Tips For Managing Social Media Use
- Pick a time at night after which you will not check your phone, and if possible, recharge your phone in another room while you sleep.
- Use an alarm clock instead of relying on your phone as an alarm to prevent you from using your phone the minute you wake up.
- Choose one day a week where you take a day off from social media and focus on other things.
- Turn off your notifications for at least a few hours each day put your phone in Airplane mode or Do Not Disturb.
- Set boundaries or only certain times when you can check your notifications.
- Take a break from apps that you notice contribute to unhealthy body image or feelings of inadequacy. Instead, you can try apps meant to help you feel better about yourself, such as meditation apps.
- Use apps that block certain other apps and tell you about your usage. This will help to increase your awareness of how much you are engaging with social media and help you focus on other activities.
- Start a habit of placing your phone near the door when you come home doing it with a friend, partner, or family member can help you stay motivated and accountable! Make a plan with a group of friends to spend more time hanging out in person and less time interacting via social media.
- Consider putting your phone in grayscale. This makes your phone less enticing to look at. With the colorful apps and notifications changed to gray, they may be easier to ignore.
Provide Students With Positive Examples Of Social Media Use
Because it is so easy for young people to fall into negativity feedback loops when they use social media, teachers can counter the tendency by sharing examples of social media activities that are beneficial and that make students and others feel better.
Research reported in the publication JAMA Network highlights the connection between the content adolescents view on social media or television and increased presence of depression symptoms. The researchers pointed to social comparisons and negative reinforcements as the causes of heightened depression rather than simply the time that screen viewing takes from other activities. Teachers can help by providing students with alternative activities that emphasize person-to-person contact and physical activity.
Increased Social Media Use Linked To Developing Depression Research Finds
Dr. Brian Primack, Dean of the College of Education and Health Professions
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. Young adults who increased their use of social media were significantly more likely to develop depression within six months, according to a new national study authored by Dr. Brian Primack, dean of the College of Education and Health Professions and professor of public health at the University of Arkansas.
Compared with participants who used less than 120 minutes per day of social media, for example, young adults who used more than 300 minutes per day were 2.8 times as likely to become depressed within six months.
The study, which will be published online Dec. 10 and is scheduled for the February 2021 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, is the first large, national study to show a link between social media use and depression over time.
Most prior work in this area has left us with the chicken-and-egg question, said Primack. We know from other large studies that depression and social media use tend to go together, but its been hard to figure out which came first. This new study sheds light on these questions, because high initial social media use led to increased rates of depression. However, initial depression did not lead to any change in social media use.
The authors suggest that social comparison may also underlie these findings.
Additional researchers on this study are Ariel Shensa and Dr. Michael Fine, both of the University of Pittsburgh.
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Social Media & Loneliness
Figure 1: Social Media & Loneliness. Students who had their social media use limited reported less loneliness. The control group, which used the same amount of social media as they usually do, had a loneliness score of 38.2 Those who limited their social media use to 10 minutes per day per platform reported a loneliness score of 33.5. This was measured with the UCLA Loneliness Score, on a scale of 20-80. This was statistically significant.
For this post, we’ve teamed up with Alice in Science Education, an educator who has a great blog , and sharing her thoughts on the latest research in education and science. She provided the ideas and thoughts for this post.
There is no question that social media has completely changed the way we live. Many of us interact with our friends online more than we do in person.
Kids, in particular, use a lot of social media. They spend hours on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms that most adults havenât even heard of.
But what is the effect of this on mental health? New research is beginning to show that social media does have significant effects on how we think and how we feel, and it isnât always positive. Experimental evidence has shown that limiting social media use may be helpful in improving our mental health.
A psychology experiment on students showed that social media may ironically make us feel lonelier.
Students in an experiment were randomly selected to limit their social media use to 10 minutes per day per platform.
The Digital Age Of Vulnerability
The earlier teens start using social media, the greater impact the platforms have on mental health. This is especially true for females. While teen males tend to express aggression physically, females do so relationally by excluding others and sharing hurtful comments. Social media increases the opportunity for such harmful interactions.
