Using social media can help prevent depression: study

TIANJIN -- Using social media may help prevent or reduce the symptoms of depression among middle-aged and elderly people, according to a Chinese study published in the international Translational Psychiatry journal. During the same period, they also evaluated whether social media use, including the use of online chat, gaming and shopping platforms, could help alleviate symptoms of depression among the 5,302 surveyed individuals who reported such symptoms in 2018. Among respondents who initially reported no symptoms of depression, engaging in social media activities was associated with a 24 percent lower likelihood of developing such symptoms. Among respondents who had reported symptoms in 2018, those who engaged in three or more out of the seven measured social media activities -- chatting, reading the news, watching videos, playing games, mobile payments, using WeChat and posting WeChat moments -- over the two-year period were 1.24 times more likely to revert to a non-depressive state compared to those who did not use social media.