Social media effect 'tiny' in teenagers, large study finds

By ITS Education Asia

From the ChalkFace has published a series of articles on the effects of social media on young people, and many of these have suggested negative effects. Therefore it is quite refreshing to see a new study come out with findings that suggest social media is not having that much of an effect on young people.

Some of the key findings of the study are good news for parents.

• The effects of social media use on teenage life satisfaction are limited and probably "tiny," a study of 12,000 UK adolescents suggests.
• The study concluded that most links between life satisfaction and social media use were "trivial", accounting for less than 1% of a teenager's wellbeing - and that the effect of social media was "not a one-way street."
• Prof Przybylski, director of research at the institute, said "99.75% of a person's life satisfaction has nothing to do with their use of social media."
• "Parents shouldn't worry about time on social media - thinking about it that way is wrong," Prof Przybylski said.

Given the amount of time young people now spend on social media these findings are a pleasant surprise.

For those parents concerned with how to limit their child’s screen time here is another excellent article from the BBC on how to limit excessive screen time.