In a new study, researchers found the rate of reported depressive symptoms that are likely to require treatment has more than doubled by the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic among those who most often share pictures or videos of themselves on social media.
In the study, social media use, self-representation habits, and mental health status were assessed using a three-step online questionnaire survey.
According to the results, time spent on social media and willingness to share self-representative content have both increased during the COVID-19 pandemic waves.
They are associated with a higher and growing risk of major depressive disorder among the most active sharers.
The team says the trend measured during the first and second waves intensified further by the third wave.
Former results have already shown that the use of social media and the willingness to publish self-representative photos and videos have strongly increased compared to the pre-epidemic period.
In the study, the team found for those who sent pictures and videos of themselves or their close relations at least once a day during the first wave on Messenger, the proportion of people at risk of depression was 19% then, meanwhile, it was 16% in the overall sample.
During the second wave, a significant increase was already observed, with two-fifths of daily sharers showing signs of major depressive disorder, compared with a quarter of all participants.
And during the third wave, 45% of daily sharers reported symptoms of depressive disorder, compared to 27% of the total sample.
The fact that more than a quarter of the total sample and almost half of those who share self-representative content at least daily have reported depressive symptoms during the third pandemic wave demonstrates that it would be worthwhile to treat the negative impact of the pandemic and the restrictive measures that have become necessary on mental health as a priority public health issue.
In addition, it would be useful to draw attention to the importance of conscious use of social media.
If you care about mental health, please read studies about blood pressure drugs that could help reduce depression, and taking this supplement once a day may reduce anxiety.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about key mental abilities that can be improved when we get older, and results showing that common drugs for inflammation, depression, alcoholism may treat COVID-19.
The study is published in The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social and Community Studies and was conducted by Alexandra Valéria Sándor et al.
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