Study Suggests Addiction-Like Usage Of Social Media Leads To Sexual Difficulties
We all have a love-hate relationship with social media, hai na? We love it to the point where we go on a bender scrolling through our feeds and then there are days when we just don’t want to even look at our phones or social media profiles. It’s normal to want a break from social media every now and then but for those of us who don’t take a break and continue scrolling through our feeds. Social media addiction is real and it looks like there may be some bad news for the addicts. A new research claims that addict-like usage of social media networking platforms like Facebook might pose a risk to our sex life. Yepp, you read that right. It can lead to a risk of impaired sexual function.
A study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine states that there is evidence that frequent and compulsive usage of social media can be linked to a number of sexual health-related problems among men and women, both. The author of the study, Rui Miguel Costa of the William James Center for Research at Ispa – Instituto Universitário in Portugal says that there is a “growing awareness” that the use of social media platforms can have addiction-like characteristics and in such cases, it may worsen the mood of people. Noting that a “negative mood is associated with sexual difficulties” the author of the study was surprised by the lack of research on the topic. According to his knowledge, there is only one study conducted by Alimoradi and colleagues in 2019 which suggested that social media addiction can have a negative impact on female sexual function. This pushed him to study the impact of social media on sexual difficulties faced by men and women both, as per a report by PsyPost.
The researchers analyzed the data from 946 women and 235 men who were a part of the study about sexual function in relation to the problematic use of smartphones and the data from 536 women and 194 men who were a part of the study about sexual function in relation to problematic use of social media platforms. All the participants of the study had been sexually active with their partner of the opposite sex in the past month.
In order to understand the impact of addict-like usage of social media platforms and its impact on the sex life of the participants, the researchers asked them a series of questions about how their usage impacts their household chores, other people in their lives, and performance in their professional lives and productivity. This helped the researchers understand that the problematic usage of social media platforms was associated with sexual distress and poorer sexual functioning. As per the study, women with social media addiction reported problems like lower sexual arousal, difficulties with lubrication and having orgasms, sexual dissatisfaction, coital pain and greater sexual distress. The men, on the other hand, reported lower erectile function, lower desire, intercourse dissatisfaction, overall sexual dissatisfaction and more difficulties having orgasms. While the problematic usage of smartphones use was also associated with sexual distress and poorer sexual functioning but these problems nearly disappeared after the problematic use of social media platforms was controlled.
Also Read: How To Have Safe Shower Sex? 8 Tips To Keep It Risk-Free And Steamy
Well, it looks like now would be a good time to reduce our usage of social media in order to prevent sexual problems.
