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Social media can have significant effects on various mental health concerns, such as depression, anxiety, addictions, and insomnia.

Social media has become tremendously common over the past decade. A majority of people report using some type of social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, at least once per day.1

According to recent data, as many as 90% of young adults currently spend time on social media sites.2 This figure has increased nearly nine-fold since 2005, where only 12.5% reported frequent time spent on social media platforms.2

With such a rise in the use of social media, many researchers have begun investigating its effects on mental health.

Disorders such as depression and anxiety have been very common in the past several decades. Amongst adults in the United States, approximately 7% of adults are affected by depression each year, while 18% are reported to be affected by anxiety.3

Among the younger population, reports of mental health problems are particularly disturbing. Some data suggest, for instance, that 30% of college students are affected by depression, while 58% of counselling centers in the United States witnessed an increase in students seeking help for depression.2

Such mental health disorders have been linked to severely diminished functioning and serious mental anguish, but several studies have shown an increased risk of developing other illnesses and even increased rates of mortality.4

One study examined the effects of social media on mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, and stress.1 The study included over 450 adult participants who completed surveys related to social media use and mental health.

The study found that participants who reported problematic social media use (characterized by excessive use of social media platforms) were significantly more likely to have higher anxiety, depression, and insomnia levels.1 However, the study reported that stress levels did not increase in these participants. In fact, stress was found to mediate the relationship between depression, anxiety, insomnia, and problematic social media use.

The researchers explain that while social media sites allow for more easy and frequent interactions with other people, such interactions are not of the same quality as those found in the real world. Nevertheless, in some circumstances, social media use can increase social support and life satisfaction, as well as enhancing self-expression and identity development.1 In this way, the researchers suggest that social media may actually become a protective factor against depression.1

While problematic social media use was found not to be related to increased levels of stress, the study determined that stress fully mediated the relationship between such social media use, depression, and insomnia, while partially mediating its relation with anxiety. The researchers suggested that time spent on social media platforms could be a coping strategy used when experiencing stress.1

Another study sought to understand particular patterns of social media use, and how these may be associated with depression and anxiety symptoms.3 The researchers administered online surveys to over 1,700 young adults in the United States. The study reported that the participants could be classified into one of five different clusters. These clusters were named Unplugged, Concentrated Dabblers, Diffuse Dabblers, Connected, and Wired.3

Those categorized as Unplugged showed no high levels of any categorized variables and included 18% of the sample. Similarly, 19% were categorized as concentrated dabblers, which reported spending large amounts of time on these sites and a strong emotional connection to a social media platform. Diffuse Dabblers represented 31% of the sample and reported using many different social media platforms without it being considered problematic use. The Connected cluster included 15% of the sample, with participants reporting a combination of using multiple platforms characterized by high intensity and frequency of such social media use. The last cluster, Wired, which contained 13% of the sample, was considered to be demonstrating problematic social media use, which can be thought of as an addiction-like relation to social media.3

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Wired cluster was found to have the highest association with moderate to severe depressive symptoms. The Connected cluster was also found to be associated with an increased risk of such symptoms, though to a lesser extent. A similar pattern of increased symptoms was found with anxiety, whereby Wired cluster participants were highest followed Connected cluster participants, with no significant relationship determined between any other cluster.3

Interestingly, the researchers determined that while participants categorized into the Connected cluster were very similar in terms of high frequency, time, and intensity, the same was not the case in the Wired cluster. The researchers determined that the observed negative effects on mental health were more dependent on a particular pattern exhibited by the Wired cluster than simply on increased volume of use.3

Another study examined the particular social media use behaviors and their association with symptoms of depression. The researchers administered an online survey to over 500 undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 38, exploring their use of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.4

Upon examining the results, the researchers discovered three types of behaviors that were particularly related to major depressive disorder: social comparisons, social media addiction, and social interactions.4

Specifically, people who were more likely to compare themselves to others who are better off, who indicated being more bothered if tagged in an unflattering picture, and those less likely to post pictures of themselves with others, were more likely to meet the criteria for a major depressive disorder.4 Additionally, higher levels of social interactions, such as following over 300 people on Twitter, were related to lower levels of depression symptoms.

Participants who scored higher on a social media addiction scale were significantly more likely to show symptoms of depression.

