Study Finds Social Media — When Used to Truly Connect — Can Improve Mental Health

Back in their infancy, social media platforms used to feel like your friendly neighborhood corner pub where everyone knew your name… probably because they actually did. This was back in the day when you actually knew all the people you had ‘friended’ or followed, when no one knew the term “influencer” and the most scandalous feature of Facebook was the poke. Logging on, you’d see whose birthday it was and what old friends from school popped up with requests to reconnect with you. Your feed was filled with your cousin posting pics of her holiday trip, your old uni roommate sharing the news of his new baby, dozens of friends, family and acquaintances posting well wishes on your wall when it was your birthday. Seems all rather quaint now, doesn’t it?

Now logging on to mainstream social media feels like walking through an apocalyptic Times Square where everyone is shouting at you or trying to flog you something. It’s a virtual minefield of political opinions and conspiracy theories flooding your feed in ALL CAPS, multi-level marketing schemes trying to hook you in, heavily filtered influencer #sponcon trying to sell weight loss teas, fake news to rile you up, trolls to drag you down — there’s just so much noise now, its unbearable.

What happened to the friendly faces, the people who matter to you? Have their updates and photos even cleared the hurdle of the ever-changing algorithm that allows them to show up in your feed? Instead of getting an update on the real lives of your actual friends, your feed is inundated with brand and influencer content — heavily photoshopped images portraying a fantasy lifestyle that has little to do with reality. Images that just promote comparison and provoke FOMO (fear of missing out).

Social Media and Mental Health Studies

With all that distracting noise, is it any wonder that study upon study seems to correlate the time we spend on traditional social platforms like Facebook and Instagram with worsening mental health?

Here are just just a few examples: One study of 5,208 people published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that overall, regular use of Facebook had a negative impact on an individual’s wellbeing. A survey of more than 1000 18- to 24-year-olds in the US reported that 41% of them felt anxious, sad, or depressed after using social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. While a study out of University of Copenhagen found people who admit to suffering from “Facebook Envy” reported immediately feeling higher levels of life satisfaction and well-being after quitting Facebook for just one week.

How Social Media Can Boost Your Mental Health if Used Intentionally

However some new, surprising, findings out of a new Harvard University study show social media can actually be beneficial to your health if it’s used in an intentional way: to connect and strengthen relationships, rather than mindlessly scroll.

Study author Mesfin Awoke Bekalu, a research scientist in the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health says, “The findings go against what some might expect, which is intriguing. We know that having a strong social network is associated with positive mental health and well-being. Routine social media use may compensate for diminishing face-to-face social interactions in people’s busy lives. Social media may provide individuals with a platform that overcomes barriers of distance and time, allowing them to connect and reconnect with others and thereby expand and strengthen their in-person networks and interactions. Indeed, there is some empirical evidence supporting this.

Our findings suggest that the ways that people are using social media may have more of an impact on their mental health and well-being than just the frequency and duration of their use.”

Gen Z seems to agree, the same survey of 1000 that found 41 % of them reported feeling anxious or sad after using Facebook, also found that 71% said social media had a positive impact on their relationships and 66% said social media made it easier to connect to people.

Especially in an age where we don’t get to see many of our friends and family in person as much as we’d like, social media can be a lifeline to staying close to the ones we care about most.

So how do we reap the benefits of social media without subjecting ourselves to the more shouty and unsavoury bits? Is there a quieter corner of the internet, a more private space where we can share our updates and only hear from the people who matter most to us? A cosy spot where advertisers aren’t allowed and algorithms don’t determine which updates you see? Why yes, there is, so glad you asked.

This place does exist. We created it, and it’s called Kin.

Forging Deeper Connections Through Kin

We created the private media app, Kin, to be your calm safe space, your digital home where you and those who matter to you gather on a regular basis to share jokes, memories, milestones and build a digital legacy for future generations to enjoy. Your Family page is private to only you and the members you invite. Your Storyline is a feed that consists only of the photos, videos and messages that you and your family members upload. There’s no advertisers, no algorithms, no trolls or bots, just your nearest and dearest messaging each other through group chat, ribbing each other over awkward school photos from the 80s and marveling over the old family photos your nan has dug up and managed to upload.

Kin was initially concepted when I was writing an email to my toddler son for him to read in the future and I called my co-founder Matt and asked “Isn’t there an app for this?” We didn’t see one so we decided to create one ourselves and you can now send a video, photo or text message for anyone to unlock through our Kin feature called Future Messages. From there, we realised the need to create a secure online space for immediate family and friends to upload their most precious photos, memories and moments without worrying where their photos and data may end up. Our core principle is to remain ad-free, a network built by families for families, not for advertisers. Your data will never be sold. Your photos are only seen by you and the people you hand select for your family page.

We want Kin to be that familiar online space where you and your nearest and dearest can gather to have a laugh, reminisce and share the stuff that really matters with only the people who really matter. And we want the whole family to get involved. We’ve created memorial accounts so you can tag the family members in photos who are gone, but not forgotten. There’s Young Person accounts too so you can tag children under 14 in photos and when they are old enough, convert their account to a full access version.

Check Us Out

Give us a try, you can find Kin on the App Store and on Google Play. We invite you to check it out, invite your friend and family and please do let us know what you think. We’d love for you to help us shape the future of private media.