
Are You More Irritable When You’re on Your Phone? Here’s Why…
By Movieguide® Contributor
A new survey revealed that frequent social media use leads to higher irritability.
In the study, published in JAMA Network Open, researchers examined the relationship between irritability and social media using self-reported data from over 40,000 adult participants, per Medical Xpress.
There are many studies linking social media use to anxiety and depression, but “irritability is important in its own right, not just because it is common in depression — it can be associated with suicide risk, with substance use, even violence,” said lead researcher and Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry Dr. Roy Perlis.
Among the participants, 78% reported that they use social media at least once per day. Frequent use correlated with high irritability.
Frequent political posting or consuming political news also correlated with higher irritability. Following political news “not very closely” correlated with a slight decrease in irritability. High social media engagement, especially frequent posting, also correlated with higher irritability.
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Irritability levels were highest in those who used TikTok, followed by Facebook and X, respectively. Instagram users had the lowest levels of irritability among the four platforms.
Dr. Jean Twenge, psychologist and author of “Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents — and What They Mean for America’s Future,” said she noticed teens’ self-image and mental health stems from Instagram use, because much of the content is “focused on diet and body image, and that [contributes] a little more toward depression than anger. On TikTok, it’s very often people talking, expressing opinions about how to do X or Y.” She ventured more opinionated content may be more likely to cause irritability, which lines up with why political social media engagement correlates with irritability.
The study didn’t confirm direct causation, but researchers suggest there could be a feedback loop relationship: irritability influences the urge to engage and increases irritability.
Dr. Perlis said, “It may be that social media use exacerbates irritability, but it may also be that irritability makes people use more social media,” or a combination of each.
The researchers concluded that implications and potential interventions for social media and irritability require more research.
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