What is Scroll Free September?
Scroll Free September is an initiative from the Royal Society for Public Health which is asking all of us (not just young people) to take a break from all personal social media accounts throughout September. This follows their collaboration with the Young Health Movement on the publication of the #statusofmind report examining the positive and negative effects of social media on young people’s health. That report included a league table of social media platforms according to their impact on young people’s mental health.
How can I get involved?
The campaign asks whether you are going to be a Cold Turkey, a Social Butterfly, a Night Owl, a Busy Bee or a Sleeping Dog? Of course, you don’t have to sign-up to participate, but if you do the campaign promises that you you will benefit from motivational articles and supportive hints and tips.
So is there such a thing as social media addiction?
Strictly speaking gambling is the only non substance addiction recognised by psychiatrists in the American Psychiatric Association mental health diagnostic tool DSM. Internet gaming disorder is, however, listed in the appendix as an area in need of more data, although is itself now recognised as an addiction by the World Health Organisation sponsored diagnostic tool ICD11 (or what is known as the International Classification of Diseases). There is some debate if gaming counts as social media with some arguing that particularly the community aspect of gaming makes it similar to the connectivity of social media.
Is there evidence of harm from social media use?
We need to be clear about what we are investigating. Is it using Facebook or Twitter on, for example, a casual basis or is it using Skype to chat with family in distant parts of the world? We need to be more specific about what we are researching as social media and technological usage is incredibly diverse. More nuance is needed in what is being investigated to determine what is actually producing a positive effect and what might be contributing to negative effects. That will help to inform us what we need to curb and what we might need to keep and do more of. The evidence, thus far, is not strong about both the positive as well as the negative effects of social media engagement. There have been two big digital detox studies where young people as participants had their devices removed. There were some positive effects to biological stress levels but lifestyle satisfaction levels went down.
So what is meant by recovery?
If we apply the substance abuse treatment model to behavioural problems we could look out for behaviours such as preoccupation, increased ritualisations, obsession and potential loss of control as well as what might be considered withdrawal symptoms such as anger, mood swings, restlessness, anxiety and depression. There might also be adverse consequences on other parts of a user’s life. This is when relationship difficulties start to emerge as a result of digital engagement. Digital distraction by one person is increasingly the reason why couples seek therapy to help resolve disputes in their union.
It is difficult to apply an abstinence based treatment model to social media problem behaviour. In the same way that people who binge on food still have to eat in order to stay alive, people still have to communicate online with statutory services quite apart from maintaining social contacts and boosting career prospects. That is why a cold turkey approach to digital detox is near impossible, even for a month. A new and healthy relationship to social media is needed that will help users address anxiety based concerns such as FOMO (fear of missing out) but will allow more healthy time boundaries on devices.
Do adults have addictive tendencies too with social media?
We tend to think about social media engagement as being more of a problem area for young people. They, after all, don’t have an awareness of a pre-internet social world. Young people’s pre-frontal lobes are less developed than adults so are more susceptible to addiction in general. However, social media engagement can be potentially a problem for all ages. The ability to handle stress and to effectively deal with emotions is critical in maintaining emotional regulation. Essentially, how we regulate our emotional wellbeing determines how well we moderate our addictive tendencies and stress is the barometer of our ability to manage our emotions. Affect dysregulation can be seen to occur when we attach ourselves to a behaviour as a coping mechanism in response to stress and difficult feelings.
Are social media apps designed to be addictive?
Smartphones are like portable slot machines that we carry around in our pockets. Acknowledgements in the form of “likes” or retweets act like variable intermittent rewards, in the same way that casinos keep gamblers playing. People who struggle with emotional regulation can very easily fall into addictive patterns with social media. However, it is difficult to see social media addiction as being similar to the brain changes that take place with substance abuse addiction.
Living through massive social change raises anxiety levels and we are certainly currently living through seismic change. Our evolutionary prime drives to survive and to affiliate as well as psychological needs for social approval ensure that social media engagement is here to stay. Social media platforms exploit these prime drives, that’s why they are so successful. But lots of people have a healthy relationship with technology, just like with alcohol and food, so perhaps it’s not the devices themselves per se that is the problem. Its our relationship to the devices and what is happening, or not happening, in a user’s life that leads to problem behaviour.
Will Scroll Free September be effective?
The risk with campaigns such as this is that we pathologize behaviour, behaviour that is a vital way of connecting for people to the outside world. It is not just the elderly but disabled people and other marginalised groups who see social media engagement as a lifeline and might potentially feel shamed by such campaigns.
Sleep hygiene could be boosted by becoming more mindful of the impact of screen time and better posture as a result of a campaign like this but the juggernaut careering down the road that is social media engagement will continue unabated. Social media companies can do more to protect their users. The regulated utility companies have an obligation to release data and to report on incidents of consumer harm. Perhaps social media companies could be forced to report in a similar way under government regulation. They could also release anonymised user data to allow researchers greater insight into how people interact on their platforms. What we really need to assess is which offline activities are being avoided whereby research into this area is more nuanced. This will help to inform better educational campaigns.
Ultimately, however, we might all need to learn to live more serenely with our anxiety in our lives and with our inner loneliness. The social media engagement that will help our mental well-being will be the kind of activity that connects us online to friends and family in the real world rather than passive consumption of endless content. So, perhaps we don’t need to go cold turkey but learn to connect more with people more meaningfully whilst online. We should try to do that every month of the year.
I was quoted today in a Sky News feature about social free September.
See also
Assessing the impact of social media on young people
Do you have a problem with overusing your smartphone?
Overcome your anxiety browsing social media