Using social media and watching TV might increase symptoms of depression in teenagers.
Published July 15 in JAMA Pediatrics, the four-year study asked nearly 4,000 Canadian teens to report on the number of hours they spend on social media, TV, video gaming and computers. More frequent users of social media and TV had more severe symptoms of depression.
These symptoms include depressed mood, feelings of worthlessness and recurrent thoughts of death.
The study showed that when teens increased their use of social media and watched more TV than usual in a given year, then their symptoms of depression also increased in that year. Video gaming, above-average screen time on a computer, and other kinds of Web browsing were also followed in the study, but did not emerge as predictors of depression in adolescence.
El aumento en el uso de redes sociales y televisión, asociados con incrementos en la depresión adolescente
