Social media has a different negative impact on adolescent boys than on women

A new study by a group of experts from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands on the impact of social media on adolescents yielded revealing data, as it indicated that men and women may be vulnerable to the negative effects of social media at different ages.

The increase in the use of social networks may affect life satisfaction among young people around 19 years old, the analysis indicated, while the negative link between social media and adolescents is different in women and men, since the former have a worse impact among young people 11 and 13 years old and the second between 14 and 15.

The analysis also highlighted that adolescents who express less satisfaction with their life circumstances use social media constantly.

The research, which was published today in Nature Communications, was part of scientists from the Internet Institute of Oxford University and the University of Cambridge and the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in the Netherlands, and took data from the United Kingdom.

According to the details of the research, girls who are between 11 and 13 years old are more likely to have a negative link with social networks and the same is true for boys, but between the ages of 14 and 15. Increased use of social media also predicts lower life satisfaction at age 19.

This situation, according to experts, could suggest a link between the organic and hormonal changes typical of development and the use of social networks. Possibly, they indicated, changes in the structure of the brain, or with puberty, that occur later in boys that in girls are related to a conflictive use with these media.

Meanwhile, according to the analysis, both sexes agreed that the use of social networks at the age of 19 was again associated with a decrease in life satisfaction. At this age, researchers say, it is possible that social changes, such as leaving home or starting work, may make people more vulnerable.

Social media has fundamentally changed the way young people spend time, share information and talk to others. This has led to widespread concern about its possible negative impact. However, even after years of research, there is still considerable uncertainty about how social media relates to well-being. The team sought a connection between estimated social media use and informed life satisfaction and found key periods of adolescence in which social media use was associated with a subsequent decline in life satisfaction. The researchers also found that adolescents who have below-average life satisfaction then use social media more.

“The link between social media use and mental well-being is clearly very complex. Changes within our bodies, such as brain development and puberty, and in our social circumstances seem to make us vulnerable at particular times in our lives,” said Dr. Amy Orben, from the University of Cambridge, who led the study.

“I wouldn't say that there is a specific age group that we should all be concerned about. We should all reflect on our use of social media and encourage those conversations, but we need to understand what is driving these changes across age groups and across genders. There are very large individual differences, so there may be certain adolescents who benefit from their use of social networks while, at the same time, someone else is harmed,” the expert considered.

Professor Andrew Przybylski, director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute, warned that “currently, the amount of time young people spend on social media is a “black box” for both scientists and parents. To improve our science, we need better data and to improve parenting around technology, we need to start a new conversation. It's not about social media being good or bad, it's about what young people do, why they use it, and how they feel about it fits into the big picture of family life.”

Dr. Orben added that with the findings made by the scientific group “with our findings, rather than discussing whether or not the link exists, we can now focus on the periods of our adolescence when we now know we might be at greatest risk and use this as a springboard to explore some of the the really interesting questions.

“To identify which individuals might be influenced by social media, more research is needed that combines objective behavioral data with biological and cognitive measures of development,” Professor Przybylski agreed. “We therefore call on social media companies and other online platforms to do more to share their data with independent scientists and, if they are unwilling, for governments to show that they are serious about fighting online harm by introducing laws that force these companies to be more open”.

The team, which includes psychologists, neuroscientists and modelers, analyzed two sets of data from the United Kingdom that comprise about 84,000 people aged 10 to 80. These included longitudinal data, that is, data that tracks people over a period of time, on 17,400 young people aged 10 to 21 years. The researchers are from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in the Netherlands.

The researchers wish to point out that, although their findings show at the population level that there is a link between social media use and reduced well-being, it is not yet possible to predict which individuals are most at risk.

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