It has long been speculated that social networks can have a negative affect on users' mental health, but now this has been officially confirmed.

Research conducted in the UK polled some 1,500 people aged 14-23 on their habits of using the most popular social networks including Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and the effects these have on their psychological condition.

The poll showed that using Instagram was the most damaging service, especially to young women.

The popular image-sharing service offers options to filter out any imperfections in pictures posted to the website, which results in its users increasingly feeling anxious, depressed, lonely, and unfulfilled. Another consequence of using Instagram is a form of social anxiety called dubbed FOMO, short for the Fear Of Missing Out.

The only social network that received only positive comments was the video-sharing platform YouTube. According to researchers, adverse affects are felt the most if social networks are used more than two hours per day, Vecernji List reported.

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