Sperling offers the example of a seventh grader whose best friend chooses a new best friend and posts pictures of the pair at the movies or on a weekend trip. Twenty years ago, the girl may have been excluded from her best friends activities, but she may not have known about it unless she was told explicitly, Sperling says.
In addition to providing young people with a window through which they can view missed experiences, social media puts a distorted lens on appearances and reality. Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat increase the likelihood of seeing unrealistic, filtered photos at a time when teen bodies are changing.
In the past, teens read magazines that contained altered photos of models. Now, these images are one thumb-scroll away at any given time. Apps that provide the user with airbrushing, teeth whitening, and more filters are easy to find and easier to use. Its not only celebrities who look perfectits everyone.
When theres a filter applied to the digital world, it can be hard for teens to tell whats real and what isnt, which comes at a difficult time for them physically and emotionally.
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Facebook And Symptoms Of Depression
Although several studies have made the connection between computer-mediated communication and signs and symptoms of depression, this issue remains controversial in current psychiatry research. There are many potential reasons why a Facebook user may have a tendency to become depressed, as there are numerous factors that may lead an already depressed individual to start to use or increase their use of SNS.
In 1998, Kraut et al. published one of the first studies to indicate that Internet use in general significantly affects social relationships and participation in community life.1 In this research, the authors found that increased time spent online is related to a decline in communication with family members, as well as the reduction of the Internet user’s social circle, which may further lead to increased feelings of depression and loneliness. This work was later followed by several other publications where it was suggested that computer use may have negative effects on children’s social development.2
At the time when these studies were conducted, most of today’s social networks did not exist. For example, Facebook was founded in 2004, and became popular among children and adolescents a few years later. Instead, most works were focused on the investigation of possible effects of Internet browsing, e-mail checking, and other online and offline behaviors on mental health.
Your Brain On Social Media
Rachel Wu, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, agreed. Social media may be “filling a void, but its not doing a very good job, she said.
Neither Wu nor Prinstein were involved in the new research.
Perlis said his team found the association between social media use and increased symptoms of depression even after accounting for factors such as isolation during the pandemic.
The research also found age differences in how certain platforms impacted mental health. Depressive symptoms were more commonly reported among Facebook users under age 35 than older adults.
The opposite was true for users of Snapchat and TikTok: more depressive symptoms were reported among people over age 35.
The reasons for such findings were unclear. It could be that because Snapchat and TikTok are more visual mediums, perhaps affecting older adults differently.
Or it could suggest that a person is out of sync with his or her peers. Perlis said more research is needed to interpret the results appropriately.
Ultimately, experts recommend remaining mindful of time spent on social media.
“The programs are designed to keep you on as long as possible,” Prinstein said. “Try to be aware of how much time you’re spending on them.”
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The University Of Pennsylvania Study
In 2018, the University of Pennsylvania hosted the most impactful research into the nexus between social media and depression. The study involved splitting a group of 143 students into two groups for three weeks. One group continued normal social network activities. The second limited their access to social media to just 30 minutes a day .
Everyone involved used iPhones. Researchers tracked phone usage data to ensure each group participated as planned. In just three weeks, the group that used less social media had better mental health outcomes. As such, the research study suggests that less time on social media led to fewer feelings of unhappiness and depression.
How Does Social Media Encourage Cyberbullying
Key Statistics:
- 27% of people who thought social media was negative stated that cyberbullying was one of the reasons for this.
- 33% of children are cyberbullied and 70% of children have stated that they have bullied someone online.
- 50% of young people aged 14-24 have experienced online bullying.
- 37% of young people have stated that they are being cyberbullied frequently.
- Younger people are more likely to be bullied on Facebook than any other social media platform.
- 91% of people who have been cyberbullied stated that no action was taken by the platforms to help stop it happening again.
The facts about cyber bullying on social media are worrying, as 50% of young people aged 14-24 have experienced bullying online. Rumors, name-calling, persistent messaging and harassment are all unfortunately very common amongst adolescents and it is on the rise due to the propagation of smartphones. Both boys and girls are being cyber-bullied online, but it is the girls that are too often receiving non-consensual explicit messages and being targeted for rumors spread online.
91% of those who have been bullied online had no help from social media platforms to prevent it from happening in the future. Other key groups such as politicians and teachers are also not helping to tackle the problem which has become a significant worry for parents, as 66% of children would not tell their parents if they were being cyber-bullied online.
