[impure]

I was reading up on some RCTs on social media and mental health recently and one of the surprising findings is that social media is actually worse for older people.

[krackers]

That makes sense, they haven't "built immunity".

[tietjens]

Can you share some things you were reading?

[alwa]

Not OP, and I’ve been looking at more meta-analyses than RCTs, but:

* Lei et al 2024 metaanalysis, generally positive associations but no causal evidence for psychosocial effects, especially when the social media use is family-directed - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-psycho...

* Balki et al 2022, metaanalysis, same thing: good for reinforcing existing real-human social connections, overcoming barriers to/increasing regularity and frequency of contact, acquiring access to resources; isolating to use outside that context; regular and frequent contact much more effective than occasional or episodic: https://aging.jmir.org/2022/4/e40125/

My overall impression seems to be what common sense tells us: to the extent it lets you overcome aging-related obstacles to interacting with real people, great; to the extent it’s brain rot, it’s isolating.

[impure]

This is the one I read: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266656032... which says how older participants benefit more from restricting social media use.