Tag Archives: Social Media

New Pew Research Reveals High Usage of Social Media Among Teens

December 13, 2024Blog, NewsChildren & Adolescents, overuse, smartphone app, Social Mediaadmin

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

Browsing Negative Content Online Linked to Poor Mental Health

November 21, 2024Blog, NewsSocial Mediaadmin

According to the study published in Nature Human Behaviour, the relationship between mental health and web-browsing is causal and bi-directional.

Self-guided browsing of negative content online is associated with poorer mental health and continued browsing of negative content. Study results “show that browsing negatively valenced content not only mirrors a person’s mood but can also actively worsen it. This creates a feedback loop that can perpetuate mental health challenges over time.”

Browsing and Mood Symptoms

Approximately 1,000 study participants shared their web browsing history with the researchers and answered questions about their mental health. Using natural language processing methods, the researchers analyzed the emotional tone of the webpages participants visited. Interestingly, perticipants rather than taking a break from negative or depressing content, the study found that participants with worse moods and mental health symptoms were inclined to browse more negative content online, and after browsing, those who browsed more negative content felt worse.

In another study, the researchers manipulated the websites people visited, exposing some participants to negative content and others to neutral content. They found that those exposed to negative websites reported worse moods afterward, demonstrating a causal effect of browsing negative content on mood. Afterwards, when these participants were then asked to browse the internet freely, those who had previously viewed negative websites—and consequently experienced a worse mood—chose to view more negative content.

This finding highlights that the relationship is bi-directional: negative content affects mood, and a worsened mood drives the consumption of more negative content.

Previous research on browsing focused on screen time or quantity of use which let to mixd conclusions. To evaluate if an intervention could change participants web-browsing choices, researchers conducted a further study.

Can an intervention help?

To evaluate if a break in the “negative browsing /negative mood” loop might change things, researchers added content labels to the results of a Google search, which informed participants whether each search result would likely improve their mood, make it worse, or have no impact. Results showed that participants were then more likely to choose the positively-labeled sites deemed likely to improve their mood—and when asked about their mood afterward, those who had looked at the positive websites were indeed in better moods than other participants.

Researchers developed helpful software

In response to the results of their intervention, the researchers have developed a free browser plug-in that adds labels to Google search results, providing three different ratings of how practical a website’s content is, how informative it is, and how it impacts mood.

Co-author Professor Tali Sharot said, “We are accustomed to seeing content labels on our groceries, providing nutritional information such as sugar, calories, protein, and vitamins to help us make informed decisions about what we eat. A similar approach could be applied to the content we consume online, empowering people to make healthier choices online.”

Source:
Kelly, C.A., Sharot, T. Web-browsing patterns reflect and shape mood and mental health. Nat Hum Behav (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-02065-6

New Studies: Teen Smartphone Problems Revisited

August 6, 2024Blog, Newsoveruse, smartphone app, Social Mediaadmin

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

July 20, 2024Blog, Newsoveruse, smartphone app, Social Mediaadmin

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.

Do Warning Labels on Social Media Miss the Mark?

July 1, 2024Blog, NewsChildren & Adolescents, education and technology, Social Mediaadmin

A recent article by Pamela B. Rutledge Ph.D., M.B.A., Professor and Director of the Media Psychology Research Center at Fielding Graduate University, challenges the recent recommendation by Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy who called for warning labels on social media platforms, similar to cigarette packaging.

Dr Rutledge recommends that “digital literacy will protect kids better than fear and restrictions.”

The current mental health crisis among young people is real and few would dispute that many children and adolescents are currently experiencing serious issues dealing with social media. Dr R. highlights that “the emphasis of the proposed warning label emphasizes public concern over empirical evidence, encouraging the troubling trend of ignoring research findings in favor of emotion but most of all, it neglects the preventative power of digital literacy.”

While there is no such thing as the “healthy use of cigarettes.” Social media, however, includes hundreds of platforms with numerous features and widely varying uses (like education, and creating, and sharing content). “Like swimming pools, social media poses a risk when kids don’t know how to use it safely and in healthy ways.”

Placing warning labels on social media is less likely to change teen behavior and may do more harm than good if it results in restrictive regulations that ignore the need to teach kids the skills they need. Kids are far more interested in being social than assessing future risks due to their developmental stage and brain maturity. Social media is an important part of how they connect with others and participate in popular culture; they will find a way to go online. “Our goal should be to provide kids with clear guidance and the necessary skills and understanding to use technology (including social media) well rather than keep them from using it at all.”

Social Media is Here to Stay

Warning labels cannot make social media (or mobile devices) safer. People are afraid and angry. A seemingly easy solution that restricts access and enables lawsuits won’t help. Expecting social media companies to screen users without violating privacy and remove all inappropriate content and misinformation from billions of posts daily is unrealistic. And even if that were possible, there are risks of being online outside social media. All web activity can be subject to personal information collection, and kids can be targets of cyberbullying or hurtful video circulation.

