Originally published at: Study: Inflammation "drives social media use" | Boing Boing
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Is inflammation also responsible for the replicability crisis in the sciences?
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Ah ha, so Zuck and Musk are only pretending to hate each other.
They worked together to create Covid!
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increased levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), which the liver makes in response to inflammation in the body
As a sufferer from an auto-immune disease which increases inflammation, and whose blood is tested often, it is interesting that CRP is not often checked any more as there are better checks for my disease activity. Which is to say that CRP is a rather general indicator of inflammation.
And BB aside, I do not use any ‘social’ media.
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I highly doubt the results of this study 
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Inflammation is their business model.
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IKR? There were too few variables in the study (10). It’s based on questionnaires not face-to-face observations by psychiatrists.
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This is exactly true. CRP and ESR are very general indicators of an ongoing inflammatory response, with no more data than that. Usually part of shotgun approach to see what aisle to go down in trying to figure out a particularly vexing set of symptoms. But incredibly nonspecific. CRP can be up due to JRA, or due to a benign viral infection. No way from that one lab to tell.
Additionally, are they using CRP as a proxy for folks who are feeling poorly and staying home more, thus seeking what social interaction they can find. I suspect this is what we are seeing. All the usual “don’t hang too much on one study” caveats go here.
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Your second point about folks being at a loose end when feeling poorly and so spending more time on social media is one I had not considered. I bet the study did not allow for that.
That said, when my inflammation is high enough to impact me (mostly I’m asymptomatic these days - the new drugs work) the last thing I want to do is engage with anyone or anything else at all.
(And yeah, I no longer pay much heed to my CRP and ESR scores until/unless they are consistently high over an extended period, and if that happened there would by then be other more significant indicators and symtoms., Even the faecal calprotectin levels can be higher than the suggested ‘normal’ range and I’m still perfectly fine.)
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Yup, this is more of a sociology thing than a health one alone. The early afternoon grogginess from fatigue can dampen the mood to go out to do stuff even if it’s the morning because you know a hour after lunch you’ll be feeling it soon enough and regular water sipping can only hold it back so far. Autoimmune issues can also affect body image too. Vitiligo destroys melanin, alopecia destroys hair follicles, rheumatoid arthritis make the skin around joints look red, lupus gives you rashes and in my case, ITP gave me a series of little red dots (called petechiae) that are all over my forearms and ankles caused by many tiny bleeds in the lower layer of skin and there’s also the occasional appearance of mystery bruises that just show up. Assholes love to make a huge fuss about peoples appearances with how folks made fun of Selena Gomez’s side sticking out a tiny bit because of a kidney transplant she had to get because of her lupus and Travis Barker’s daughter recently receiving stupid bs because of weight fluctuations from an autoimmune and thyroid issue. Mix in reduced social opportunities because of lifestyle issues. Personally there’s not much for me to do because it’s mostly outdoorsy stuff and drinking that’s the only real social opportunities in my community.
Also as stated in the article.
There, they connected with other people, as opposed to consuming entertainment. To quote, "experimentally elevating inflammation promotes social engagement behavior.
That reminded me the story of why vtuber Ironmouse started streaming with an avatar. She couldn’t go out of the house to do stuff because of how CVID completely screwed up her immune system. Her health got so bad at one point that she was stuck in the hospital for over an year being unable to talk which had also permanently altered her speaking voice to be much higher than it was already and that scared the shit out of her because she’s also a trained opera singer. Getting back on topic with the avatar thing, she said that she didn’t want her viewers seeing a sick girl on oxygen on camera feeling bad for her so she used a demonic gremlin avatar that better lined up with how her voices sounds like (and well, that she also has an EXTREMELY negative view of faith healers who ripped off her parents when her health started to go to shit so it’s her own little bit of revenge). Very interesting backstory to read about on your own since I don’t want to go on all day about her. It’s one of the reasons why there’s a lot of vtubers who also have immune system issues (and other chronic health issues too).
It’s causation vs correlation really.
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So what’s the implication? People seek out other people as much as possible when they don’t feel well?
Anecdotally, I have inflammatory issues right now.
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