Tag Archives: overuse

New Pew Research Reveals High Usage of Social Media Among Teens

Blog, News, , ,

A recent survey published this week from the Pew Research Center reveals some eye-catching statistics about teen online habits. Nearly half of the surveyed teens, aged 13 to 17, report spending almost all their time online, which is up from about 24% just ten years ago.

While parents, teachers, healthcare professionals and politicians have expressed serious concerns about the impact of technology and social media on the mental health of today’s youth, many teens remain digitally more connected than ever. Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 conducted Sept. 18-Oct. 10, 2024 demonstrates that nearly half of the teens describe that they are online almost constantly.

It is interesting to note that these findings show just how integral the internet has become for this age group, reflecting both its pervasive role and the uncertainties around its impact on mental health. A staggering 96% of these teens claim to use the internet every day, and 95% have access to smartphones. These devices have become almost compulsory tools for socialization, entertainment, and information.

Choice and interest in the various social media platforms has changed for this age group in the last two years, according to Pew. The survey asked about the platforms and regularity of usage.

YouTube remains the most popular but usage has reduced by 5 percent in 2024.

TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat remain widely used among teens. Roughly six-in-ten teens say they use TikTok and Instagram, and 55% say the same for Snapchat.

Facebook and X use have steeply declined over the past decade. Today, 32% of teens say they use Facebook. This is down from 71% in 2014-15, though the share of teens who use the site has remained stable in recent years. And 17% of teens say they use X (formerly Twitter) – about half the share who said this a decade ago (33%), and down from 23% in 2022.

Roughly one-quarter of teens (23%) say they use WhatsApp, up 6 percentage points since 2022.

And 14% of teens use Reddit, a share that has remained stable over the past few years.

The survey asked about Threads, launched in 2023 by Meta, currently shows that only 6% of teens report using it.

How often do teens visit online platforms?

Time that teens (and everyone) spends on social media has been a major concern in the US. This new survey asked teens how often they use five platforms: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.

Overall, 73% of teens say they go on YouTube daily, making YouTube the most widely used and visited platform we asked about. This share includes 15% who describe their use as “almost constant.”

The share of teens who say they use Instagram almost constantly has increased slightly, from 8% in 2023 to 12% today.  

Relatively few teens report using Facebook daily (20%).

Social Media Usage by Gender and Race/Ethnicity

Additional Data

The Pew Report also offers additional data and other demographics that describe how teens engage with online platforms by gender, race and ethnicity, age, and household income. It also highlights time spent online and teen access to smartphones at home.

Source: Teens, Social Media and Technology, December 12, 2024, Pew Research Center

New Studies: Teen Smartphone Problems Revisited

Blog, News, ,

New studies demonstrate that approximately one in five older British teenagers involved in one study displayed problematic phone use (PSU), which resembles an addiction. This can mean they feel panicky or upset when their phone is unavailable, find it difficult to control their screen time and use their phone to the detriment of other meaningful activities.

“Even if we could wave a magic wand and make all smartphones go away, these kids could still have problems overdoing other stuff.”

Research, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, was published in two studies. One, in the journal Acta Paediatrica, surveyed 657 teenagers aged 16 to 18 at five schools across England. The second analysis, published in BMJ Mental Health, studied a smaller group of teenagers for a month: 62 pupils aged 13 to 16 from two London schools.

Teens with PSU were twice as likely to have anxiety, three times more likely to have depressive symptoms and 64 per cent more likely to be insomniacs. Instagram and TikTok were the social media accounts most strongly linked to PSU.

The studies also showed that that teens were keen to find ways to restrict their phone use. The most effective methods were putting their device on “do not disturb” or “airplane mode”, turning off notifications and keeping smartphones out of the bedroom.

Dr Nicola Kalk, senior author on both studies, said the work “does contribute to an accumulation of evidence that suggests that a proportion of teenagers use their smartphone in a way that is starting to look more and more like an addiction”.

Professor Ben Carter, professor of medical statistics at King’s, said: “By revealing the link between problematic use of smartphones and poorer mental health, and demonstrating that young people are aware of this problem and are eager to manage their use, these studies highlight the need for evidence-based interventions to help adolescents struggling with difficult behaviours around their smartphone use.”

Chris Ferguson, professor of psychology at Stetson University, who is quoted above said: “Even if we could wave a magic wand and make all smartphones go away, these kids could still have problems overdoing other stuff. Ultimately, I think this data suggests we do need to reframe our approach to technology.

“There’s little evidence here, or elsewhere, that restricting technology, putting age limits on social media or banning smartphones in schools is helpful in improving teen wellness or academic performance. Technology overuse is best understood as a new symptom of age-old disorders such as depression, anxiety or ADHD, not a new set of problems.

