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BBC: People spending even more time online now than during the pandemic. “UK adults spent over half an hour longer online every day in 2025 than they did during the pandemic, according to an annual survey of internet habits by the regulator Ofcom. The Online Nation report found on average, people in the UK spent four hours and 30 minutes online every day in 2025 – 31 minutes longer than in […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/12/11/bbc-people-spending-even-more-time-online-now-than-during-the-pandemic/

PsyPost: Higher social media engagement linked to reduced performance on cognitive assessments. “A new analysis of data from a long-term national health study suggests that early adolescents who increase their social media usage over time may score lower on certain tests of brain function. The research indicates that even moderate engagement with these platforms is linked to slight declines in […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/12/03/psypost-higher-social-media-engagement-linked-to-reduced-performance-on-cognitive-assessments/

Pew (PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!): Americans’ Social Media Use 2025. “YouTube and Facebook remain the most widely used online platforms. The vast majority of U.S. adults (84%) say they ever use YouTube. Most Americans (71%) also report using Facebook. These findings are according to a Pew Research Center survey of 5,022 U.S. adults conducted Feb. 5-June 18, 2025.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/11/21/pew-americans-social-media-use-2025/

PsyPost: Problematic social media use linked to loneliness and death anxiety. “A study of adult social media users in Italy suggested that loneliness and death anxiety might mediate the relationship between attachment anxiety and problematic social media use. The paper was published in Death Studies.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/11/03/psypost-problematic-social-media-use-linked-to-loneliness-and-death-anxiety/

CITP Blog: Our class spent 10-days self-experimenting with social media use: here’s what we found . “All 45 students in our class designed and conducted a ten-day intervention aimed at changing their social media habits and pre-registered a hypothesis for how the intervention would impact their behavior and mood. Here, we summarize what students tried and what they learned.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/10/12/our-class-spent-10-days-self-experimenting-with-social-media-use-heres-what-we-found-citp-blog/

Anderegg: Why is the Online Safety Act causing Bluesky user growth?. “Over the past few days, Bluesky has had accelerated user growth. This happened at the same time as the UK’s Online Safety Act came into effect. I don’t know exactly why this is the case, but I have some ideas.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/05/anderegg-why-is-the-online-safety-act-causing-bluesky-user-growth/

Search Engine Land: Google still leads, but Gen Z and AI are reshaping search behavior: Survey. “Searching is no longer synonymous with ‘Googling.’ While traditional search engines still dominate for information retrieval, Americans are also turning to social media, AI tools, and ecommerce platforms, depending on what they’re searching for and who they are.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/05/google-still-leads-but-gen-z-and-ai-are-reshaping-search-behavior-survey-search-engine-land/

Ars Technica: Belief in fake news linked to problematic social media use. “It’s not yet deemed a clinical addiction, but [problematic social media use (PSMU)] does share some symptoms with addiction and substance abuse disorders. And according to a new paper published in the journal PLoS ONE, someone who exhibits PSMU is also more likely to believe in—and share—fake news online, […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/12/ars-technica-belief-in-fake-news-linked-to-problematic-social-media-use/

Iowa State University: Detecting depression using digital traces on social media. “Social media is a sounding board of sorts in today’s world. It’s a place where people go to share their thoughts, opinions and feelings – and to test the reactions of others, too. In return, they receive feedback, often in real-time, as well as support and validation. For some individuals, sharing […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/10/iowa-state-university-detecting-depression-using-digital-traces-on-social-media/

University of Bristol: Social media platform tailoring could support more fulfilling use, study finds . “The study, presented today at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Yokohama, Japan, suggests that the key to a having a positive experience online is finding the right level of personal investment – neither too much nor too little. Conducted by researchers examining […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/08/university-of-bristol-social-media-platform-tailoring-could-support-more-fulfilling-use-study-finds/

University of Cambridge: Adolescents with mental health conditions use social media differently than their peers, study suggests. “Young people with a diagnosable mental health condition report differences in their experiences of social media compared to those without a condition, including greater dissatisfaction with online friend counts and more time spent on social media sites. This is […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/06/university-of-cambridge-adolescents-with-mental-health-conditions-use-social-media-differently-than-their-peers-study-suggests/

Northeastern Global News: Is social media making you more irritable? New research takes a granular look at users’ moods . “A study, published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that social media use is correlated with higher rates of irritability among a broad swath of U.S. adults.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/03/14/northeastern-global-news-is-social-media-making-you-more-irritable-new-research-takes-a-granular-look-at-users-moods/

UNC: What is social media’s effect on mental health?. “The COVID-19 pandemic had an unprecedented effect on college students’ mental health: symptoms like anxiety and major depression in young adults ages 18-25 increased significantly compared to before the pandemic. A 2024 study from researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill looks at a possible contributing factor to the worsening trends in […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/02/09/unc-what-is-social-medias-effect-on-mental-health/

It’s about creating space in your life where you can reconnect with yourself and the world around you without the constant hum of digital noise.

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