研究：社交網絡有害身心健康

Tallulah Wilson was just 15 years old when she took her own life back in October 2012. The gifted ballerina had been receiving treatment for clinical depression, but whilst creating an online fantasy of a cocaine-taking character, she began to share self-harm images on social networking site, Tumblr.

Shortly after her mother discovered Tallulah’s account and had it shut down, the teenager jumped in front of a train at St. Pancras station in London.

Back in 2002, Tim Piper killed himself at the age of 17. Following his struggle with depression, the student embarked on an online search for advice on how to commit suicide – later hanging himself in his bedroom.

While there are several reasons for using social networking, it appears that its main function is for increased contact with friends and family along with increased engagement in social activities. However, research has shown that young adults with a strong Facebook presence were more likely to exhibit narcissistic antisocial behavior; while excessive use of social media was found to be strongly linked to underachievement at school.

So if you take roughly 1.2 billion Facebook users and 450 million people suffering from mental disorders, what do you get? A global pandemic that’s showing no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

Cyberbullying is still on the rise

Amanda Todd, 15, committed suicide in 2012 after undergoing years of cyberbullying.

Quoting statistics from the Pew Research Center and the World Health Organization respectively, it’s frightening just how high these figures are – especially when you take into account the terrifying growth of online bullying.

Earlier this year, British charity ChildLine found cyberbullying to be on the rise; with children reporting 4,507 cases of cyberbullying in 2012-13 compared to 2,410 in 2011-12.

Why the increase? It appears that somewhere along the way, the privileges of social networking have been abused – both in terms of its meaning, as well as its victims.

It was back around the 2005 mark that the technorati heralded the dawn of social media; reaping the benefits of adopting real-time communication via a digital platform. Embracing unfamiliar terminology as well as transforming the landscape upon which standard norms of interaction were practised, suddenly choosing the appropriate profile picture became a first world problem whilst others agonised over which hashtags best summed up their tweets.

Yet there were much more pressing issues that over time would manifest into the difficulties we’ve only just started to speak up about today. This year marked the world’s first ever #TimetoTalk Day, where for 24 hours on February 6, 2014, people were encouraged to start conversations regarding mental health in a bid to end the discrimination against mental illnesses.

Though while this is one instance where social media can be seen as positive in the case of mental health, there have been many other situations where social networking has not been such a good thing.

The effects of social networks on mental illnesses

A matter of contention prevalent within the media, several studies have shown that social networking – Facebook in particular – can have detrimental effects on our wellbeing. Researchers from the University of Michigan assessed Facebook usage over a fortnight and found that the more people that used it, the more negativity they experienced concerning their day-to-day activities; as well as over time, incurring higher levels of dissatisfaction with their life overall.

Meanwhile, a blog published on Everyday Mindfulness uncovered a fascinating concept known as the ‘discrepancy monitor’; “a process that continually monitors and evaluates our self and our current situation against a gold standard.”

In a nutshell, we evaluate our own experiences against what we believe our experiences should be. But when comparing our own circumstances against that of Facebook, we become our own worst enemy – as the digital persona portrayed on this social network only highlights the ‘best bits’ from our short Facebook timeline, in stark contrast to our entire life’s work.

Need any more proof on just how damaging social media can be? Look to , America’s largest not-for-profit for the younger generation and social change. Its 9 Ways Technology Affects Mental Health article brings to light several afflictions social media has on mental health, including depression, isolation, insecurity and more recently, FOMO, also known as “Fear Of Missing Out.”

Prevent social media addiction

The peer pressure to remain always connected – coupled with the 24/7 accessibility that mobile media provides – means that there’s always more than one resource available for users to get their digital fix; which unfortunately leads to the biggest demon of all: Addiction.