Preparation and Education is Needed

Dr R suggests, if we want to protect kids from the negative impact of digital devices without depriving them of benefits, we must teach them essential skills. “There will be times when restrictions are off, and parents aren’t around. Kids have been able to change attitudes and behavior from classroom digital literacy training. It is important not to underestimate their competence and resolve when kids have been taught digital literacy skills, including:

The self-awareness to build self-control and accountability and to make healthy choices.
The ability to identify their personal values, like honesty, empathy, kindness, and respect for others, and apply them to their on and offline actions.
Conflict resolution and coping skills.
The ability to think critically about information and evaluate source and content quality.
An understanding of how persuasive technology can hijack their attention.
The skills to recognize how content styles, messaging, algorithms, and notifications manipulate their emotions and behavior.
The confidence and courage to set personal boundaries and protect their privacy.”

Guidance and structure are needed for healthy technology use. “You wouldn’t give your kids the keys to the car without driver’s training nor throw them in the deep end of a pool without teaching them to swim. The goal of parenting should be to prepare kids for the world they will live in.”

Encouraging specialized campaigns for phone-free zones at school are great ways to limit distractions in the classroom. As with all technology in general, it is important to encourage kids to spend more time outside and in offline activities. “Household technology rules are essential, but healthy technology behaviors are for everyone, not just kids, and all family members should be accountable.”

Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/positively-media/202406/why-warning-labels-on-social-media-miss-the-mark

Surgeon General Asks Congress to Require Warning Labels for Social Media

June 18, 2024Blog, NewsChildren & Adolescents, overuse, smartphone app, Social Mediaadmin

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 York Passes Bill to Ban Addictive Social Media for Children

June 10, 2024Blog, NewsChildren & Adolescents, Mental Health, privacy, Social Mediaadmin

New York lawmakers this week passed a bill that bans internet companies from exploiting personal data and implementing “addictive” algorithms that are designed to keep children ‘hooked’ on social media.

As part of an ongoing effort to curb technology’s role in fueling a mental health crisis in youth, New York’s governor’s office is also supporting a ban on the use of smartphones in schools, which will be debated by educational departments, healthcare professionals, parents and lawmakers over the next few months.

The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act, will require social media companies to restrict key addictive features on their platforms for users under 18 in New York. Once approved and signed into law, the Attorney General’s Office will devise specific enforcement rules and regulations. The measures will then take effect 180 days after those enforcement details are finalized. Technology companies will face fines of up to $5,000 per violation of the youth data privacy and addictive algorithm ban in New York.

A second bill, called the New York Child Data Protection Act, would prohibit all online sites from collecting, using, sharing, or selling personal data of anyone under the age of 18, unless they receive informed consent or unless doing so is strictly necessary for the purpose of the website. For users under 13, that informed consent must come from a parent.

National Online Privacy

Currently, a federal proposal — called The American Privacy RIghts Act has aimed to set nationwide standards for how companies like Meta, TikTok, Google and others can gather, use and sell user data, requiring them to collect only the amount necessary to provide products and services. That bill would transform how social media companies and online search engines use consumers’ personal data in a push to give Americans more control.

“HistoricStep” Forward in New York

New York is making a serious push to improve youth mental health and “create a safer digital environment for young people.” According to the NY Attorney General Letitia James, “Our children are enduring a mental health crisis, and social media is fueling the fire and profiting from the epidemic,” this push has targeted “the addictive features that have made social media so insidious and anxiety-producing,” she added. State Senator Andrew Gounardes, D-Brooklyn stated that “New York is sending a clear message to Big Tech: your profits are not more important than our kids’ privacy and wellbeing.” He noted that the bill he championed overcame substantial lobbying and opposition from the tech industry.

[Link]

Studies Continue To Show Teenage Girls Vulnerable to Possible Social Media Addiction

June 1, 2024Blog, NewsChildren & Adolescents, Social Mediaadmin

Consistent with other previous studies, new research published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, found social media addiction was common among adolescent girls and was associated with poorer mental health and well-being.

Researchers from the University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland aimed to measure smartphone and social media use objectively and to evaluate its associations with measures of mental health and well-being.

First-year female students (n=1164) from 21 socioeconomically diverse high schools responded to an online survey comprising validated questionnaires (Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and Body Appreciation Scale 2) and visual analogue scales of current health, mood, tiredness, and loneliness. They were also asked to attach screenshots depicting their smartphone use.

This study reported daily smartphone use among study participants approached 6 hours, and objectively measured and self-reported times used on social media showed a medium correlation with each other. Daily time on social media was associated with lower GPA, increased anxiety, lower body image, and lower well-being.

Researchers highlight the following takeaway messages:

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ON THIS TOPIC
⇒ Recent studies have indicated increasing anxiety among adolescent girls and associated
this with social media use. We found no previous studies combining objectively collected
data on smartphone or social media use and validated measures of social media addiction
and well-being.

WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS
⇒ In a population-based cohort, smartphone use approached 6 hours daily and one in six
adolescent girls had possible social media addiction. Social media addiction scores were
associated with poorer well-being.

HOW THIS STUDY MIGHT AFFECT RESEARCH, PRACTICE OR POLICY
⇒ Objectively measured smartphone and social media use should be assessed in both research
and practice settings, while policymakers should limit the addictive elements of social media.

Source:
Kosola S, Mörö S, Holopainen E. Smartphone use and well-being of adolescent girls: a population-based study. Arch Dis Child. 2024 May 21:archdischild-2023-326521. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-326521. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38772732.

Screen Time Is A Solution And A Problem In A Tech-Driven Society

March 1, 2024Blog, NewsChildren & Adolescents, Screen Media Activity (SMA), Social Mediaadmin

A recent column in the daily free press reminds us that six years ago Apple introduced new tools built into iOS 12 to “help customers understand and take control of the time they spend interacting with their iOS devices.” These new features called Screen Time included Activity Reports, App Limits and new Do Not Disturb and Notifications controls.

The goal was to offer users detailed information and tools that would help them better understand and control the time they spend with apps and websites, how often they pick up their iPhone or iPad during the day and how they receive notifications.

Ten years earlier Apple had introduced parental controls for iPhone and over that time the developers have worked to add features to help parents manage their children’s content. With Screen Time, these new tools are empowering users who want help managing their device time, and balancing the many things that are important.

So what happened? Did no one use it?

Consumers rejoiced that Apple offered a solution to the issues of screen use. Unfortunately Apple presented us with a useful tool, not a solution.

Today we are still struggling with the negative effects that too much screen time has on our physical, emotional and mental health. A research study recently published in The Journal of Mood & Anxiety Disorders, found that that one-third of youth (aged between 10 and 24 years) spend four or more hours a day engaging with their screens. The effects of such are great, leading to health and mental health problems, among other things. In teenagers, screen media activity (SMA) consumes up to 60% of their after-school time and nearly 97% of US youth have at least one electronic item in their bedroom.

Not An Individual Activity But A Complex and Multifaceted Problem

SMA in youth is often perceived as an individual activity. The authors point out that the relationship between SMA and mental health outcomes in youth is a complex and multifaceted issue that has garnered significant attention among researchers and the public in recent years. The complexity may be due to the diverse nature of screen activities, the rapidly evolving landscape of digital media , and the differential impacts these activities may have across individuals. What is emerging is a nuanced picture, with some evidence suggesting relatively trivial effects of SMA on well-being or life satisfaction and other results indicating stronger associations with mental health problems such as depression or anxiety. More recent research suggests there may be individual differences concerning the impact of SMA. For example, sex-related differences have emerged, with girls generally demonstrating stronger associations between screen media time and mental health indicators than boys; and there is some evidence that effects may differ depending on the broader socioeconomic and environmental context. The COVID-19 pandemic added complexity, influencing screen time habits and mental health outcomes.

An Overeview of the Complexites

To better understand and research SMA, it is more accurate to view it as occurring within a system that encompasses the individual, the immediate caregiver environment, the school, peers and other environmental factors. The authors utilize the Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, which is a framework for understanding human behavior within a complex system of relationships within and across multiple levels of the environment, from more proximal (e.g., immediate family, academic settings) to more distal (e.g., sociocultural values, laws, etc.). The theory proposes five interrelated systems that influence development:

(1) the microsystem which is the immediate environment with which an individual interacts,
(2) the mesosystem which focuses on interactions between different elements of the microsystem,
(3) the exosystem which involves the larger social system with which the individual does not directly interact but it still impacts their behavior,
(4) the macrosystem comprised of the broader societal and cultural context, and
(5) the chronosystem that is centered on the dimension of time including the timing of specific events and historical context.

Figure 1 shows the Bronfenbrenner model conceptual overview of screen media activity and mental health.

Both clinicians and researchers could benefit from reading this article. It provides an excellent birdseye view of the multifaceted interrelationships that can be an important part of screen media activity in youth today and applicable to society in general in today’s tech-obsessed world.

Citation:

Paulus MP, Zhao Y, Potenza MN, Aupperle RL, Bagot KS, Tapert SF. Screen media activity in youth: A critical review of mental health and neuroscience findings. J Mood Anxiety Disord. 2023 Oct;3:100018. doi: 10.1016/j.xjmad.2023.100018. Epub 2023 Aug 11. PMID: 37927536; PMCID: PMC10624397.

A proper term for the impact of these digital interactions has been elected as the Oxford University Press Word of the Year for 2024: “Brain Rot.”The term “reflects growing concerns over the mental impact of excessive digital content consumption.”

National Online Privacy

“HistoricStep” Forward in New York

A proper term for the impact of these digital interactions has been elected as the Oxford University Press Word of the Year for 2024: “Brain Rot.”

The term “reflects growing concerns over the mental impact of excessive digital content consumption.”