Although these results seem to indicate a clear link between some types of social media use and depression, it is not possible to make firm conclusions. It is just as likely that many of these behaviors are an outward display of depressive symptoms. For instance, rumination is a very common symptom in people who experience depression and may explain such behaviors as being bothered when tagged in an unflattering picture. Similarly, social isolation is often very common in people suffering from depression and can explain the finding that following fewer people on Twitter is related to such symptoms. It is also possible, as the researchers point out, that social media use acts as a shield from anxiety-provoking real-life interactions. Social media use can also be an adaptive response by people experiencing emotional difficulties, with such individuals seeking to receive social support.4

Although not much has been written on this topic, several researchers have examined potential treatment strategies for problematic social media use. For instance, one strategy may be to write down the amount of time a person spends on social media, and how valuable they find the particular social media site.2 Another possible strategy is for a clinician to work with a patient on setting a specific time of day they can engage in social media use.2 Some people can even benefit from taking a digital sabbatical, or a period of time where they discontinue the use of social media or other networking sites, while still maintaining important connections with others.2

It is important, as is often the case, that if you feel that your use of social media sites is negatively impacting your life, you seek out the help of mental health professional. A healthcare worker can assist with finding the best course of treatment when someone is experiencing distress from problematic social media use. Although the majority of people do not appear to report severe mental health issues related to social media use, some may find that such sites are causing them particularly severe pain and distress.

While problematic social media use is still a newer area of research, it is becoming clearer that this issue is similar in nature to other types of addiction. Therefore, interventions by professional mental health practitioners may be necessary in some cases, and some individuals may benefit greatly from working with a therapist.

[1] Malaeb, D. (2020). Problematic social media use and mental health (depression, anxiety, and insomnia) among lebanese adults: Any mediating effect of stress? Perspect Psychiatr Care, 111. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppc.12576

[2] Bettmann, J. (2020). Young adult depression and anxiety linked to social media use: Assessment and treatment. Clinical Social Work Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-020-00752-1

[3] Shensa, A., Sidani, J. E., Dew, M. A., Escobar-Viera, C., & Primack, B. A. (2018). Social media use and depression and anxiety symptoms: A cluster analysis. American Journal of Health Behavior, 42(2), 116-128. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/10.5993/AJHB.42.2.11

[4] Robinson, A. (2019). Social comparisons, social media addiction, and social interaction: An examination of specific social media behaviors related to major depressive disorder in a millennial population. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/jabr.12158

Image byGordon JohnsonfromPixabay

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The effects of social media on mental health - Medical News Bulletin

Boulder, Colo., April 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spectra Logic,a leader in datastorage and data management solutions, today announced that its entire family of tape libraries and its Spectra BlackPearl NAS solution have attained Veeam Ready qualification with Veeam Backup & Replication v11. As a long-time Veeam Technology Alliance Partner, Spectra Logic continues to attain Veeam Ready status for its award-winning portfolio of tape libraries and disk solutions to ensure compatibility with Veeam as customers look for easy, economical and scalable storage targets in Veeam environments. Additionally, Spectra and Veeam will present a SpectraLIVE webinar, How to Implement a 3-2-1-1-0 Backup Strategy, on May 4, 2021. Register here.

We are delighted to continue our long-standing partnership with Veeam, said Betsy Doughty, Spectra Logic vice president of corporate marketing. Our mutual customers reap tremendous value when they combine our solutions. With our entire family of tape libraries qualified Veeam Ready - Tape and our BlackPearl NAS qualified Veeam Ready - Repository, customers can take full advantage of Spectras tape and NAS storage offerings as well as the 200 new enhancements in Veeams latest solution.

The Veeam Ready Program helps Veeam partners meet their functional and performance standards. Every Spectra tape library and BlackPearl NAS solution has achieved Veeam Ready status with V11, indicating the most current level of qualification, testing and compatibility for these storage products.

Spectra Logics family of tape and NAS solutions deliver unparalleled benefits when paired with Veeam Backup & Replication:

Spectra will again participate in VeeamON 2021, the worlds premier virtual event for modernizing data protection, which will take place May 25 and 26, 2021.

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About Spectra Logic Corporation

Spectra Logic develops data storage and data management solutions that solve the problem of long-term digital preservation for organizations dealing with exponential data growth. Dedicated solely to storage innovation for more than 40 years, Spectra Logics uncompromising product and customer focus is proven by the adoption of its solutions by leaders in multiple industries globally. Spectra enables affordable, multi-decade data storage and access by creating new methods of managing information in all forms of storageincluding archive, backup, cold storage, private cloud and public cloud. To learn more, visit http://www.SpectraLogic.com.

