The authors of a landmark study argue that social media use has only minor effects on wellbeing. But an entire industry says otherwise.

If you had attended the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ international congress in London last week you could have been forgiven for coming away with the following thoughts. Addiction to Fortnite, the online game, is a real disorder; social media is depleting “our neurotransmitter deposits”; and “excess screen time has reduced our attention span to eight seconds, one less than that of a goldfish”.
Scary stuff! Only problem is, none of these claims is supported by facts or a drop of scientific evidence.