With the widespread use of smartphones, we started to spend more time on the internet. Many people who were dissatisfied with this process began to say that the internet was harmful to people and made people more unhappy and more susceptible to mental illnesses. These claims, of course, attracted the attention of scientists.
Giant research involving two million people has been concluded
Researchers examining the data of two million people aged between 15 and 89 from 168 countries came across interesting results. Yes, the number of negative experiences people had increased when they spent time online, but the number of positive experiences also varied in the same direction. The result showed that the internet was not actually that bad as it was said.
In the statement made about this giant study coordinated by the Oxford Internet Institute, it was stated that if there is a relationship between poor or low mental health and internet use, this link should be revealed in such a large study. While no negative effects were observed in any age or gender group in the study, it was also noted that women became happier as the internet became more widespread.
Social media was not specifically examined in the research. While the study focused on home and mobile internet usage, the effects of different platforms were not specifically examined. Claims that the entire internet is bad in general have been tested. Scientists compared internet usage rates with anxiety, depression and self-harm tendency data from various countries covering the period 2000-2019.
The research was published in Clinical Psychological Science.
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