Just after waking up Is tapping on that little blue symbol on your smartphone is the initial thing that hits to your mind that extended use of social media apps is correlated with judgments of damaging physical health.
The University of Surrey study has been published in the journal Heliyon.In the initial study of its kind, researchers, led by Dr. Bridget Dibb, explored the relation between Perceptions and Facebook and of physical health.
165 participants, all Facebook users, were checked out to determine levels of contrast with others on the social networking site, self-esteem score, known physical health and life satisfaction.
Researchers also found that users who compared themselves to others on social sites like Facebook had greater experience of physical illnesses, such as weight change, sleep problems, and muscle tension.
It is expected that those who compare themselves with others on Facebook or on any other social media platforms may recognize more physical symptoms but justly, those who felt more symptoms may compare themselves more with others on Facebook.
Social comparison is defined as a process where comparisons are made to others to decide our lives and are more prone to develop when we feel unsure about our situation.
Additionally, it was observed that girls and those suffering from depression or anxiety also realized more symptoms.
Users who were more satisfied with their lives had high self-esteem rates and were correlated with fewer physical symptoms.
Researchers also suspect that the extended use of the Facebook and other social media sites may be linked with more hopes to compare ourselves unnecessarily to others who we know to be ‘better off’ than ourselves both in health and in lifestyle.
Dr. Bridget Dibb, Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology at the University of Surrey, stated, “Comparing ourselves to others is not a new concept; however, with the rise of social media it is becoming a part of our everyday lives.”
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Dr. Dibb further added, “An entity like Facebook, with 2.27 billion active monthly users, has never existed before. The long term effect it has on individuals is unknown, but it is clear that comparison with others is associated with perceptions of ill-health. Users need to be aware of how they feel when they use sites like Facebook and recognize the dangers of comparisons in this context.”
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