You might want to reconsider allowing your kid to roam freely in the social media jungle. There are already a lot of studies that show a relationship between social media consumption and quality of life but the latest one focuses on young girls and boys aged 10-15.
The meta research was conducted by experts from the Oxford Internet Institute and subsequently published in the prestigious Nature Communications. So, legitimate science has been conducted! Here are the findings.
The data showed a negative correlation between estimated social media exposure and several different key factors measuring life satisfaction (school, life, appearance, family, etc.). As you can see from the overly-scientific graph below, the more social media kids aged 10-15 absorb, the lower their life satisfaction scores get (overall).
The cross-section relationship between social media use and six different life satisfaction measurements (ages 10–15)
Dr Amy Orben, from the University of Cambridge, who led the study, said, “The link between social media use and mental wellbeing is clearly very complex. Changes within our bodies, such as brain development and puberty, and in our social circumstances appear to make us vulnerable at particular times of our lives.”
And before we deem social media bad and completely cancel it, the matter is much more complicated.
Social media is not bad per se
“It’s not about social media being good or bad, it’s about what young people are up to, why they are using it, and how they feel about it fits into the greater picture of family life,” said
Professor Andrew Przybylski, Director of Research at the Oxford Internet Institute.
With that in mind, parents should focus more on understanding what their children use social media for, how they react to certain things, and maybe encourage them to do things that make them feel good, while trying to keep them away from negative patterns.
We know, it’s easier said than done but at least this is one of the first major studies trying to go deep into the link between social media and how it can affect adolescence. The team shuffled through longitudinal studies (that’s data gathered over a period of time) on 17,400 young people between the ages 10-21.
Adults are affected as well
And while the correlation is alarming especially when we talk about kids, it is present in all age groups. The whole study includes 72,287 UK participants between the age of 10 and 80 years and adults at pretty much every age zone show the same correlation between social media use and life satisfaction.
Estimated social media use and life satisfaction ratings across the lifespan
So, what to do? Maybe it’s not a bad idea to use the Digital Wellbeing feature on your phone, set limits to social media use, and try to set in solid and healthy habits such as “no Facebook at dinner”, or “Leave the phone away before bedtime.” Happiness is something elusive and vague but there are clear scientific patterns which shouldn’t be dismissed lightly.
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