While there’s a multitude of self-help guides preaching their own best practices for handling the negative aspects of social media, the resolution begins with learning to use social media when appropriate and remembering that health is wealth – physically, as well as mentally.2012年10月，年僅15歲的塔盧拉•威爾遜（Tallulah Wilson）結束了自己的生命。這位極具天賦的芭蕾舞演員已經接受了一段時間的臨牀抑鬱症治療，但與此同時，她在網上扮演了一個吸食可卡因的虛幻角色，並開始在社交網絡微博客（Tumblr）上分享自殘圖片。

在塔盧拉的媽媽發現並註銷了她的帳號之後沒多久，這名少女就在倫敦聖•潘克拉斯火車站跳進火車鐵軌自殺了。

早在2002年，年僅17歲的蒂姆•派伯（Tim Piper）自殺而亡。在他與抑鬱症鬥爭未果之後，這名學生開始在網上搜索自殺方法的建議，之後便選擇在臥室上吊自殺。

使用社交網絡的原因有很多，不過其最主要的功能似乎是通過更多地參與社交活動來加強與朋友和親人的聯繫。然而，相關研究顯示，經常光顧臉譜網的年輕人更容易有自戀的反社會行爲；研究還發現，學生對社交媒體的過度使用與學習成績不良有很大的關係。

所以如果你粗略地將12億臉書使用者和4億5千萬精神病患者聯繫在一起，你會發現什麼？這是一場全球流行的“網絡瘟疫”，並且近期內沒有絲毫減少的跡象。

網絡欺凌現象仍在增多

2012年，15歲的阿曼達•託德（Amanda Todd）在忍受了多年網絡欺凌之後選擇自殺。

根據皮尤研究中心和世界衛生組織各自的調查數據，網絡欺凌現象的數量多得讓人可怕，其增加的速度尤其讓人毛骨悚然。

今年早些時候，英國慈善機構“兒童熱線”發現網上欺凌現象不斷增多，2011至2012年所報道的網上欺凌案件數量僅有2410例，而在2012至2013年這一數字增長到了4507例。

爲什麼一年之內增長了這麼多？似乎是因爲這一年來，由於社交網絡的特權被濫用，其受害者被他人虐待。

在2005年這個標誌性的一年，搜索引擎Technorati的使用迎來了社交媒體的曙光，人們藉助數字平臺進行實時通信並從中獲益。人類開始擁抱陌生的技術，改變原來社交平臺上的標準和規範。好像一夜之間，挑選合適的圖片作爲頭像成了世界第一難題；另外一些人糾結用哪個標籤最能概括他們的推特風格。

但是隨着時間流逝，有越來越多嚴峻的問題出現了，而我們現在纔剛剛開始談論它們。今年標誌着世界第一個“交流日（Time to Talk Day）”產生，2月6日那一整天人們都被鼓勵針對精神健康問題討論，爲終結對精神病患者的歧視而展開對話。

儘管對於精神正常的人來說社交媒體可能是積極的所在，但這只是其中一種情況；在很多其他情況下，社交網絡並不是個好東西。

社交網絡對精神疾病的影響

在社交媒體中普遍存在一些爭議，很多研究表明社交網絡，特別是臉譜，對我們的身心健康有害。密歇根大學的研究者在對臉譜爲期兩個星期的調查中發現，人們越使用它就越會對自己日常生活感到消極。隨着時間流逝，也會激發對生活總體的較高程度的不滿。

與此同時，在Everyday Mindfulness發表的一篇博文中揭示了一個引人注意的概念——差異監控。這是一個爲對抗黃金準則而持續觀測和評估我們自己以及我們現況的過程。

簡而言之，我們評估自己的經歷來對抗我們原本相信的經驗。但是當我們拿自己的經歷和臉譜網上呈現的經歷相比較時，我們成了自己最不利的敵人。因爲我們在社交網絡上所扮演的數字虛擬形象僅僅強調了我們在使用臉譜網的短暫時期內的“最佳二進數位”，這與我們整個的生活、工作大相徑庭。

現在還需要更多證據來說明社交媒體帶來的災難嗎？那就請訪問美國爲青少年和社會變化而建的最大的公益網站。在一篇名爲9 Ways Technology Affects Mental Health（科技影響精神健康的9大方面）的文章裏，作者揭露了社交媒體給人類精神健康帶來的苦難，包括抑鬱、孤獨、不安全感和最近出現的社交控，即忙於眼前事的時候害怕錯過更精彩的事。

防止社交媒體成癮

來自經常聯繫的同伴的壓力，外加上手機媒體每天24小時提供的社交渠道，意味着使用者通常會專心於不止一種數字資源，這很不幸地會導致社交網絡成癮這一萬惡之首。

當一大批自助嚮導將他們自己處理社交媒體消極影響的經驗方法講述出來時，人們開始下決心適當地使用社交媒體，並牢記健康就是財富，不論是身體健康還是心理健康。