People’s social media usage, which largely mirrors daily work schedules and school calendars, is causing a huge amount of “social jet lag” and disrupting their biological clocks, reveals a study that analysed patterns of activity on the social media platform Twitter.
“When we look at how social jet lag changes throughout the year, we find that the dominant effect by far is the social calendar,” said Michael Rust from The University of Chicago.
Most counties experienced the largest amount of Twitter social jet lag in February and the lowest in June or July. The evidence is consistent with the notion that those patterns are driven primarily by social pressures, including shifting school schedules, and less so by the direct seasonal effect of altered day length.
