The Effects of Social Media on Adolescents
Guest post by Eve Bova
The effects of social media on adolescents have been greatly debated and researched since its development, but there still seems to be a lot of unclarity on which effects are prevalent and which are swayed by biased opinions and errors in research. In fact, some researchers suggest that the links between social media use and life satisfaction in adolescents are more flawed than previously thought due to errors in research; stating that most well-executed studies show that the effects of social media use are minuscule (Orben, Dienlin, & Przybylski, 2019). While many studies have shown conflicting results on the effects of social media, other studies have shown that the effects of social media use may be more prevalent when studied with different factors such as time of day media is used, how emotionally dependent adolescents are on social media, how long it is used, and so on. As a young adult who is active on many social media networks (SMNs), I seek to understand the most prevalent effects of social media (both positive and negative) in order to fully understand how social media should be used and regarded in society.
While social media use is often regarded negatively, there are actually a significant amount of positive effects which have been proven. In a synthesis of 43 different research papers on social media use in adolescence (which includes people ages 10-19), it was found that the reported positive effects included, “increased self-esteem, perceived social support, increased social capital, safe identity experimentation and increased opportunity for self-disclosure” (Best, Manktelow, & Taylor, 2014). These effects are overwhelmingly beneficial especially considering that many children do not have a strong support system at home or at school. If social media brings social support and belonging to adolescents’ lives, then their overall wellbeing will clearly benefit. This aspect of social support is also extremely important in adolescents’ abilities to handle stress. When a child undergoes an extreme stressor such as a death in the family, domestic violence, etc., it has the potential to lead to harmful long-term consequences depending on whether that child experiences tolerable or toxic stress. The difference between tolerable stress and toxic stress is that in tolerable stress, the child has social support (typically from adults) which provides strong coping skills and decreases the likelihood of long-term health impacts while in toxic stress, the child does not have a strong support system and therefore may suffer more health consequences in the future (Shonkoff et al., 2012). If a child suffers toxic stress, it can lead to several health problems in the future including learning and behavior impairments, mental illness, and more. Considering that some children may not have a supportive figure in their family, the notion that they could find support through social media is groundbreaking. Friends made through SMNs could lead to fewer experiences of toxic stress in adolescents’ lives simply through support and developing coping skills. The positive effects of social media shown through multiple studies are extremely significant and should not be overlooked in determining the overall value and purpose of SMNs.
Regardless of the beneficial impact social media can have on adolescents, there is certainly a dark side as well. In a study that aimed to find the relationship between social media and poor sleep quality, anxiety, and depression in adolescents, several important correlations were found. The study found that, “poor sleep quality was most strongly associated with nighttime-specific social media use, while anxiety, depression and (low) self-esteem were most strongly associated with emotional investment in social media” (Woods & Scott, 2016). Social media can be extremely distracting to adolescents at bedtime which can ultimately affect the length and quality of sleep they get at night, leading to a plethora of health problems. In addition, as adolescents develop greater amounts of emotional investment in SMNs, the more their health is likely to suffer. Seeing how addicting social media can be at times, it is important that adolescents understand when they are becoming too attached to their SMNs in order to protect their health. The study also mentioned that a lack of good sleep further contributes to and exacerbates adolescents’ anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem (Woods et al., 2016). The use of social media at night as well as high emotional investment can not only create problems but further exacerbate symptoms in children who are already struggling. These effects must be taken seriously as anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem can all lead to significant suffering both in the present and future of adolescents.
Social media use has been proven to provide both benefits and threats to adolescents’ health, and both sides must be taken into consideration in determining how social media should be used and regarded in society. It is important to note that social media use at nighttime and emotional investment had stronger associations with the negative impacts on adolescents’ health than did overall social media use. As well, of all the factors measured, social media use at night is most strongly correlated with poor sleep while emotional investment is most strongly correlated with anxiety and depression among adolescents (Woods et al., 2016). Therefore, social media should not necessarily be regulated in the amount of time spent on it, rather the times of day it is used. SMNs should create regulations in which users can limit and prohibit their use after a certain time at night so they can focus on getting better sleep. While parents and adolescents should have the final say over when this regulation is to be set for, SMNs should at least provide this option in order to promote better sleep and health in adolescents. In addition, to try to limit the amount of emotional investment adolescents develop towards social media, the aspect of “liking” photos and “followers” should perhaps be taken away. Earlier this year, the Instagram team had discussions around not showing to the public how many “likes” a person gets on each of their photos. I feel this is a great way to reduce the amount of social comparison that goes on which contributes to anxiety, low self-esteem, etc. In the future, SMNs should work to reduce the amount of superficial aspects in their media in attempt to stop the addictive and comparative behaviors adolescents tend to show while using social media. SMNs certainly should not be taken away as they provide many significant benefits to adolescents, but there should be regulations in place to prevent and limit negative effects from occurring.
While much research has been done on social media and its effects, there are still many pieces missing to the whole picture. Less flawed research is needed on the effects of social media in order to find out which factors truly produce the most effects. In addition, more research is needed in order to understand which aspects of social media lead to positive and negative effects. For example, is it the comparison aspect provided by “likes” and “follows”, the filter aspect, or something else that contributes to adolescents’ low self-esteem and emotional investment? Which aspects of social media help adolescents form strong bonds with others and find a strong support system? Once society has the answer to questions like these, it will be better able to determine how social media should be constructed and used today.
References
Best, P., Manktelow, R., & Taylor, B. (2014). Online communication, social media and adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review. Children and Youth Services Review, 41, 27–36. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.03.001
Orben, A., Dienlin, T., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). Social media’s enduring effect on adolescent life satisfaction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(21), 10226–10228. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1902058116
Shonkoff, J. P., Garner, A. S., Siegel, B. S., Dobbins, M. I., Earls, M. F., Garner, A. S., … Wood, D. L. (2012). The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress. Pediatrics, 129(1), 235. doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-2663
Woods, H. C., & Scott, H. (2016). #Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Journal of Adolescence, 51, 41–49. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.05.008