (sp?), who was at the time one of the top USCF rated women. And yes, she crushed me.
Well the old woman was toothless and looked a bit gaga. If you had seen her in a cafe, most people would never have thought she could play chess, let alone be able to beat most Club Players!
I could imagine her in a film, where she was the leader of a band of guerillas pretending to be harmless illiterate old woman providing tea&cakes to the enemy general, while taking careful note of their strategic intentions ...
Re:So sick of fucking gender gap (Score:4, Insightful)
This post is just incoherent.
Let's just do what we can to help HUMANS.
There are two choices here:
1. There's no difference at all between men and women. Therefore any gaps are due to bias and those need fixing.
2. There are differences in wich case it's really stupid to pretend they don't exist.
. I've had it.
Bye bye then. Go find another forum which doesn't hurt your feelings with scientific studies.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Men and women are obviously very different from one another. Thank god. Now let's treat everyone the same.
If man and women are obviously very different then why on earth should we treat them the same? That makes no sense.
As for the obviousness, well that's up for debate as well.
Stop dividing everyone.
You literally just said that men and women are obviously very different from one another. Perhaps you are the one who needs to stop dividing people.
Let's work together.
You're not interested in that. You are tr
Re: (Score:2)
This is just dumb, from a pure engineering standpoint. If you noticed that one tyre on a car was getting excessive wear, it would be idiotic to demand that in the name of equality a solution for all four tyres is found. An engineer will try to identify what differentiates that tyre and address the issue.
More over, often by identifying these differences you get some insight that helps the less affected group too. Maybe you find that there is an issue with the suspension, and gain greater understanding of wha
Re: (Score:2)
I'm glad bigotry has a pure justification.
Hmm... People can infer bigotry where none exists.
In New Zealand, a few years back, a researcher was concerned about the prevalence of an antisocial disease in a particular ethnic group, and was trying to propose reasonable remedial action to help reduce the incidence of the disease. He got accused of being racist, as though merely identifying a problem area, was bigotry.
If you fell into a pile of shit, and someone said "You're all shitty, let us help clean you up." Would you accuse them of being insultin
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, basic facts (Score:1)
Women are more social and higher in negative emotions. They rely much more heavily on others for their status and self worth
This has been known for a long time, contemporary society likes to play dumb about it though
That can't be right! (Score:2, Insightful)
I've been assured that gender is merely a social construct. If so, how is there a gender gap?
Shitlord scientists using their science...literally hitlers.
LITERALLY.
Re: (Score:2)
I've been assured that gender is merely a social construct.
I don't hold with that idea, but many, MANY of the trappings of it are. Girls/pink boys/blue which seems deeply ingrained flipped 100 years ago. Men not having close, emptionally intimate relationships with men where they talk about feelings is a recent invention much to the detriment of men (go read some old letter collections betwen men).
The thing about men being sex-beasts always wanting it and women being pure and innocent. That also flipped, m
Re: (Score:2)
I've been assured that gender is merely a social construct.
Because every other definition is flawed.
Feel free to try it. Define gender any other way you like and I'll point out the flaws in it.
Re: (Score:2)
Is it me or do these threads get WAAYYY more whiny AC replies than just about any other thread?
Re: (Score:2)
It's one of the oldest rational tropes, back when it was mostly about anti-feminism and less alt-light.
Re: (Score:2)
Gender is a grammatical construct. Sex is a scientific (as in biological) construct.
Grammar is fundamentally debatable and descriptions of it are mostly flawed - so if you find all definitions of gender flawed you are not saying anything new.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: That can't be right! (Score:2)
No, it would have been a silly statement to make if biology were the only science. Since there are more, I made it clear that biology is the science in question. E.g. since science is always science, it is silly to say :
Sex is a scientific (as in scientific) construct.
Other than that, I see nothing to reply in your post as I don't think you've understood the context of the post.
Re: (Score:2)
Hay man, how's it going? You disappeared for a while there, I was getting worried.
Re: (Score:2)
Hay man, how's it going? You disappeared for a while there, I was getting worried.
I think he may have been nursing an awesome hangover.
Re: (Score:2)
I am terrible, aren't I... It's actually quote encouraging that they respond with more than just name calling and accusations like some other AC stalkers do. This one is actually engaged enough to comprehend my statements on some primitive level, and has a more or less coherent response based some some kind of (wrong) political philosophy.
A cut above the average AC.
Re: (Score:2)
Disagreeing = Russian troll trying to stir up unrest, amirite?
Thats why (Score:2)
Five hours a day? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What's wrong with hanging around the shopping centre and spitting?!
spitting in a shopping centre?
WTF? (Score:2)
If anyone uses social media for 5 hours a day or more regularly, they already are depressed to begin with I'd say. Maybe boys just hide it better? There's a very plausible explanation right there.
Link between social media and depression is (Score:2)
strongest in stupid people.
Link between social media and stupid people is depressing for intelligent people.
OMG! (Score:2)
That's like soooooo unfair!
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Either they think their breasts aren't big enough and want to hide them, or they think they're too big and all the boys will be staring at them. (This isn't guesswork; I once asked a woman about it and that's what she told me.)
And ... they'd likely be right.
Re: (Score:2)
When you hold a stack of books and papers is it really an illogical way to hold them? I recall being scolded by other boys for holding things "like a girl". If what your female friend told you was true, they'd all be carrying books all the time.