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Is the Internet good for our well-being and our mental health?? We would be tempted to say no given the current discussions and numerous research already published on the subject. A recent study, reported in the scientific journal Nature, however goes against this idea.
Benefits similar to a walk in nature ?
This global survey was carried out over a period of 16 years out of 2.4 million people and it should therefore be taken seriously. Its findings are in many ways astounding, since researchers believe that Internet use has improved factors of well-being: life satisfaction, sense of purpose.
Concretely, the authors therefore collected data between 2006 and 2021 in 168 different countries. This is anything but a detail, because most research on the subject tends to focus a little too much on Anglo-Saxon states.
Overall, they note that people who have access to the Internet score 8% higher on measures of life satisfaction than those who do not have the Internet. We seem to have forgotten it, but online activities can allow you to learn new things or make friends, all beneficial effects that scientists are keen to point out. They compare this to the benefits of a walk in nature.
To qualify their remarks, however, the researchers cite the case of women aged 15 to 24. It seems that the latter are less satisfied with their use of the Internet. According to them, this is because they feel less welcome in their online activities and spend more time there.
Social networks singled out
Finally, note that the authors believe that further research is necessary to see if Internet use and well-being are causes or simple unrelated associations . To qualify the conclusions of this investigation, we can also mention the research of scientists from Sainte-Justine Hospital in Montreal who noted in 2019: « What we We have observed repeatedly is that the effects of social networks have been much greater than those of other types of digital screen”.
Thus, they noted that on social networks such as Instagram, young people are likely to compare their lives to those of other users who belong or pretend to belong to more advantaged social backgrounds, which can be disconcerting and sometimes saddening. We invite you to reread our article to find out more about this subject.
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