Girls and boys are more vulnerable to the negative effects of social media use at different ages, according to a study by an international team of scientists including the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. Girls up to the age of 13 already perceive a negative connection between the use of social media and their life satisfaction. For boys, this only happens between the ages of 14 and 15. The researchers analyzed two British data sets from around 84,000 people between the ages of ten and 80. This included longitudinal data from 17,400 young people aged ten to 21.

Puberty could be to blame

This suggests that sensitivity to social media use could be related to developmental changes, perhaps changes in the structure of the brain, or to puberty, which occurs later in boys than in girls. By the age of 19, this had evened out. Anyone who had previously used social media intensively will pay for this with lower life satisfaction in their final teen years. At this age, the researchers say, it is possible that social changes – such as leaving home or taking up paid work – make young people more vulnerable.

“The connection between social media use and psychological well-being is very complex,” says Amy Orben, study leader and psychologist at the University of Cambridge. “I wouldn’t say there’s a particular age group that we should all be worried about. We should all think about our social media use and encourage these conversations. But we need to understand what is driving these changes across age groups and between genders. There are very large individual differences, so there may be certain teenagers who benefit from their use of social media while others are harmed.”

Platform data is important

“To understand which people are influenced by social media, more research is needed that combines objective behavioral data with biological and cognitive measures of development,” adds Andrew Przybylski, professor of experimental psychology and director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute. “We therefore call on social media companies and other online platforms to do more to share their data with independent scientists.” If necessary, the government should force them to be more open.

Source: pte

Related to the topic: Are smartphones making teenagers lonely?


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