posted in Technology
Study: Psychologists conclude that social media algorithms have a negative influence on users mental health
cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1365278/psychologists-say-that-social-media-algorithms-have-a-negative-influence-on-users-mental
news.utdallas.edu/health-medicine/social-media-algorithms-depression-2026/Replying to @beep@piefed.world
Why isn’t methodology discussed anymore? How were their conclusions reached? That was always a big part of newspaper reporting back before the internet. Methodology is important. Without it, conclusions are as useless as any other “polling” data. It may be in the linked article but I look to the post only for good, or incomplete, information. I don’t click on the links.
Replying to @melsaskca@lemmy.ca
You’re not wrong, but this is a press release from a university about research. They’re not going to dig into methodology when they want to toot their own horn.
Reading the abstract and introduction (full article is pay walled), it was a pilot study using EEG. Normally similar studies have participants self report using a survey. Sample size was 60 people which seems reasonable given they had to hook up each person to an EEG. Demographics are a bit skewed based on gender and age, but as a pilot, that probably isn’t that big of a deal.
I’m not seeing anything egregious, and it was published in a peer reviewed journal. I would treat this as a single data point and wait for other researchers to replicated it and prod at the methodology more.