Massive Study Finds Link Between High Screen Time and Unhappiness

“In a new analysis of 1 million U.S. teens, my co-authors and I looked at how teens were spending their free time and which activities correlated with happiness, and which didn’t… . In one experiment, people who were randomly assigned to give up Facebook for a week ended that time happier, less lonely and less depressed than those who continued to use Facebook.” IntellectualTakeout

Discussion

Maybe unhappy people escape more to screens? So which is cause and which is effect, if either? There’s a risk of post hoc ergo propter hoc in this kind of research. But it sounds like they did at least some controlling for that, to make the “link” more meaningful. Interesting study.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.