Children and social media don't mix

Social media seem to carry with them a form of viral negativity. A number of international studies have reflected on the negative impact of regular social media use - even the non-bullying kind - on levels of mild depression in adults.

One such study, conducted by Stony Brook University in New York, involved 4000 participants who were active social media users.

It found that people who have negative interactions via social networking were more likely to be depressed. This finding applied to both light and heavy users of social platforms.

In a 2015 Danish study, a sample group was divided into two branches. At the commencement of the study, all participants assigned themselves a score in terms of personal happiness, based on several criteria.

Members of one group were then asked to carry on with their normal use of Facebook during the following week. Members of the second group were asked to refrain.

At the end of that week, participants rated themselves on life satisfaction again. Their ratings were then compared to those they'd assigned themselves at the start.

Researchers found that people who withdrew from Facebook engagement showed a marked increase in their levels of happiness. Those who continued using social media saw, at best, only a marginal increase.

Now, asking people to rate themselves on happiness may seem a little too glossy-magazine to rank as serious research. However, this is exactly how such studies are carried out.

These studies are, after all, dealing with the subjective. Happiness cannot be measured in a beaker, but it is still very real and most people are well equipped to report whether they feel happier today than they did last week.

Meik Wiking, the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute which conducted the Danish study, attributed some of the change to Facebook's tendency to distort perceptions of reality.

"We take in to account how we're doing in life through comparisons to everyone else," he said. "Since most people only post positive things on Facebook, that gives us a very biased perception of reality."

"If we are constantly exposed to great news, we risk evaluating our own lives as less good."