Public warnings that social media is having a negative impact on teens’ mental health are getting louder and louder, with the US Surgeon General recently announcing that all the money spent on cell phones This has increased the anxiety of many parents about what time is doing to their children’s brains.
Although many scientists share this concern, there is little research to prove that social media is harmful or to show which sites, apps, or features are at fault. There isn’t even a common definition of what social media is. This leaves parents, policy makers, and other adults in teens’ lives without clear guidance on what to worry about.
“There’s some evidence to guide us, but this is a scenario we need to know more about,” says Jacqueline Nessi, a psychologist at Brown University who studies the topic.
What’s so important about social media when it comes to teenagers’ health?
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy last month warned that social media posed a “significant risk of harm” but did not name the apps or websites. His report acknowledged that “there is no single widely accepted academic definition of social media.”
Most research focuses on platforms with user-generated content that allow people to interact. But it raises many questions. Does it matter whether teens see posts from people they know or people they don’t know? Does it make a difference whether they post or just look? Multiplayer games are considered Do you use dating apps? Group text?
YouTube presents that challenge. It’s by far the most popular site among teens, with 95% using it and nearly 20% saying they use it “almost always,” according to Pew Research Center. It has all the features of social media but is not included in most studies.
Some researchers believe that YouTube may have less of a negative impact because teens often use YouTube passively, like they would TV, and don’t post or comment as often as they do on other apps. I’m guessing. Or, like TikTok, it offers endless scrolling and algorithmic recommendations, which could carry the same risks, the researchers said. In any case, there is no clear data.
What do we not know?
A review of existing research on social media use and adolescent mental health found that the majority of studies were “weak,” “inconsistent,” “inconclusive,” and “mixed findings.” “We found that a lack of quality weighed on us,” and “contradictory evidence.”
Research has not yet determined which social media sites, apps, and features have an impact on mental health. “There’s not enough evidence to tell parents to delete certain apps or to terminate them after a certain amount of time,” said Dr. McConlogue, a psychologist and director of the institute’s Teen and Young Adult Lab. Director Sophia Chokas Bradley said. University of Pittsburgh.
It’s also difficult to prove whether social media causes or is correlated with poor mental health. Most studies measure time spent on social media and mental health symptoms, and many, but not all, have found a correlation. But other researchers argue that just measuring time spent isn’t enough. These studies don’t know whether social media time or time away from other things, like exercise or sleep, is the problem. And the research is unclear whether someone spends hours looking at screens to escape mental pressure or seek support from friends, for example.
Several studies have attempted new approaches to these problems. One compares college campuses that accepted access to Facebook with those that did not in the early days of Facebook’s rollout in the mid-2000s, and found that the rise of Facebook had a negative impact on students’ mental health. I discovered that.
Project Awesome, a carefully designed study conducted at the University of Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam, revealed the average impact of social media on 1,000 young people surveyed and how it differs from person to person. We are investigating the issue and following young people over a long period of time. It turns out that time spent on social media is not as important a factor as the mood of the teens using it.
Other studies have used brain scans to show that when adolescents see likes or check their feeds frequently, their brains’ sensitivity to social rewards and punishments is activated. Masu.
What else does the research show?
Amy Oben, a psychologist who heads the Digital Mental Health Group at the University of Cambridge, said there was “mostly a small negative correlation” between social media use and mental health. . “But we don’t know what’s underlying it. It could be that people who feel worse are starting to use more social media, or that social media is making them feel worse. It is also possible that socio-economic status and other factors drive the association.
Overall, research shows that social media is neither inherently beneficial nor harmful, and that its effects depend on the individual and what they choose to view.
“You can’t say, ‘Don’t do X, it’s okay to do Y, and don’t do Z,'” said Amanda Lenhart, head of research at Common Sense Media. She said: “Unlike TV and movies, it’s impossible to know in advance what your children will see on social media. It may also be the content of
Teens with specific vulnerabilities, such as low self-esteem, poor body image, and social conflicts, appear to be most at risk. One experiment found that exposure to manipulated images directly led to poorer body image, especially in girls who tend to compare themselves to others. Other researchers found that using social media to compare yourself to others and seek approval was associated with depressive symptoms, especially for socially challenged teens. .
Social media often has both positive and negative effects on the same person. Project Awesome found that its use was associated with increased levels of both depression or anxiety and Happiness or well-being.
According to a Common Sense report, teenage girls with symptoms of depression are more likely than girls without symptoms to say that social media has helped them see other people’s lives as better than their own. They were also more likely to say that social media has strengthened their social connections. They discovered mental health resources and harmful suicide-related content on social media. Overall, most girls said the influence of social media features was neutral.
Why isn’t there more robust research?
Academic research takes a long time, often taking years to obtain funding, develop research, hire staff, recruit participants, analyze data, and submit for publication. Recruiting minors is even more difficult. By the time a study is published, teens have often moved on to another platform. For example, much of the research on specific platforms is on Facebook, which most teenagers no longer use. The Surgeon General’s report says tech companies also aren’t sharing enough data to help researchers understand the effects of their products.
How can future research be more conclusive?
Experts believe that research examining specific types of social media content, how social media use in adolescence affects people in adulthood, how social media affects neural pathways, and whether there are negative effects He said he would like to see an investigation into ways to protect young people.
Psychologists Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge, who have expressed great concern about the effects of social media on teenagers, suggest: An experiment in which an entire middle school is randomly assigned to avoid social media or not.
What should parents do in the meantime?
Experts agreed that waiting for research is not an option. They also generally agreed that some level of social media use is beneficial. “Given that social media is a place where social interactions take place, not using social media at all has negative developmental effects,” said Professor Chokas-Bradley.
Researchers say social media rules should be set according to the maturity level and challenges of individual teens, and that addressing risks should be the responsibility of technology companies and policymakers, as well as parents. He said that. They agreed on some steps parents can take right now.
-
Set limits, especially around bedtime.
-
Don’t give your young teenager a smartphone right away. Start with a smartwatch or mobile phone without internet.
-
Talk to teens: Ask them to show you what they see, ask them how it makes them feel, and discuss privacy and safety.
-
Plan your family’s TV time by considering which activities increase stress and which bring long-term satisfaction.
-
Model yourself using the internet responsibly.
Caleb T. Carr, a communications professor at Illinois State University, said it’s not about monitoring specific apps. Let’s talk about being good people and citizens, respecting others and ourselves, and how our day was, just like our parents did before social media. ”
Graphics provided by Alicia Parlapiano