“Further indulging a moral panic over smartphones and social media is unlikely to help any youth.”

Sources:

Kalk NJ, Downs J, Clark B, Carter B. Problematic smartphone use: What can teenagers and parents do to reduce use? Acta Paediatrica. First published: 31 July 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.17365
Carter B, Armed, N, Cassidy O, Pearson O, Calcia M, et al. ‘There’s more to life than staring at a small screen’: a mixed methods cohort study of problematic smartphone use and the relationship to anxiety, depression and sleep in students aged 13–16 years old in the UK. BMJ Mental Health. July 2024. https://mentalhealth.bmj.com/content/27/1/e301115.

Strangers Trust Others More When They Put Down Their Phones

Blog, News, ,

Smartphones are ubiquitous in modern society. It seems that as soon as we sit down on a bus or wait in a line at the Post Office, the first thing we do is pull out our phones. A number of studies have shown that the average American checks their phones almost 100 times a day and spend more than five hours daily staring at that pocket-sized screen. 

While we may be killing time by scrolling through social media or checking sports scores, a new study published in the Journal of Economic Psychology concludes that our seemingly constant use of the phone may come at a social cost.

The researchers highlight that many adults can remember a time when people taking public transportation or at a gathering would chat or engage others in conversation, whereas now, everyone is “plugged in and looking down.” Generally – no longer socializing.

The Study

For their experiment, they brought groups of six students into a laboratory and had them wait together for 20 minutes.  Some groups were allowed to use phones as usual. For others, they confiscated the phones and made them wait without them. They then broke the students up into pairs to play a simple trust game that gave them the chance to earn more money back by sharing up front—if they trusted the partner to split the final pot rather than pocket it, and if their partner actually did send back money.

Results

Those who didn’t have phones and who also interacted with other people in the waiting room tended to share more up front than those who didn’t interact. Even more significantly, the partners without phones also gave back more than those with phones—and more than they’d received. The researchers attribute this generosity to the trust engendered when people connect with one another. “If you are not looking someone in the eye, you’re almost treating them as less than human—it’s just money,” she says. “But if you’d looked up and smiled and chatted, then you’d developed more of a sense of who this person is. They are no longer a blank slate.”

Conclusions

While our phones undoubtedly connect us to loved ones and others far away, they can also distance us from strangers close at hand, lead researcher Campbell concludes. People might look at their phones in social situations for a number of reasons, including boredom, shyness, or a feeling like others might not want to talk to them. Campbell suggests, however, that by putting away our phones around strangers, we might feel more of a sense of trust that could enrich everyone’s lives.

Children could learn more social skills by giving up their phones during the school day or at summer camp. In a business context, managers might foster a sense of trust by limiting phone usage at certain times, such as orientations, when new hires could be encouraged to drop their phones on the way into the room and pick them up on their way out.

“Obviously, our phones are immensely valuable, but in some situations, it may be more valuable to chat to the person next to you,” she says. “You might be surprised to find they want to chat with you too.”

Source:

Campbell S, Sneezy U. Smartphone use decreases trustworthiness of strangers. Journal of Economic Psychology, Volume 102, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2024.102714.

Surgeon General Asks Congress to Require Warning Labels for Social Media

Blog, News, , ,

This week in a New York Times Opinion Piece, Dr. Vivek Murthy said that social media is a contributing factor in the mental health crisis among young people. He has called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms similar to those now mandatory on cigarette boxes.

Implementing a surgeon general’s warning label, requires congressional action, and would serve to regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe,” Murthy said. “Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior.”

Social media use is prevalent among young people, with up to 95% of youth ages 13 to 17 saying that they use a social media platform, and more than a third saying that they use social media “almost constantly,” according to 2022 data from the Pew Research Center.

Last year Dr. Murthy warned that there wasn’t enough evidence to show that social media is safe for children and teens. He said at the time that policymakers needed to address the harms of social media the same way they regulate things like car seats, baby formula, medication and other products children use.

To comply with federal regulation, social media companies already ban kids under 13 from signing up for their platforms — but children have been shown to easily get around the bans, both with and without their parents’ consent.

Other measures social platforms have taken to address concerns about children’s mental health can also be easily circumvented. For instance, TikTok introduced a default 60-minute time limit for users under 18. But once the limit is reached, minors can simply enter a passcode to keep watching.

Murthy believes the impact of social media on young people should be a more pressing concern. He wrote, “Why is it that we have failed to respond to the harms of social media when they are no less urgent or widespread than those posed by unsafe cars, planes or food? These harms are not a failure of willpower and parenting; they are the consequence of unleashing powerful technology without adequate safety measures, transparency or accountability.

