IMHO, this seems accurate to what I experience and what other people tell me:
Active use, like talking to friends or creating something, is often linked to better feelings. Passive use, like only watching and comparing, is more often linked to worse moods.
Two people can spend two hours online. One feels connected. The other feels empty. The difference is in the type of interaction.
As you might imagine, I spend considerable time online. Part of that is working remotely and being connected to the internet for my job all day, but the other significant part of it is doing what I do here. I’ve had days when I spend 4-5 hours after my workday ends working on content for my blogs and newsletters, responding to emails and comments, and researching information to share here. I walk away from those efforts invigorated, my brain firing with creativity and thoughts to be shared with whoever is reading this.
Other times, the workday sapped my mental energy, and I would just browse social media to entertain myself.
I feel very differently after that experience. Sometimes I learn something, or find something I want to share, even when I’m trying to mindlessly scroll. More often, I find a bunch of stuff aimed at making me angry and stoking my outrage. The world has plenty to be outraged about, and I’m not saying we shouldn’t be outraged. That’s also another reason I don’t need to seek more of it out. That’s a lot of energy I could spend doing something that makes a difference to a small group of people. The ones whom I can influence and support.
Perhaps if we all focused on connecting with individuals and creating for one another, and less on consumption, we wouldn’t need to enact laws that prevent people from accessing the opportunities that the internet makes available to us.