Right, came here to ask if anyone had read the paper and looked at the correlation / causation methodology.
Because another obvious hypothesis is that social media causes some kind of fight-or-flight response in people that triggers inflammation.
Because another obvious hypothesis is that social media causes some kind of fight-or-flight response in people that triggers inflammation.
> Providing stronger evidence of the directionality of this effect, Study 3 (N = 171) showed that in college students CRP predicted increased social media use in the subsequent week even after controlling for current week’s use.
The basic methodology for this part is:
* Blood sample (measured for CRP)
* 1 week later: survey on social media use (participants using Screen Time app to objectively measure their activity)
* 1 week after that: survey on social media use again
Then they ran some regression analyses.
I didn't see anything here that rules out the alternative possible explanation: college students who use social media more are more stressed out as a result of their social media use.
Like gambling to thrill seek because of stress from overdue bills.
(super meta: I am tired and uncomfortable and am spending stupid amounts of time reading reddit/HN)