'It's as if we are not there'

Qiu Yonghong said her 17-year-old son is a social media addict, and that's led to serious strains between the parents and the child.

"My son goes directly to the computer in his room when he gets home after school. Except for meals, he doesn't walk out of the door. I really want to know about his school life, but I don't know what to do," said the 42-year-old from Shenzhen in Guangdong province.

Once, the high school senior told his father in front of the whole family, "I have nothing to share with you", a statement that embarrassed and upset his parents.

"We know that he plays online games, has a girlfriend and uses WeChat and Weibo, but he seldom talks to us. He never stops looking at his smartphone during meals - it's as if we are not there at all. We want to know about his world, but everything we have tried has been in vain. I registered a WeChat account to see what he posts and know more about him, but he blocked all of us," said Qiu.

Zhu explained that addicts become so used to expressing themselves in virtual space, that their real-life communication skills may become passive and they may feel uneasy during face-to-face conversations.

In addition, social media also influences mental health, according to Zhu, who said that memory and attention spans are changing as a result. He cited academic research showing that the average attention span of US citizens dropped to eight seconds in 2012 from 12 in 2000. That decline suggests people are switching the focus of their attention more rapidly. Moreover, in a small number of Internet addicts, some regions of the brain - often those associated with speech, memory, and the control of movement and emotions - can be 10 to 20 percent smaller than usual.

Research conducted in 2012 by a team led by Larry D. Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University, found that young people checked their smartphones every 15 minutes or less, sleeping with them next to the bed, disrupting their sleep (which is when the brain cements learning from the day), and become highly anxious if they can't check in as often as they wish.

High anxiety

"We performed a study with 163 college students, mostly aged 19 to 24, where we took away their phones and measured their anxiety levels. If they only used their phones sparingly during a typical day they didn't become anxious during a 60-minute test in which they were not allowed to use them. However, if they were heavy smartphone users they got progressively more anxious as time went on without their devices, ending up highly anxious after one hour," said Rosen.

"If heavy smartphone users are checking their phones every 15 minutes or less, and feeling anxious if they cannot 'check in' with their social media and electronic communications such as text messages and e-mail, it means that they are doing so because of a build-up of neurotransmitters in the brain that signal anxiety."

"In the long run, this is not healthy for the brain as these neurotransmitters have a negative impact on the body, including excessive sweating, a queasy stomach and other signs of anxiety that are not a problem if infrequent, but become a psychological problem if they occur often," he explained.

Rosen and his team also found that social media use can "predict" symptoms of certain psychiatric disorders, such as mania or narcissism. By contrast, having a large number of social media "friends" suggests fewer symptoms of depression.

"So it can help and harm at the same time," he said.

Rosen's team found that there are three different types of Facebook usage: General usage; impression formation (using it to post about oneself, post personal pictures or make personal comments); and friendships. Having a large number of Facebook friends was seen as a predictor of fewer symptoms of depression (both mild and major) when allied with talking more on the phone.

Although there is no way to tell whether the social media were responsible, researchers factored out many other possible explanations and concluded that having a wide circle of social media friends and talking on the phone to friends can help people deal with feelings of depression.

"We feel that this is because social media provides 24/7 access to people with whom you can talk (as well as talking on the telephone) and that allows you to get help when you are feeling depressed," said Rosen.

On the negative side, they found similar results for some disorders - mania, narcissism, antisocial personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and histrionic personality disorder. Those who spent large amounts of time on Facebook and also posted a large number of photos and comments showed more symptoms of these disorders, most of which are anxiety-based.

However, it's difficult, if not impossible, to tell if being narcissistic leads one to use Facebook more, or vice-versa.

"Many researchers are arguing about this in their research. I prefer to believe the studies by Campbell and Twenge (Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, authors of The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement) which found a steadily increasing trend of narcissism among college students as we have adopted more social media," Rosen said.

'Facebook depression'

In recent years, an increasing number of researchers have spoken of a phenomenon called "Facebook depression". Rosen said the term was coined to indicate that everybody writes positive comments on Facebook and, in comparison, our lives look less interesting and we become sadder and more depressed.

One of the latest studies, published in August, was conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan; 82 participants were tracked for two weeks and the researchers concluded that people spent more time on Facebook when they were feeling lonely and that using the site can reduce young adults' sense of well-being and satisfaction with life.

"I have yet to see a solid study on this topic, although researchers are examining 'Facebook depression'. The Michigan study is a start, although it was a small-scale study with only 82 subjects. It did show that use of Facebook predicted lowered subjective feelings but these were measured only with a few short questions and need to be replicated to show that they are valid results," said Rosen.

A report on the BBC's website quoted the Michigan researchers as saying: "On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection. Rather than enhancing well-being, however, these findings suggest that Facebook may undermine it".

Contact the author at yangyangs@chinadaily.com.cn