A push notification here, a Whatsapp message there and as soon as boredom sets in, we prefer to quickly scroll through our Instagram feed. The smartphone has long had a permanent place in our lives, just like the internet. According to the "Digital Report 2022", around 72 million people in Germany were regularly online last year.
The younger generation in particular is increasingly overwhelmed by their own media use, as a current study by the VOCER Institute for Digital Resilience shows. Accordingly, the many posts about the crises of our time ensure that more and more young people between the ages of 14 and 29 break away from social networks.
Stephan Weichert, co-author of the study, explains the phenomenon in an interview with Deutschlandfunk Kultur: "Many people struggle with the news of the crisis and can't really calm down. This excessive consumption of digital media leads to something like news fatigue." A full 60 percent of those surveyed said that Instagram triggers negative feelings in them.
So social media doesn't just put you in a good mood? Admittedly, that's not a big surprise. It has long been scientifically proven that spending too much time on Instagram, Facebook and other social networks can have negative effects on our health. For example, there are studies that have been able to demonstrate a connection between increased media consumption and the development of depression and anxiety disorders.
A long-term study by the University of Montreal followed around 4,000 teenagers for four years. The result: the more time the young people spent on social media, the stronger the depressive symptoms. Sleep disorders, self-esteem problems and addiction are also among the psychological risk factors of excessive media use.
But what is normal cell phone use? According to recent studies, we use our smartphones between 2.5 and 4 hours a day. That's the average usage time for an adult. However, at what point media consumption becomes problematic varies from person to person. However, there are warning signs that alert us to media overconsumption.
If you constantly compare yourself to the edited influencer photos on Instagram and become increasingly critical of your body; If you have trouble falling asleep because you forget the time while scrolling and have the feeling of missing something all the time - keyword "fear of missing out" - then it is worth taking a critical look at your own media consumption.
A quarter of all social media users under the age of 30 feel empty, exhausted and drained after using media. This is also a result of the study by the VOCER Institute. A study by DAK-Gesundheit and the German Center for Addiction Issues confirms that young people between the ages of 14 and 24 are particularly at risk from social media. The authors of the study assume that 2.6 percent of the younger generation are already addicted to the internet.
Social networks are actually used to exchange ideas with like-minded people, to keep in touch with friends and to be able to deal with the perspective of strangers. It's no wonder that we as social beings thrive on it. But how can an app fascinate us in such a way that in the end it may even harm us psychologically? The answer is complex. On the one hand, it is assumed that social media strengthens our basic emotions. This means that if I tend to have depressive thoughts anyway, then if in doubt, Instagram or Facebook will make them even more intense.
More likely, social media can have a negative impact for a number of reasons. If we enter the digital world with our head, then we lose valuable time for real encounters with friends, for example. At the same time, we provide our brain with an enormous amount of information. However, since we can only absorb a limited amount of new input, sensory overload quickly occurs, which in turn leads to stress.
A study published in the journal The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health found that social media use leads to less exercise, less sleep and more exposure to bullying in adolescents. In combination with the fake world that smiles in our faces on Instagram every day, it is hardly surprising that spending too much time online can harm us in the long term.
But don't worry, you still don't have to throw your smartphone out the window. Of course, it is also important to find a healthy balance here. When dosed correctly, media consumption also has a number of advantages. In an emergency, our smartphone gives us the opportunity to get help quickly. We can also find out about things that interest us, form our own opinions on current topics and exchange ideas with other people.
But how does healthy media use work? There is no general answer to this, because it always depends on the individual living conditions. Nevertheless, we have collected a few tips that can help you with conscious media consumption:
Source: VOCER Institute, study; DAK Health, Study; Study "Digital Report 2022";
