How the Internet increases stress and worsens mental health

Tengrinews.kz - A new study involving more than 1 000 people has revealed the mechanism by which the Internet can negatively affect the psyche, according to Daily Mail.
Sound familiar to you: getting stuck in your social media feed, where one bad news story follows another? It’s called doomscrolling – the habit of searching for negative content on the internet, even if it ruins your mood.
Scientists from University College London (UCL) have found that people with unstable mental health are particularly susceptible to this. The result is that the feeling of depression increases, and it becomes increasingly difficult to break out of this vicious circle. The choice is yours: continue scrolling or take a break for yourself.
As part of the experiment, participants spent 30 minutes browsing the Internet, after which they took a second mental health test and shared their search history. The result was surprising: people with the worst mental health found the most sites with negative content.
To understand what comes first - a bad mood or a habit of consuming gloomy content, scientists conducted an additional experiment. They studied whether negative information increases depression or whether this state makes people choose such material. The results suggest that our behavior on the Internet not only reflects, but also shapes our mental health.

"Lots of people are saying that there is a correlation between poor mental health and internet use," said Tali Sharot, professor of cognitive neuroscience at UCL.

In the new experiment, participants were divided into two groups: some were shown more positive content, while others were shown sites with negative themes. The result was predictable: those who read negative content continued to search for more and more depressing content. This once again proves that what we choose to read directly affects our mood and mental state.
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