The effects of social media use has been under the scanner for long and now researchers have established a direct link between social media use and adolescents. A study led by the University of Cambridge found that young girls and boys are more vulnerable to the shadow cast by social media usage than any other age group.
Girls belonging to the age group between 11 to 13 years and boys belonging age 14-15 years are the most miserable because of social media use. Increased social media use was linked with lesser life satisfaction at the age of 19 years. The link is not statistically significant for other phases of life.
The use of social media has changed drastically over the years, leading to widespread concern over its effects on well-being. Yet then, after years there are no substantial data to conclude how social media use is related to life.
The current survey included neuroscientists, psychologists, and modelers from the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and Donders Institute for Brain, Cognitive and Behaviour who analysed two UK datasets comprising some 84,000 individuals between the ages of 10 and 80 years. These included longitudinal data, 17,400 young people aged 10-21 years old were tracked over a period of time.
Researchers found teenagers who have lower than average life satisfaction use more social media one year later and those who have used social media during key periods of adolescence have lower life satisfaction 12 months later. The difference in the link between social media’s bad effects on girls and boys is linked to developmental changes, key changes in the brain, that occur later in boys compared to girls. The study was published in the journal ‘Nature Communications.’
Social media use at the age of 19 in both males and females is also associated with a decrease in life satisfaction a year later as social changes like leaving home, finding a career start happening simultaneously making a person vulnerable. The link becomes insignificant just a year later.
A decrease in life satisfaction also increases the use of social media irrespective of age or gender, the study further showed.
According to Dr. Amy Orben a group leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, changes within our bodies during puberty, brain development, and in our social circumstances appear to make us vulnerable at particular times of our lives.
For co-author and Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, adolescence is a time of biological, cognitive, and social change. All of these changes are intertwined, making it difficult to disentangle one factor from another which leads to dissatisfaction in life.
Researchers, although have found a correlation between social media use with a certain age group of the population it is not yet possible to predict which individuals are most at risk.
Experts also suggest while some are at risk it can have a positive impact on a section of individuals too. Some can use it to cope-up with problems that they can’t share with the real world too.
Hence more research is required to pinpoint which individuals are at risk or are most influenced by social media.
The experts called on social media companies and other online platforms to do more to share their data with independent scientists for research and governments should do more towards tackling online harm by introducing legislation to compel these companies to be more open.
