Smartphone abuse harms mental health, and so would Instagram excess, so what about the forerunner Facebook juggernaut? Well, no, science tells us, there is no proof that the rise of the social network has affected the mental well-being of populations.
Study by the Oxford Internet Institute
Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute studied the evolution of three well-being indicators in 72 countries between 2008 and 2019, a period during which Facebook experienced enormous growth, and found that these indicators remained relatively stable. In other words, the explosion in Facebook adoption did not have a negative impact on the psychological health of users.
The Oxford Institute clarifies that Meta contributed to the investigation by providing Facebook data, but did not commission or fund this study. Source: Royal Society Publishing
