Spending too much time online is often portrayed as something to avoid, but research suggests that internet use is associated with greater well-being in people around the world. The potential impact of the internet, and social media in particular, on well-being has become a matter of intense debate.
According to Professor Andrew Przybylski, from the University of Oxford, co-author of the work, his analysis is the first to test whether internet access, mobile internet access and regular internet use are related to well-being in people. global level.
Przybylski also said that previous findings have been limited by poorly conducted studies, a focus on North America and Europe, and research that primarily looks at concerns about this technology, particularly regarding young people.
Published in the journal Technology, Mind and Behavior, the study describes how Przybylski and Dr. Matti Vuorre of Tilburg University in the Netherlands analyzed data collected through interviews involving around 1,000 people every year from 168 countries, as part of Gallup World Poll.
Participants were asked about their internet access and use, as well as eight different measures of well-being, such as life satisfaction, social life, purpose in life and feelings of community well-being. The team analyzed data from 2006 to 2021, covering about 2.4 million participants aged 15 and over.
The researchers employed more than 33,000 statistical models, allowing them to explore several possible associations, taking into account factors that could influence them, such as income, education, health problems and relationship status.
The results reveal that internet access and mobile internet access and use generally predicted higher measures of different aspects of well-being, with 84.9% of associations between internet connectivity and well-being being positive, 0.4 % negative and 14.7% not statistically significant.
The study was unable to prove cause and effect, but the team found that measures of life satisfaction were 8.5% higher for those who had access to the internet. The study also did not analyze the time people spent using the internet. internet or what they used it for, although some factors that could explain the associations may not have been considered.
Przybylski highlighted that it was important that technology policy was evidence-based and that the impact of any intervention was monitored.
Shweta Singh, assistant professor of Information and Management Systems at the University of Warwick, who was not involved in the study, said there was no safe internet or harmless social media yet.
“As much as I would like to agree with these findings and really want them to be true to their entirety, unfortunately there is counter-evidence and arguments that suggest that this is not necessarily the case,” she said, noting reports that cases of “sextortion” in Canada has reached a new high, with teenagers particularly affected.
Professor Simeon Yates, from the University of Liverpool, said there was a lot of focus on online harms, but there were also benefits, although there were more differences in both than the latest study was able to capture.
*With information from The Guardian/Cover photo: iStock
Follow Adnews on Instagram e LinkedIn. #WhereTransformationHappens
