SOCIAL
Social media has become entrenched in most of our lives. But do we know enough about the psychological dangers it may pose to our health?
Social media is here to stay but do we understand its psychological dangers?
The term ‘shell shock’ was coined during the First World War to describe a psychological reaction to the intensity of the fighting that soldiers were witnessing. Symptoms included panic, fear and an inability to reason, sleep, walk or talk. A century on, shell shock is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder. We understand a lot more about it, but, perhaps because of the origins of its name, it’s still something that is associated with war.
But, while stories of PTSD among returning servicemen and women are expected, the causes of the disorder are many and varied. Childhood trauma, accidents and sexual assault are all common causes.
Alarmingly, an increasingly common trigger has become ever present in our lives, leaving all of us open to PTSD – social media.
In January, the BBC reported that Facebook and YouTube moderators, who often view hundreds of disturbing images a day, have been asked to sign forms confirming that they understood the job could cause PTSD.
The forms were sent by Accenture, a professional services company contracted by firms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter. A spokesperson said that the wellbeing of workers was a top priority. “We regularly update the information we give our people to ensure that they have a clear understanding of the work they do,” the Accenture spokesperson said in a statement.
The document made it clear to moderators that there were known mental heath risks associated with the role. It said: “I understand the content I will be reviewing may be disturbing. It is possible that reviewing such content may impact my mental health, and it could even lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”
Facebook has around 15,000 content moderators globally. They are employed by third parties to trawl through content that has been reported as inappropriate, violent, hateful or pornographic.
In December 2019, Chris Gray, a former Facebook moderator from Ireland, filed a lawsuit against the social media giant and CPL, the third party that had employed him. Gray claims that his work, which required him to review 1000 pieces of content a night, led to PTSD.
According to the court documents, there are some specific pieces of content that remain “particularly marked” in Gray’s memory. They include “a video in which a woman wearing an abaya is seen being stoned to death”, “a video in which persons, who appear to be migrants in Libya, are tortured with molten metal”, and “video footage of dogs being cooked alive”.
“It took me a year after I left to realise how much I’d been affected by the job. I don’t sleep well, I get in stupid arguments, have trouble focusing,” he told the Guardian.
Given the volume and intensity of the material that moderators like Gray are exposed to, it isn’t surprising that the mental health risks of the job are being flagged.
WHO IS AT RISK?
But what about the rest of us? Could stumbling across disturbing content on social media cause us to experience PTSD? According to the experts, the answer is ‘yes’.
Dr Pam Ramsden, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Bradford has been researching the psychological impact of social media for many years. In 2015 she led a study that found viewing violent news on social media can cause trauma.
During the study, 189 participants completed clinical assessments for PTSD, a personality questionnaire, a vicarious trauma assessment and a questionnaire concerning different violent news events on social media or the internet, including the 9/11 Twin Tower attacks, school shootings and suicide bombings.
Just under a quarter of the participants (22 per cent) were significantly affected by the media events, and scored highly on clinical measures of PTSD.
None of the these participants had previous trauma. They were not present at the traumatic events and had only watched them via social media. Ramsden said the results were worrying. “With increased access to social media and the internet via tablets and smartphones, we need to ensure that people are aware of the risks of viewing these images and that appropriate support is available for those who need it.”
More recently, Ramsden has extended her research with similar results. Her fear is that the issue seems to be getting worse as we engage more with social media.
“Although the elements existed previous to social media, they have become more complex and have increasingly higher levels of disturbing behaviour,” she tells MiNDFOOD.
Ramsden has been investigating why some people seem to be more at risk of social-media-induced PTSD than others.
“The answer appears to be personality types,” she says. “People with more nervous types of personalities are more prone to being disturbed by images of violence and trauma. An interesting element is that the more traumatising situations also involve some sort of personal connection. “I was looking at various elements and asked a question about a high-profile child murder. Only the people with children were affected. People who did not have children did not endorse this scenario as being overtly disturbing,” Ramsden explains.
Given the mounting awareness of PTSD among social media moderators, should platforms like Facebook be doing more to warn other users of the potential risks? Ramsden says that it’s complicated.
“Not everyone will get PTSD. It is difficult to determine who will and who won’t, so it’s difficult to determine the risks without researching these issues a bit more. There are many reasons why some people get PTSD and others don’t.”
