"That generation has not lived through anything like this." "I think that was a hard adjustment for a lot of them," Rosen says. Rosen says the increase among young people may be because many of these individuals had their lives disrupted in a way they never had before. The researchers say they are interested in continuing this study to better understand this pattern and why certain groups have suffered greater mental health problems during the pandemic despite most gravitating toward social media. The most significant increases were in females and 18- to 24-year-olds, regardless of sex. During the second wave in 2021, 89% of respondents said their social media usage had increased or stayed the same from the first wave. Twenty-five percent said it stayed the same as before the pandemic. During the first wave in 2020, 70% of respondents reported their social media use increased. The researchers found social media use increased in every demographic. The researchers developed a questionnaire and re-surveyed a portion of the original sample in April 2021. "People were using this in Spain to bond with their family and friends all day long, starting from virtual breakfast on video calls with family, to learning and testing new recipes virtually with other family members for dinner," Rosen says. The researchers found, overall, in Spain, people were using apps like WhatsApp to stay connected with friends and family, and social media like YouTube and Instagram to learn new skills and keep active. "Even though none of our interview questions directly addressed or asked about social media use, participants brought it up over and over again, so we decided to analyze the interviews and see what effect social media was having on people," Rosen says. This inspired the researchers to focus on looking at social media use during the COVID-19 lockdowns more closely. The qualitative portion of the study showed an interesting and recurring pattern in the interviews related to an increased use of social media. The researchers initially set out to study people's mental health during the lockdown in Spain in April 2020, including the aspect of social media use as an important element of everyday life. "We really need to develop stronger strategies and policies for a healthy social media use, among other aspects to help us to positively interact with each other when we cannot do it in person." "How social media is used can have impactful effects on mental health," Huedo-Medina says. The researchers' findings contrast many of the negative ways social media is typically used in the U.S., spreading misinformation and encouraging people to compare themselves to carefully selected and curated images of others, damaging their self-esteem and creating unrealistic expectations. They found social media use increased across all groups of Spanish adults as it served as a form of social support during a time when people were prohibited from seeing friends and family in-person, and from participating in their regular habits or hobbies for stress relief. candidate in the Department of Allied Health Sciences, and Tania Huedo-Medina, associate professor of biostatistics, share their findings about social media usage in Spain during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recently published study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Aviana Rosen a Ph.D.
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