A new scientific study concludes that social media use is linked to dissatisfaction and negative effects on the mental health of young people and adolescents. Search published in Nature Communications Magazinestated that young people who frequently use social media in certain age groups experience deteriorating indicators of satisfaction with their private lives a year later.
The researchers – led by Amy Urban, a psychologist who runs the University of Cambridge’s Digital Mental Health Program – recognize that the relationship between mental health and social networks is very complex, because such platforms are an integral part of nearly every employee’s routine.
To get answers, the scientists mapped different levels of dissatisfaction between men and women and created cognitive and social “age windows for development.” In this way, it was possible to conclude that boys between 14 and 15 years and girls between 11 and 13 years are the groups most vulnerable to the potential negative effects of social media.
At other stages of life, the effects are small, non-existent, or difficult to identify. For example, young people of both sexes, between the ages of 16 and 21, experience a decline in life satisfaction with more and more use of social networks. These differences require a new round of research to reach more specific conclusions.
To get to the numbers, the scientists analyzed in detail several surveys conducted in the UK, which asked about things like time of use of social networks and life satisfaction. At the largest, 72,000 people between the ages of 10 and 80 were interviewed in seven rounds of interviews between 2011 and 2018.
Another survey that Orben and colleagues analyzed included 17,000 youths between the ages of 17 and 21 in the country, using a similar type of questionnaire. The numbers showed a clear relationship between poor mental health and social media.
However, Orben notes that there are limitations in the study. The biggest one is that it cannot be said that social networks are the cause of dissatisfaction, only that there is a relationship between one thing and another. Since study data is obtained through interviews, each interviewee may have a different understanding of using social media too much or too little.
Getting more tangible data comes up against the same companies that control these networks. Companies like Meta do not provide access to statistics by age group or time of media use, which complicates the accuracy of independent surveys.
This data allowed scientists to more accurately determine whether social networks cause such negative effects, and which age groups are most affected. Only then, Orben asserts, can public policies be designed to protect young people and adolescents from potential consequences of this kind.
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