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Statistics

Below are a variety of data visualisations with added text deconstructing the narrative pushed by the meaning of the information displayed. You can interact with the visualisations by using the filters present in the top right corners of each graph.

Mental Health Effects

This visualisation explores the relationship between daily hours spent on social media and three mental health indicators: anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. Key findings of this visualisation can be seen below:

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  • Anxiety and social media use: A strong positive correlation is evident. As daily hours on social media increase, reported anxiety levels rise consistently.

  • Depression and social media use: Similarly, depression scores climb as individuals spend more time online, reinforcing the negative impact of excessive social media use.

  • Self-esteem and social media use: In contrast, self-esteem declines as social media hours increase. Participants who use social platforms the most consistently report the lowest self-esteem scores.

 


While there is variation across participants, the general trend strongly supports concerns about the negative psychological effects of heavy social media engagement.

Attention Span Effects

This visualisation examines how daily hours spent on social media affect an individual’s attention span (measured in minutes). Each entry represents a participant’s reported social media use and their corresponding attention span. Key findings of the visualisation can be seen below:

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  • As social media usage increases, attention span minutes consistently decrease.

  • Light users (2–3 hours/day) tend to maintain higher attention spans, averaging close to 50 minutes.

  • Heavy users (6+ hours/day), in contrast, show notably reduced attention spans, often dropping to the low 30s or below.

  • Platform trends: While the trend holds across platforms (Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook), Instagram users with the highest daily hours show the sharpest decline in attention span.


The more time individuals spend on social platforms, the shorter their attention span becomes, supporting the hypothesis that excessive social media use can erode focus and sustained attention.

Sleep Effects

This visualisation investigates the relationship between daily hours spent on social media and sleep duration (in hours), across multiple platforms including Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter/X. Key findings can be seen below:

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  • Participants who spend more time on social media consistently report fewer hours of sleep.

  • Light users of social media (1–3 hours/day) typically average between 7.5–8.5 hours of sleep, reflecting healthy rest patterns.

  • Moderate users' (4–6 hours/day) sleep duration falls to around 6–7 hours, showing the beginning of sleep reduction.

  • Heavy users (7+ hours/day) report the lowest sleep, often dropping to 5–6 hours or even less.

  • Platform differences:

    • TikTok and Instagram heavy users appear most likely to experience severe sleep reduction.

    • Facebook and Twitter/X show a similar but slightly less extreme pattern.

    • Snapchat users display a wide range, but still follow the overall downward trend.


By examining the information within this data visualisation, it is clear that higher daily engagement with social platforms is linked to reduced sleep, reinforcing concerns that excessive use disrupts rest and recovery in a great number of cases.

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