Watching TV to wind down ‘just adds to guilt’

Nearly two thirds of social media users say that sites like Facebook and Twitter make them feel inadequate about their own lives and achievements.

An international study carried out by scientists found that people who were highly stressed after work did not feel relaxed or recovered when they watched TV or played computer games.

Instead they had high levels of guilt and feelings of failure.

Researchers at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany and the VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands asked 471 study participants how they felt after work or school the previous day and what media they had used.

They found that those who were especially fatigued were more inclined to feel that their watching TV or playing games was procrastination, and that they were dodging more important tasks by succumbing to using media. This ledto them feeling guilty, which in turn made them feel less recovered and revitalised, diminishing the positive effects of using media.

Dr Leonard Reinecke, who co-authored the report, said: “We are beginning to better understand that media use can have beneficial effects for people’s well-being, through media-induced recovery.

“It demonstrates that in the real life, the relationship between media use and well-being is complicated and that the use of media may conflict with other, less pleasurable but more important duties and goals in everyday life.”