Category: Emotion

Totally cutting out screens was not the best option for happiness.

The happiest teenagers use screens for around an hour a day, new research finds.

More than this is linked to steadily rising levels of unhappiness.

The results come from a survey of over one million US teenagers aged 13-18.

The more time they spent in front of screens — using social media, texting or playing games — the less happy they were.

Their happier peers invested more time in reading, sports and face-to-face social interactions.

Professor Jean M. Twenge, the study’s first author, believes that screen time is driving depression, although the study cannot prove it:

“Although this study can’t show causation, several other studies have shown that more social media use leads to unhappiness, but unhappiness does not lead to more social media use.”

Interestingly, totally cutting out screens was not the best option for happiness — a little less than one hour a day turned out to be the sweet spot.

Professor Twenge said:

“The key to digital media use and happiness is limited use.

Aim to spend no more than two hours a day on digital media, and try to increase the amount of time you spend seeing friends face-to-face and exercising — two activities reliably linked to greater happiness.”

After 2012, teeangers’ self-esteem, life satisfaction and happiness has dropped like a stone compared with similar age groups from the 1990s.

It is probably no coincidence that smartphones are now everywhere, Professor Twenge said:

“By far the largest change in teens’ lives between 2012 and 2016 was the increase in the amount of time they spent on digital media, and the subsequent decline in in-person social activities and sleep.

The advent of the smartphone is the most plausible explanation for the sudden decrease in teens’ psychological well-being.”

The study was published in the journal Emotion (Twenge et al., 2018).

Positive emotions are given the biggest boost by different foods as we age.

The diets linked to mental health change over the lifetime, new research finds.

The mood of young people — aged between 18 and 30 — benefits from neurotransmitter precursors provided by foods like meat.

Meat — whether red or white — increases the build-up of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, which both help to boost mood.

However, for those over 30 a different pattern emerged.

Mature adults were in a better mood if they ate foods that boosted their antioxidant levels, such as fruit.

Mature adults were also in a better mood if they avoided things activated the sympathetic nervous system, such as coffee and skipping breakfast.

Dr Lina Begdache, the study’s first author, said:

“One of the major findings of this paper is that diet and dietary practices differentially affect mental health in young adults versus mature adults.

Another noteworthy finding is that young adult mood appears to be sensitive to build-up of brain chemicals.

Regular consumption of meat leads to build-up of two brain chemicals (serotonin and dopamine) known to promote mood.

Regular exercise leads to build-up of these and other neurotransmitters as well.

In other words, young adults who ate meat (red or white) less than three times a week and exercised less than three times week showed a significant mental distress.”

The study involved a survey that was completed by people around the world.

Dr Begdache explained the findings for adults:

“Conversely, mature adult mood seems to be more sensitive to regular consumption of sources of antioxidants and abstinence of food that inappropriately activates the innate fight-or-flight response (commonly known as the stress response).

With aging, there is an increase in free radical formation (oxidants), so our need for antioxidants increases. Free radicals cause disturbances in the brain, which increases the risk for mental distress.

Also, our ability to regulate stress decreases, so if we consume food that activates the stress response (such as coffee and too much carbohydrates), we are more likely to experience mental distress.”

The study was published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience (Begdache et al., 2017).

“George is getting upset!”

Referring to yourself in the third person during periods of stress can aid emotional control, new research finds.

The method was a favourite of Seinfeld sitcom character “George Costanza”, although it didn’t seem to help him much.

Dr  Jason Moser, the study’s first author, said:

“Essentially, we think referring to yourself in the third person leads people to think about themselves more similar to how they think about others, and you can see evidence for this in the brain.

That helps people gain a tiny bit of psychological distance from their experiences, which can often be useful for regulating emotions.”

The study compared talking to yourself in the third person (“George is getting upset!) with using the more usual first-person language (“I’m getting upset”).

The researchers found that talking about themselves in the third person helped people better control their emotions.

Brain scans showed the areas linked to painful emotional experiences were less active when people used the third-person.

Professor Ethan Kross, study co-author, said:

“What’s really exciting here, is that the brain data from these two complementary experiments suggest that third-person self-talk may constitute a relatively effortless form of emotion regulation.

If this ends up being true — we won’t know until more research is done — there are lots of important implications these findings have for our basic understanding of how self-control works, and for how to help people control their emotions in daily life.”

Oddly, George wasn’t exactly known for his emotional self-control.

Maybe he should have stuck with his father’s mantra: “Serenity now!”

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports (Moser et al., 2017).