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Spectra, Spectra Logic and StorCycle are registered trademarks of Spectra Logic Corporation. OpenDrives is a registered trademark of OpenDrives, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Spectra Logic Tape Libraries and NAS Solutions Achieve Veeam Ready Status for Backup, Archive and Disaster Recovery - GlobeNewswire

I once witnessed a macabre execution early 2000s. It was a quotidian day in Onitsha except for a sudden alarm jarring everyone grinding away in the days humdrum. Thief! Thief! Swiftly, commuters, traders and idlers became vigilantes. They encircled a young man and bludgeoned him until he was lifeless. No questions asked. No trial. No justice but jungle injustice.

There is a SARS in some Nigerians; reservoirs of cynicism, misanthropy and bigotry. These ones see other people through the bifocals of their own vile existence. Just like SARS, the notorious but disbanded police unit, profiles young Nigerians with tattoo branding and dreadlocks, this category of Nigerians reduces every individual to an offender. You are guilty without charges, convicted and summarily sentenced by the self-appointed rogue jury!

That predilection for exacting jungle (in)justice on alleged offenders in the streets is very much the same on Nigerias social media platforms where you expect to find refined people above the stratum of agberos. It is all the same in the streets and on social media district. Nigerian Twitter, in particular, is a toxic locale defiant to order and devoid of joy. There is that proclivity for gotcha gotcha. It is always about dragging this person or that person. I must say, very angry creatures take residence there.

It may be fun and games until you are a victim of this ferocious social media mob. I recall when Segun Adeniyi, senior journalist and author, was a casualty of this ruthless horde over a book he wrote. He was tyrannised until he apologised and withdrew copies of the book. There have been many other victims but some felt so overwhelmed that they took an exit from humanity.

I recall the story of Ariyo Olanrewaju Taiwo a man who suffered depression in 2017. He expressed suicidal thoughts on Facebook but was bullied and taunted. He committed suicide afterwards. Social media, which ordinarily should be a crucible for ideas, conviviality, networking, and seminal exchanges, has become a belvedere where some people exhibit their hate, bigotry, insecurities, and prejudices with disinhibition.

A few days ago, Japheth Omojuwa, the digital media entrepreneur, was the whipping boy of these internet infestations. They clobbered, scratched and gored him with pitchforks and daggers, even throwing dynamites into the mix. Much of their grouse with the gentleman was the side he chose to support in the 2015 election. They seized a moment to creep out of their crevices and forgotten neck of the woods to extract a toll. I have never seen such virulence and turpitude on social media before.

I have been a casualty of this brood of calumniators myself. I am unfazed by the trolling on social media. I have developed impermeability to praises and curses on social media. I am comatose to what happens there. But somehow, these maligners find my mobile phone number and keep me under siege for hours and days with a fusillade of attacks and curses. This bothers me because it is an intrusion of my personal space. I wake up at 4am deleting hate messages.

We are a nation of extremists. A violent people. When you stray from the single narrative promoted by some compromised persons, you become an enemy pencilled down for demolition. Is this not a tyranny of opinion? How did we become so vile, unfeeling, and sadistic? The beauty of intellection is in the variety and robustness of opinions. Why must everyone submit to a lone account even if it is falsehood? Why should everyone hold the same opinion?

What is happening on Nigerian social media is akin to the Dark Ages where people were hanged for having contrary opinions. And the Dark Ages was a blot on humanity because knowledge was forbidden. We are in an era of intellectual darkness in Nigeria where all opinions must be unitary and must conform to certain ethnic and religious prejudices.

Some of the loudest voices accusing others of extremism are themselves extremists, who ambush and savage contrary opinions. It must be their way or the Milky Way to assaults and threats.

How did we become so pugnacious that we will tear anyone and anything that does not agree with us?

I think we need to be having conversations on ways of mitigating the perils of this Frankenstein technology. Opinions on social media can be bought and ammunitioned against anyone. We cannot discount the veritable place of social media but the evolving trend of sponsored prejudiced opinions is leading to a dictatorship of narratives.

We are all potential victims of mob (in)justice. The mob runs Nigerias social media. You either fall in line with the governing narrative or risk violence. This mob rule has to end. Fredrick Nwabufo, fredricknwabufo@yahoo.com

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Social Media and Mob Justice - THISDAY Newspapers

Facebook can be a monopolist over a cluster of noncompeting products that do not fit the standard economic definition of a market. The key is to identify situations in which clustering non-substitute products itself creates market power.