Of course, it’s not just PTSD; social media can cause other types of psychological difficulties such as stress, anxiety, depression, aggression and social isolation.
During the Australian bushfire crisis, social media feeds were full of distressing images including burnt-out homes, bereft families and injured or dead animals.
Through the immediacy of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, even people who were safe from the carnage were overwhelmed with fear and anxiety.
Ayesha Hilton, a writer and business manager from Ballarat, Victoria was profoundly affected. “My whole Facebook news feed was full of posts about the fires,” she recalls.
“The sheer quantity of sad stories or photos of land burning and posts about the number of injured or dead animals was heart-wrenching.”
THE NEED TO DISENGAGE
Hilton found the social media coverage so stressful that she decided to disengage. “I took a social media detox and afterwards I only allowed myself to look at Facebook for five minutes a day,” she says.
“Limiting my social media exposure definitely helped me reduce the stress I had about the fires and the pain and suffering that it caused.”
She was far from alone, in fact, Hilton tells MiNDFOOD that many of her friends deleted social media apps altogether in order to protect their mental health.
Jocelyn Brewer is a psychologist and digital nutritionist. She says that in times of crisis, social media users are exposed to a huge volume of content, which can be quite overwhelming. The global COVID-19 pandemic is one such example of an ongoing, stress-inducing crisis.
“It can trigger the brain into the fight/flight/freeze response and fire up the emotional part of the brain. Some people might become compelled to try and consume as much as they can on a topic, keep up to date on what is happening via apps and hashtags and follow the story to its conclusion.”
It’s worth noting that when a big news event is ongoing, such as the bushfire crisis or the current pandemic, we can be exposed to stress and overwhelmed for extended periods of time. “It could be months, rather than days, like we see with other big news events.”
Brewer notes that people react in a number of ways. “Different people might have different responses to images or information they see on social media that they feel is distressing or upsetting,” she says.
“One aspect of this might be the way that the trauma or distressing information randomly pops up or is presented to them when scrolling social media – which might usually be a social and fun space with light, recreational content.”
Disturbingly, people who experience stress from social media are at risk of social media addiction.
A 2019 study published in Information Systems Journal found that social media users were seeking distraction and diversion within the Facebook platform as a coping mechanism for stress caused by the same platform, rather than switching off and undertaking a quite contrasting activity.
“Because social network sites (SNS) offer such a wide range of features, users can find they act both as stressors and as a distraction from that stress,” explains Assistant Professor Christian Maier, of the University of Bamberg.
He continues: “Even when users are stressed from SNS use, they are using the same platforms to cope with that stress, diverting themselves through other activities on the SNS, and ultimately building compulsive and excessive behaviour. As a result, they embed themselves in the social network environment rather than getting away from it, and an addiction is formed.”
So how do you know if your social media habit has become unhealthy?
Peta Sigley, co-founder of Springfox, a leading provider of evidence-based resilience programmes for individuals and organisations, says that there are several red flags.
“There are three common signs that social media is impacting negatively, she explains.
“Increased feelings of restlessness and worry, resulting in feeling hopeless or useless. Increased social isolation with less desire to connect with others face to face as feelings of guilt may also be present. And, increased stress levels resulting in trouble with sleep and increased difficulty with concentrating and staying present in other interactions.”
Sigley notes that the adverse effects of social media can impact anyone. However, she says that teenagers are particularly susceptible. “In our work with organisations from all sectors we are often approached by people who raise concern about their children looking for strategies on how to deal with the worrying behaviours they see playing out at home,” she adds.
While there are psychological dangers of social media, it can also be an enormous source of support and comfort. In March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic started to lock down New Zealand, Australia and the rest of the world, one woman saw an opportunity to spread kindness instead of fear.
At the time of writing, ‘The Kindness Pandemic’ Facebook group boasted more than 570,000 members. “So many people need acts of kindness right now; and so many others want to hear stories of kindness. Kindness won’t make COVID-19 go away, but it will make our lives easier and more rewarding,” says founder Catherine Barrett.
Perhaps it’s this sort of content that will serve to temper the negative effects of social media.
“THEY BECOME COMPELLED TO TRY AND CONSUME AS MUCH AS THEY CAN ON A TOPIC.” JOCELYN BREWER
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