Does Social Networking Make Us Bad People?

Lately, it seems that every time you turn on the TV, you’re met with yet another news story on how the rise of social networking sites is changing us as a culture – and not for the better!

But is there any merit to these ideas?  Are we slowly evolving into self-involved, narcissistic shlubs, as the news media would have us believe?  And if this is the case, what do these accusations mean for web businesses that use social networking as a key part of their business models?

To determine whether or not we have cause for concern, let’s look at the actual data…

For starters, it’s important to point out – as PsychCentral did in the wake of a particularly inflammatory article decrying social networking on CBS – that there are significant limitations to the current body of social networking research.  Because social media is a relatively new phenomenon, there hasn’t yet been time to conduct the kind of long-term studies necessary to draw any real conclusions about the impact of social networking on our culture.  And to date, the research that has been done is typically small in scale and not necessarily applicable to a wider population.

To illustrate this concept, let’s look at the article, “Facebook tied to poor mental health in teens: What parents must know”, which ran on the CBS News website on August 9^th, 2011.  The article, which was based off of research shared at the 2011 American Psychological Association (APA) annual convention, leads off with the following text:

“Is Facebook turning teens into narcissistic, antisocial outcasts?  One leading social network researcher says yes.”

The article then goes on to describe a number of different maladies that have been attributed to social networking by scientific studies, including anxiety, depression, mania, lower test scores and narcissistic behavior.  Certainly, if you were the parent of a teen or a heavy social media user yourself, the text of this article would be cause for concern.

But hold on for a second – is it possible that we aren’t hearing the full story?  Dr. John Grohol, reporting about the CBS article on PsychCentral, says yes.

“Absent from all of the news reporting is context, as usual. So-called journalists simply take what is said at the conference or in the APA press release, consider it factual, and report on it accordingly.”

In his article, Dr. Grohol goes on to describe the circumstances under which each study used to draw the conclusions of the APA press release in question.  For example, the CBS article describes the negative mental health effects of social networking as including, “more aggression, mania, anxiety, and depression.”  And while the CBS article frames these ill effects as far reaching, the actual evidence may not support this conclusion.

According to Dr. Grohol, the only scientific study that has shown a correlation between heavy social media usage and negative mental health effects in teens and young adults was carried out on a very limited sample of only 70 students attending Assumption College (a small Catholic college in the Northeast US).

Now, there are a couple of important things to point out about this particular, the first of which is that correlation does not equal causation.  Just because researchers noticed a higher incidence of mental illness in heavy social networking users doesn’t mean that it was the use of social media sites that specifically caused the mental health issues that were observed.  In fact, as Dr. Grohol notes, it’s entirely possible that social networking users with existing mental illnesses are drawn to use social media sites more frequently as an alternative to in-person interactions.

It’s also important to note that the sample used in this study is very small and not nearly a good enough representation of social networking users as a whole to draw the conclusions made in the CBS article.  Seventy people is hardly a large enough body to predict the effects of social networking on every teen and young adult, and the experiences of a small group of private college students certainly wouldn’t translate to older users, the elderly or even high school social media users.

In addition, as Dr. Grohol points out, the CBS article leaves out the results of one of the largest studies of social networking usage to date, perhaps because its conclusions didn’t fit the neat narrative designed to attract readers to the CBS news website.

“In a large study conducted on 2,603 undergraduate college students in Texas, researchers found a positive relationship between the intensity of Facebook use and students’ life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement and political participation (Valenzuela et al., 2009).”

So what conclusions can we, as web business owners, draw from this discussion of whether or not increased social networking usage is negatively affecting us?

First, we can unanimously agree to ignore the opinions put forth as fact in these link-bait news articles.  No matter how the scientific studies are twisted to prove a point, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Facebook recently surpassed the 500^th million registered user, or that Google+ filled its first 10 million slots within a few days of opening to the public.  Social media is here, and it isn’t going away any time soon.

It’s also important to keep in mind that social networking sites can be a powerful tool for good.  As Dr. Grohol points out, the elderly population – often thought of as being ill-informed when it comes to technological advances – are taking to social networking sites at a surprising pace, perhaps because these tools enable them to connect with friends and loved ones at a time when physical conditions may prevent these interactions from occurring face-to-face.

Social networking sites have been used to increase awareness for charitable causes, raise money and encourage interactions between vastly different socioeconomic groups.  And despite the larger role social networking sites play in our lives and what the news media would have you believe about this development, our society hasn’t completely shut down as a result of brain-washed social media users.

Consider this final quote by Dr. Grohol:

“There is little proof that using Facebook and other social networking websites like it cause significant or meaningful health or mental health problems in the vast majority of teens or kids who use them.”

So at this point, the way forward is clear.  It would be foolish to abstain from social media marketing based on the results of a few small scientific studies and lose out on all the benefits this channel has to offer.  So as long as social networking is used in a responsible, ethical way, there’s no reason it can’t – and shouldn’t – continue to play a hugely beneficial role in increasing brand awareness and disseminating information for your company.