In late 2020, the Federal Trade Commission brought an antitrust suit accusing Facebook of monopolization. Every antitrust case claiming an unlawful monopoly must identify a market that the defendant is monopolizing. Past defendants often produced a single, readily identifiable product such as aluminum ingot, cellophane, or Intel-based computer operating systems. Often, parties dispute the boundaries of these markets. For example, should the cellophane market be broadened to include wax paper and tin foil? Or should the operating system market in Microsoft be broadened to include Apples operating system?

Facebook has generated a different kind of dispute, however, which is that the grouping of products it offers is not a market at all. A fundamental proposition of economics since the nineteenth century is that markets are made up of close substitutes. Competition occurs inside a market because it defines the range of a customers choices. For example, we say that three gasoline stations in a two-block area are in the same market. Customers can choose among them, so they must compete for that customers business. A station fifty miles away is not in the same market if it is not a realistic option, nor is a grocer that is nearby but does not sell gasoline.

The FTC claims that Facebook monopolizes a market for personal social networking services. That includes services that are quite dissimilar, however. For example, Facebook offers general messaging, two-party chatting, posting of photographs and videos, discussion boards, a marketplace and digital advertising, and even a kind of dating platform. Facebook moved to dismiss the case by stating that the FTC has not alleged a plausible relevant market. A similar issue is likely to arise in the Google antitrust case, as well as a potential future case against Amazon. To date, the lawsuits against Apple have focused mainly on its control of app sales through its Appstore.

So what binds Facebooks diverse assembly of products into a market? Facebooks individual services are clearly not close substitutes for one another. Further, many firms offer individual services that compete with one of Facebooks services. For many of these, Facebook is not the biggest. For example, it is not the biggest messaging app, platform for hosting photos or videos, or even digital advertising platform. This is also true of Amazon, which has less-than-dominant market shares in most of the individual products that it sells, save ebooks.

How do you identify monopoly if a firms business involves a large number of non-competing services that do not satisfy the traditional economic definition of a single market? Courts have wrestled with this problem before by developing a theory of cluster markets, which I explore in a new paper. Banks, hospitals, retailers, and even patent portfolios operate in a variety of markets and have more power than they would if each of their individual products or services were treated separately. The key is to identify situations in which clustering non-substitute products itself creates market power.

Banks, hospitals, retailers, and even patent portfolios operate in a variety of markets and have more power than they would if each of their individual products or services were treated separately.

Market power is measured by comparing a firms price to its costs. A competitive firm is forced to charge a price close to its costs, but a firm with market power can profit by charging more. Two phenomena of clustering can increase market power. First, economies of scope, or joint costs, can make it cheaper for a firm to offer multiple products in combination. Second, combining individual products can increase the value that customers place on the overall product. While reducing costs or creating value are both good things, here we are not condemning a firm for that reason, but only inquiring whether clustering accounts for its power. Then we might want to pursue other harmful practices that market power enables.

As an example of joint costs, it is cheaper for Uber to add UberEats to its existing drivers and dispatch software than it is for a new firm to offer food delivery services separately. If that is true, then a firm that offered the two services together would have higher margins of price over cost than two different firms that offered the services separately. We can then speak of the cluster of Uber rides and UberEats as a market even though these two services do not compete with one another. That is, a customer typically wants one or the other, but not both at the same time.

Alternatively, a firm can increase consumer value by combining complements, which are products that customers value more highly when they are used together. For example, being able to exchange messages and post photos or videos on the same platform might be more valuable than exchanging messages on one platform and posting pictures on another. The combination would attract a larger number of users, and the result would be that the firm could increase its advertising sales or other revenue producing activity.

A finding of increased market power would require not merely that the combination reduces costs or increases value, but also that attaining this status is something that others could not readily duplicate. This is where another feature of platforms, network externalities, comes in. Facebooks value accrues from its large variety of services offered on the same platform, plus the fact that it has a very large installed base, which is something that users also independently value. That is, the value of being on Facebook increases as the number of other people on Facebook (2.7 billion active users as of April 2021) grows, and also as the variety of services that Facebook offers is larger.

These facts suggest two things: first, Facebook can be a monopolist over a cluster of noncompeting products that do not fit the standard economic definition of a market. Second, however, they suggest caution about remedies: antitrust law should not be used to destroy the value resulting from a profitable design. That makes breakups a perilous remedy and suggests alternatives such as compelled interoperability, injunctions against anticompetitive conduct, or more aggressive prohibitions of mergers.

