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There is no evidence to suggest using Facebook is detrimental to wellbeing, Oxford scientists have said, challenging the view that the social media platform is linked to psychological harm. Researchers from the University’s Oxford Internet Institute analysed data from nearly a million people across 72 countries over 12 years – in the largest study of its kind – to understand more about the impact of Facebook on wellbeing. Professor Andrew Przybylski, who co-led the research published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, said: “We examined the best available data carefully – and found they did not support the idea that Facebook membership is related to harm – quite the opposite. “In fact, our analysis indicates Facebook is possibly related to positive well-being.” The research looked at Facebook data from 2008 to 2019, going back to when the platform was in its early stages. “We examined 72 countries’ per capita active Facebook users in males and females in two age brackets, 13-34 years and 35+ years,” the researchers said. The results also showed the association between using Facebook and wellbeing was slightly more positive for males as well as for younger people. Writing in the research paper, the authors said: “Although reports of negative psychological outcomes associated with social media are common in academic and popular writing, evidence for harms is, on balance, more speculative than conclusive.” Professor Matti Vuorre, also of the Oxford Internet Institute, who co-led the study, said: “Our findings should help guide the debate surrounding social media towards more empirical research foundations. “We need more transparent collaborative research between independent scientists and the technology industry to better determine how, when and why modern online platforms might be affecting their users.” Commenting on the study, Peter Etchells, professor of psychology and science communication at Bath Spa University, said: “This is a fascinating study that attempts to link Facebook uptake with measures of mental wellbeing in a broad-strokes manner, using data from over 70 countries. “Contrary to popular sentiment, the researchers didn’t find a negative association between the two; instead, it was generally the case that there were positive associations between country-level Facebook uptake and mental wellbeing. “To my mind, the value in this study lies in proof of principle – it demonstrates that it’s possible to leverage industry data to address meaningful questions about how digital technology interacts with our mental health.” But Prof Etchells said there were some caveats associated with the findings – which the study authors have addressed. He said: “This is a descriptive study, and as such cannot tell us anything about causation – that is, we don’t know how, if, or to what extent, changes in Facebook adoption drive changes in mental wellbeing. “Wellbeing is a complex phenomenon, and even in the context of social media use, we need to be careful drawing any firm conclusions by looking at how people use a single platform such as Facebook.” Read More Move fast and beat Musk: The inside story of how Meta built Threads Japan's tech investor SoftBank trims losses and promises offensive turnaround Chatbots sometimes make things up. Not everyone thinks AI's hallucination problem is fixable Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

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MrBeast, besides being the most followed creator on YouTube, has now added a further accolade to his social media resume by becoming the most followed person on Threads in a staggeringly quick time as well as taking a swipe at Elon Musk in the process. Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson, quickly amassed more than one million followers (2.8 million at the time of writing) on the new social media app created by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, which was launched late on July 5th. Donaldson actually has more followers than Zuckerberg who still has an impressive 2 million followers to his name. However, Donaldson was the first person on the platform to reach one million therefore the record will always stand with him. Much of this record will be down to how easy it is for Instagram users to sign up for Threads which also allows users to easily follow everyone that they already followed on Instagram. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter MrBeast, for instance, has 38.6 million followers on Instagram so expect his Threads followers total to grow and grow in the next few days. His first Thread on the platform read: "Sooooo, how long until we're also addicted to this app? Lol." He did though appear to take a thinly veiled dig at Twitter owner Elon Musk. In one post the 25-year-old wrote: "To celebrate Threads launching, I'm gonna give this Tesla to a random follower in 48 hours. Rethread so people are aware." Donaldson then posted a picture of himself next to the Tesla in question which had a huge Threads logo on the bonnet. For those that aren't aware, Elon Musk also owns Tesla and might not be too happy about seeing a rivals logo on one of his cars. There doesn't appear to be any bad blood between Musk and Donaldson as the two have previously teased a collaboration on Twitter. However, the YouTuber has also teased working with Amazon owner Jeff Bezos so he's clearly keeping the billionaires of the world close to him. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Canada is bracing for higher-than-normal wildfire activity to continue into August, as soaring temperatures and drought turn much