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Keep Tabs On How Your Children Feel When Using Social Media
Parents balance the freedom they give their children with the need to monitor their activities without invading their privacy. It usually isnt necessary for parents and guardians to track everything their adolescent and teenage children do on social media and elsewhere online. However, parents must watch for signs that their childrens use of social media is having negative effects on their mental health.
Note that the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act prohibits web services from collecting personal information from children younger than 13 without the express permission of their parents. As the National Center for Health Research notes, age is self-reported when creating an account on social media, so underage children can simply lie about their age when they sign up.
Social Media And Mental Health Statistics
- Of all US teenagers, 95% have been reported to be on social media daily.
- Approximately 86% of online teens post on social media consistently .
- A massive 77% of online teens and adults use Facebook.
- 83% of adult internet users use social media on a consistent basis.
- Reports that examine social media effects on mental health show that 32% of all time spent online is spent social networking.
- A total of 36% of teens and young adults log into social media platforms ten times or more a day.
- Facebook has estimated that their average user spends 20.3 hours a month on their site.
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What Can Parents Do
Because children are not good at self-regulation and are susceptible to peer pressure, social media sites can be risky places to hang out. The Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act prohibits websites from collecting information on children younger than 13 without parental permission. However, age is based on self-report, so children younger than 13 can simply lie about their age and open accounts. The New York Board of Education has a resource guide to help children over the age of 13 use the internet safely and in a healthy manner.
Many parents do not know the popular social media sites and how they work. With many parents busy schedules, this leaves many kids unsupervised on the internet, which can lead to problems. Parental supervision is as valuable online as it is offline when it comes to instilling values and safeguards. There are a number of resources meant to help teach parents about social media sites and how they work. Connect Safely has developed parent guides for understanding different social media platforms. Also, Common Sense Media has a list of red flags to be on the lookout for when your children are using various social media platforms.
One thing you can do is check in with your children and let them know that it is safe to come to you if they are experiencing cyberbullying. Safe Teens has developed a website with information about cyberbullying. You can read and discuss this webpage with your children.
Who Uses Social Media
Around 86% of 18- to 29-year-olds use these platforms. Another 80% of people aged 30-49 and 64% of people aged 50-64 are on social media. Even one-third of adults over 65 use it, compared to just 10% in 2010.
Whats more concerning is how many teenagers use these platforms. A survey found that 97% of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 have at least one account.
via National Center for Health Research
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Know The Signs Of Harmful Social Media Use By Students
A common misconception is that use of social media by young people always improves their ability to socialize in the real world. In fact, many teachers report that the opposite is true: Social media use has led to a breakdown in the ability of many students to communicate with each other in the classroom. The National Education Association quotes an 11th grade English teacher from North Carolina who states that social media has crippled her students ability to interact with one another in person.
Because so little is known about social medias impact on youth, teachers have to consider the role of this and other technologies on the growing prevalence of anxiety, loneliness and depression among teenagers and adolescents. The best teachers can do is to listen to students and remind them that there are many good things in life that have nothing at all to do with social media.
+ Social Media And Mental Health Statistics Everyone Must Read
Social media websites are the most popular thing on the internet right now. Everyone uses them, and the opinions on whether they are good or bad are mixed. Some people experience negative effects of using social media, but what do the statistics say? How does social media affect mental health? Science gives us some very interesting but also very alarming information.
Editors picks of social media and mental health statistics:
- 72% of adults and 97% of teens use social media websites
- YouTube is by far the most used platform
- 89% of teens use social media frequently, out of which 45% use it almost constantly
- 30% of all people, 49% of adolescents believe they are addicted to social media
- Those who use social media more frequently have far more mental health issues
- Limiting the usage of social media leads to lower depression symptoms
- Victims of cyberbullying are more than twice as likely to have suicidal tendencies
General social media statistics
We all use social media. But how many people exactly use it? PEW research center reports that a total of 72% of adults1 and 97% of teens2 use at least one social media platform. The usage is the highest among the youngest population, but is relatively high even in the eldest category. More detailed statistics can be seen in the graph below.
References
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