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Identifying the Market In the Facebook Antitrust Case - ProMarket

TALLINN, Estonia, April 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mobile applications have become an integral part of today's phones that contain multimedia features such as text/audio/video chats, group chats, message notifications, status updates, and media sharing. The average smartphone user spends 82 percent of his/her time on email communication, social interaction, and entertainment. Smartphones are an integral part of lives in the 21st century, with more than 3.5 billion mobile phone users worldwide.

Due to its characteristics, the use of mobile applications exceeds the use of social networking websites, with the most prominent applications being WhatsApp (with over a billion users), WeChat (with more than 900 million Chinese users), Facebook Messenger (over 1.3 billion users) and Viber (with 800 million registered users and 260 million active users).

However, it seems that today no communications and financial operations are private and safe anymore. Practically any mobile messaging application transfers our most private messages to the servers of the companies that operate them, where our text messages, photographs, audio, and video recordings and feed are processed, mined, and analyzed by advanced algorithms that have only one aim profiting the company at the expense of our most private moments, and more generally our lives.

Once we click the "record" or the "send" buttons, the contents are not within our control. Company employees can view and read them. AI can process them to offer us advertisements literally in every online channel, and data about us can be sold to other parties. Further, governments worldwide eavesdrop on our most private conversations as a part of the terms that allow mobile messaging companies to operate within their borders, and messaging in oppressive regimes can cost a person's freedom.

Mobile payments, money transfers, and shopping are not excluded from these types of privacy violations in most countries worldwide. Financial institutes are successfully hacked, and data are distributed online or sold through the Darknet. Uploading lists of credit card details and other payment methods to the Internet has become a norm. Banks are required to disclose any data on customers and transactions to/from their accounts should any government agency desire to receive them.

This description is not taken from a science fiction book. This is the reality in which we live, communicate and operate unsafely and with no privacy rights concerning our interpersonal communications and financial transfers.

Sappchat is a game-changer in the use of mobile apps. In Sappchat, we aspire to return to each individual worldwide the control over personal safety and privacy and, most importantly, the control over YOUR life.

Sappchat offers a complete, safe, and private ecosystem for your mobile communications and operations. Sappchat fully implements Blockchain technology and its bullet-proof encryption to ensure the complete privacy of users. Sappchat operates on the Sappchain a Blockchain decentralized and community-based platform, where all communications and financial transactions do not take place on a central hub but instead on a network operated by the community of its users and supporters.

Our mobile instant messaging includes end-to-end encryption of your text messages, photos, audio, and video communications. With Sappchat, no one (including us!) except you and the persons you call can eavesdrop and listen to your conversations. They remain completely safe and private between you and the receiver.

Sappchat also provides an easy and seamless solution for payments and financial transfers. As an integral part of our application, we offer a mobile decentralized exchange (mDEX). You convert any amount of our $APP token into any other cryptocurrency, make payments or transfer it to any other Sappchat user at a minimal cost and almost immediately, regardless of your and the other user's locations. At any time, recipients of the $APP token can convert it into another cryptocurrency of their choice or leave it in their wallets. Payments, in-border and cross-border transfers, and currency exchange have never been so easy!

Sappchat operates a DeFi that lets you profit from your cryptocurrency holdings 24/7. Once you approve it, the application connects the cryptocurrency balance in your wallet to borrowers to provide them with the necessary liquidity. In return, you will receive interest and principal payments for the amount borrowed. This way, your cryptocurrency assets can generate for you passive income at all times.

In addition to the communication and financial solutions, Sappchat also operates an online shop to acquire and sell NFTs. This service is fully integrated with our payment and cryptocurrency solutions, thereby providing you a complete platform for crypto s-commerce.

Sappchat provides a complete and comprehensive ecosystem that fulfills your needs from your mobile. Join today Sappchat's $APP Token Sale to make your communication, financial and personal exchanges better, safer, and completely private!

App token is the utility token for powering products and services within the Sappchat ecosystem.

To know more, visit their website at sappchat.com, twitter at https://twitter.com/SAPP_CHAT and join their telegram at https://t.me/joinchat/Tt5_WmcXtYrTdnJy

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SappChat: Providing Safe Communications and Financial Operations on the Blockchain - GlobeNewswire