Link to NY TImes Article

New Pew Study on Teens and Social Media

Blog, News, , ,

A new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens conducted Sept. 26-Oct. 23, 2023, among 1,453 13- to 17-year-olds – covered social media, internet use and device ownership among teens. Even though negative headlines and growing concerns about social media’s impact on youth has drawn the attention of parents, teachers, the medical profession and lawmakers, teens continue to use these platforms at high rates – with some describing their social media use as “almost constant.”

YouTube continues to dominate. Roughly nine-in-ten teens say they use YouTube, making it the most widely used platform measured in our survey.

Other key findings include:
TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram remain popular among teens: Majorities of teens ages 13 to 17 say they use TikTok (63%), Snapchat (60%) and Instagram (59%). For older teens ages 15 to 17, these shares are about seven-in-ten.

Teens are less likely to be using Facebook and Twitter (recently renamed X) than they were a decade ago: Facebook once dominated the social media landscape among America’s youth, but the share of teens who use the site has dropped from 71% in 2014-2015 to 33% today. Twitter, which was renamed X in July 2023, has also seen its teen user base shrink during the past decade – albeit at a less steep decline than Facebook.

Teens’ site and app usage has changed little in the past year. The share of teens using these platforms has remained relatively stable since spring 2022, when the Center last surveyed on these topics. For example, the percentage of teens who use TikTok is statistically unchanged since last year.

And for the first time, we asked teens about using BeReal: 13% report using this app.

When asked about frequency

By Gender
Teen girls are more likely than boys to say they almost constantly use TikTok (22% vs. 12%) and Snapchat (17% vs. 12%).

But there are little to no differences in the shares of boys and girls who report almost constantly using YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

By Race and Ethnicity
There were also differences by race and ethnicity in how much time teens report spending on these platforms. Larger shares of Black and Hispanic teens report being on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok almost constantly, compared with a smaller share of White teens who say the same. Hispanic teens stand out in TikTok and Snapchat use. For instance, 32% of Hispanic teens say they are on TikTok almost constantly, compared with 20% of Black teens and 10% of White teens.

By Age
Older teens are more likely than younger teens to use many of the platforms asked about, including Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Reddit. For example, while 68% of teens ages 15 to 17 say they use Instagram, this share drops to 45% among teens ages 13 and 14.

Source and additional information

Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023

Revised Digital Media Overuse Scale Adapts to Changing Technology

Blog, News, ,

The rapid changes in the nature of digital media presents a challenge for those who study digital addiction. Various social networks and computer games might be popular now, but they could be irrelevant in a few years. A new tool developed by researchers from Binghamton University, State University of New York will make it easier for clinicians and researchers to measure digital media addiction as new technologies emerge. 

Daniel Hipp, PhD and Peter Gerhardstein, PhD from Binghamton Univ. collaborated with the Digital Media Treatment and Education Center in Boulder, Colorado in developing the Digital Media Overuse Scale, or dMOS. The goal of fMOS is to allow clinicians and researchers who are using the tool to be free to make their investigations as broad (i.e. social media) or as granular (i.e. Instagram) as they want for their particular use. Rather than focusing on the technology the focus is the behavioral, emotional or psychological aspects of an individual’s experience.

To test the Digital Media Overuse Scale, the researchers conducted an anonymous survey with over 1,000 college students to investigate clinically relevant behaviors and attitudes as they relate to five digital media domains: general smartphone use, internet video consumption, social media use, gaming, and pornography use.

They found the following: 

  • A majority of students demonstrate few indicators of addiction or overuse 
  • Use patterns were highly targeted to specific domains for specific users.  
  • A select set of students’ responses indicated attitudes and behaviors around digital media use that, if they were derived from drug use or sex, would be deemed clinically problematic.  

The researchers found that overuse is “not a general thing” but more specific, and typically reported in one or a few domains only. Broadly speaking, the data paint a picture of a population who are using digital media substantially, and social media in particular, to a level that increases concern regarding overuse.

Initial indications are that the Digital Media Overuse Scale is a reliable, valid, and extendible clinical instrument capable of providing clinically relevant scores within and across digital media domains, wrote the researchers.

Reference: Hipp, D., Blakley, E. C., Hipp, N., Gerhardstein, P., Kennedy, B., & Markle, T. (2023). The Digital Media Overuse Scale (dMOS): A Modular and Extendible Questionnaire for Indexing Digital Media Overuse. Technology, Mind, and Behavior, 4(3: Fall 2023). https://doi.org/10.1037/tmb0000117