Canadian scientists from the University of Toronto studied the impact of businessman Elon Musk’s social network X (formerly Twitter) on the psyche of users. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Communication Psychology (CommPsy).
Although X lags behind platforms like TikTok in reaching a global audience, its role in shaping public opinion is significant, especially among opinion leaders in entertainment, journalism and politics. Access to X in Russia is limited by Roskomnadzor in 2022.
To analyze the psychological effects of using X, researchers recruited 252 people who accessed the social network at least twice a week. Data was collected between March and June 2021.
Participants answered surveys five times a day for a week. Questions about user activities on the platform. Volunteers’ responses allowed us to assess the quality of the experience people had using the service.
The data showed that using X generally reduced people’s sense of well-being or, more simply, put them in a bad mood. It was also revealed that staying on the platform for a long time caused people to get bored and feel lonely.
The researchers also noted a slight increase in emotional polarization, meaning people’s increased willingness to oppose groups that do not share their political and other views. However, consuming content from X also increased people’s feelings of anger.
Among the positive effects, the experiment discovered that people’s sense of belonging increased when they actively used X by posting posts and participating in discussions.
“An important finding of our study was the potential association between X use and some adverse outcomes,” said Victoria Oldemburgo de Mello, lead author of the study.
Previous scientists to create The relationship between smartphone use and loneliness.