Teenagers and Social Media
We need more research, but here’s what we know for now.
It’s a widely accepted fact that social media use can have adverse effects on adults, but research has only just begun looking into its effects on adolescents in the last few years. It’s a pretty safe assumption that if social media can be hard on adults’ mental health, it has the potential to be problematic for teens’ more undeveloped brains. Research is just starting to understand some of the specifics. Could the amount of social media platforms teens are on be affecting how they adjust to their daily environments? Is parental monitoring helpful or harmful to teens' relationships with social media? What we do know is that the number of social media teens have makes a big difference!
Let's explore these questions and findings and see what more we could gain from further research into adolescent social media use.
Are That Many Teens on Social Media?
The participation of adolescents using social media is an ever-growing phenomenon. Approximately 24% of teenagers from the U.S. report spending time online “almost constantly,” with a large portion of that screen time spent on social media. In fact, 97% of the teens who reported spending time online “almost constantly” also said they use at least one social media platform.
What Research Into Teens and Social Media Has Been Done?
One 2017 study delved into this new area of research, gathering a sample group of 226 participants made of 113 parent-adolescent pairs. Christopher Barry and his team of researchers used a multi-perspective approach, having the parents and adolescents report separately on the adolescents’ social media use. Questions about which social media platforms, number of social media accounts, the frequency with which teens check their accounts, and how connected the teens were to their parents on social media were included in both surveys.
These two groups answered these surveys with the goal of learning more about the links between the teens’ social media use and their psychosocial adjustment. Frontiers in Psychology defines psychosocial adjustment as the ability for people to adapt to their environment, “which implies that the individual has sufficient mechanisms to feel good, integrate, respond adequately to the demands of the environment, and achieve his or her objectives.” For adolescents, psychosocial adjustment generally refers specifically to their ability to function within school and with their families.
What Are Teens and Parents Concerned About When It Comes to Social Media?
The major areas of concern that adolescents reported were fear of missing out (or FOMO) and perceived loneliness. However, these feelings were not considered to be the main concern.
For the purposes of this study, FOMO and loneliness were viewed as moderators, meaning they were found to make symptoms of mental health issues worse, such as causing anxiety and depression. While social media can make feelings of FOMO and loneliness worse if teens do not feel as though they have enough consistent access to social media and their peers, it can also lessen these feelings by connecting them to peers virtually.
The parents filled out their own surveys, also reporting on their teens’ social media use, including one survey dedicated to DSM 5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) symptoms. From the parents’ perspectives, signs of anxiety and depression were noted in their teenagers, alongside signs of inattention, ODD (oppositional defiant disorder), and hyperactivity/impulsivity.
While this study has pointed out some links between social media use and concerning mental health effects, there needs to be more in-depth, longitudinal research done on this topic with a consistent group of adolescents that are studied over multiple years of their social media use.
Social media only became common in the early 2000s, and its growing presence in the lives of teenagers has only become a concern in the last handful of years. So, while this particular research can offer us some evidence of connections between teenagers’ social media use and their ability (or inability) to adapt, more long-term studies need to be done to learn more.
How Can Teens Interact Healthily With Social Media?
The key finding of this research was that the number of social media accounts adolescents had was related to their ability to adjust to their environment. For instance, a teenager who has five social media accounts would generally demonstrate less of an ability to adjust than a teenager with one social media account. So, could fewer social media accounts be the key for teens to adjust more easily to their environments? Maybe. But as mentioned, that's a question for another researcher to explore!
This article also looked into the possible impact of parents monitoring their teen’s social media on a regular basis, and found that it was not particularly impactful in how their children were affected by social media. However, the researchers noted that this was likely due to a lack of focus in that area. They cited another study called “A Friend Request from Dear Old Dad: Associations Between Parent-Child Social Networking and Adolescent Outcomes,” which found that parental involvement in teens’ social media had a positive impact on the teens. Therefore, a small dose of online parental supervision and interaction is likely helpful for adolescents’ adjustment and their relationship with social media.
The good news is that more and more people have questions about children and teens interacting with social media, and this rising interest has been working to push for more research. So, it’s likely that we’ll be seeing plenty of studies coming out with more substantive evidence that can better equip parents and guardians to handle teens and social media.
Compelling social media addiction statistics to take away:
The average person spends two hours and 27 minutes on social media every day.
It’s estimated that 210 million people worldwide are addicted to social media.
More than half of all drivers admit to checking social media behind the wheel.
Overuse of social media in children and teens can literally rewire their brains.
Roughly 42 percent of teens admit that social media keeps them from connecting with friends in person.
In a recent survey, 70 percent of teens said they feel left out or excluded because of social media.
Suicide rates among teens have increased in the age of social media.
Social media is more addictive than alcohol and cigarettes.
Source: The Lanier Law Firm
Study Objective & Methods
Adolescent social media use and mental health from adolescent and parent perspectives
Christopher T. Barry, PhD; Chloe L. Sidoti, BA; Shanelle M. Briggs, BSc; Shari R. Reiter, PhD; Rebecca A. Lindsey, PhD
Published in the Journal of Adolescence, 2017.
The objective of this study was to discover any correlations between social media use in adolescents and their ability to adjust to their environment. 226 people participated in the research, with 113 parent-adolescent pairs making up this sample. The adolescents’ ages ranged from 14-17, an age group chosen due to the relative autonomy, ability, and opportunity for these ages to spend time online. Both the parents and the adolescents filled in surveys reporting on the specifics of the teens’ social media use. Information such as which social media platforms, number of social media accounts, the frequency with which they check their accounts, and how connected they were to their parents on social media were included in both surveys. The parents’ survey also included an entire section of DSM 5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) symptoms, and they were asked to check off all that applied to their teens. All results of this study were self-reported by the participants, and that data was analyzed as a collective to discover any patterns.
Social Media and Well-Being Training
This research (and all our social media and well-being articles) have laid the foundation for our 3-course program designed for anyone wanting to approach social media and communications in a way that protects well-being and puts people first. Learn more here.
