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Guest article by Dr. Lucía Vaquero, Marie Sklodowska-Curie, Postdoctoral fellow, NYU – Center for Language Music and Emotion (CLaME) & Music and Audio Research Laboratory (MARL) and UCM – Research Group in Digital Culture and Social Movements

With more than half of the global population using the internet and social media –almost 95% of them connecting through their smartphones–, we can state that digital devices providing us with access to online activities are ubiquitous across the world. Importantly, this universal presence of digital devices and connectedness seems equally (if not more) prevalent among younger generations. More than a third of teenagers aged 13 to 17 report using social media ‘almost constantly’ (up to seven hours per day on average, according to some sources, and 40% of children aged 8-12 years old are using these sites despite being under the legal age to access these platforms. 

Earlier this year, a focus was placed on the harms that social media poses for minors. Among the dangers listed were the risk of being exposed to sexual and violent content or threats, being bullied online, or being pressured to take part in harmful and even illegal activities were highlighted. These dangerous aspects of social media seem clear to society at large and even to social media companies.  

To counteract Big Tech platforms’ addictive features –specifically designed to promote mindless scrolling– and their associated risks, governmental and NGO ventures have been put in place to try to make social media safer to use for children and teenagers, sometimes focusing on improving the relationship with and time spent using digital devices. Nonetheless, to date, the potential direct link between the use/overuse of social media and poor mental health in children and teenagers remains under debate. Even though some voices are loudly claiming that social media is indeed the main cause of the mental health epidemic among youth nowadays, the scientific evidence behind those statements remains scarce and controversial.  

In this opinion piece, I will attempt to give a brief partial overview of the confounding evidence and inherent limitations in the investigations performed around these topics. At the same time, I will endeavour to give a somewhat optimistic perspective and some ideas to navigate the eminently digital social context facing our youth. 

Indirect and biased measures of social media usage 

Several investigations and analytical revisions of the scientific literature have found negative effects on the mental health status of children and adolescents associated with an excessive use of social media and digital devices (such as smartphones or tablets). Notably, there is evidence linking social media overuse to problematic and rule-breaking behavior (dangerous or unhealthy ‘challenges’, smartphone addiction, promotion of illegal activities, etc.), lower self-esteem (excessive comparison with others), feelings of loneliness and other mood issues, increased depression and anxiety symptoms, and sleep disturbances (which can in turn exacerbate mental, cognitive and physical health issues). However, a look at this literature shows some crucial limitations. Specifically, most investigations gathered their information through measurements such as ‘screen-time’, ‘digital media use’, ‘screen use’, or ‘social media usage’. In doing so, they either obtained an objectively quantified number of hours when the screen of their participants was on (through a tracking app, for instance), or by asking the participants to self-report their hours of use of device/platform use. 

Two crucial questions arise at this point. If the measures are obtained via self-assessments, it is known that these types of questionnaires have limited accuracy. Have you ever tried to guess the time of use of your smartphone, and then checked the actual screen time registered by the built-in app of your phone? If, on the contrary, the measurement is acquired through a tracking app, the objective recording of the amount of screen time usage would be an advantage. However, in both cases, despite estimating smartphone use or the time spent on specific apps, how can we determine what activities occur during that time of usage?  

While on our smartphones or social media, we can perform a vast array of activities –from playing a game to talking to our family or friends. Although the focus is usually placed on the harmful activities children and adolescents can be exposed to in social media (inappropriate content, online forms of coercion to extort sexual favors from the minor, dangerous trends and ‘challenges’, online bullying, etc.), the truth is that social media and digital devices can also be used for beneficial purposes. In fact, some investigations have also found positive effects from the use/overuse of smartphones and social media among youth. For example, some reports have found that social media can increase the engagement in health promoting activities, boost creativity, aid in learning new skills, and be a source of social support –I recommend checking this comprehensive white paper for an accessible summary of reviews on the positive and negative effects of social media on teens’ well-being. 

Hence, maybe the focus of attention should be shifted towards studying the specific activities that youth perform online, exploring what their particular effects on mental health markers of those behaviors may be. 

Ethical limitations hindering this research 

Thinking about changing from a unique focus on “time of use” to a perspective that adds “activities during usage” in this field of research seems an obvious and necessary step. However, how could one measure in an objective way what the screen of an experimental participant is displaying or which activities they are performing on their devices? Further, for how long would researchers need to follow their participants in this way? Most ethical committees reviewing experimental protocols involving children and adolescents would not approve the use of tracking apps –that only gather information about usage time– unless a clear benefit and robust scientific reason exists. And even with the use of technology like tracking apps, how could a researcher gather information about what somebody actually does online without violating their privacy?  

The only other possible and easy-to-implement solution would be to explicitly ask research participants to explain their activities online. But how could we trust that recollection, especially in the case of minors trying to explain (or to avoid explaining) inappropriate content viewing, involuntary or traumatic exposure to sexual or violent content, or other activities that could be uncomfortable for them to disclose? A clear conundrum emerges here. 

Although awareness of screen-time limitations arose a while ago, the actual application of these measurements in research remains. After reflecting upon the mixed results and constraints that the available scientific reports provide, one of the main conclusions we can draw is that we need to be more creative with our experimental approaches in future investigations in this field, to overcome the current methodological limitations. 

Where do we go from here? 

We have established that gathering information about the specific use minors give to their digital devices is not easy to implement and yet activity is a crucial part of their daily routines. Although most initiatives have focused on limiting the time of usage, maybe a more interesting solution –easier to maintain in the long-term– would be to provide children with better tools to critically assess their use of these technologies. 

Accordingly, maybe general promotion of critical thinking and nonjudgmental educational programs could be useful approaches. By providing them with critical thinking tools, children and adolescents could thus have a more complete picture of these platforms and the goals of the companies behind them and be critical about how they use social media. More importantly, they could learn strategies to detect, help, and know how to react in cases of cyberbullying, sextortion, or smartphone addiction in themselves or their peers. In addition, I believe that teaching about the risks of social media while promoting the use of positive and stimulating activities within these platforms could be an important key in biasing the situation towards positive outcomes. For instance, my research team and I are pairing this critical discussion about social media with a digital-arts training to encourage a more stimulating use of social media, while promoting positive effects on the mental health of teenagers. Other research approaches are focused on promoting the social cohesion and support that digital apps provide, or on educating physicians and families to be able to detect, discuss and address potential harmful digital / online activities (see also the interesting development of this Virtual Learning Companion in the COURAGE project). Furthermore, we can find various resource repositories, guidelines, and examples of educational approaches aiming to increase social media literacy for children and teenagers, educators and families. These initiatives come from governmental bodies (see the European Union’s or US’ media literacy guidelines) or private, non-profit organisations (such as the Canadian Media Smarts), and have a common goal of increasing social media awareness and cyber-wisdom in youth mainly through the promotion of critical thinking. 

To conclude, even though time of use and screen time could be good indicators of problematic behaviors (like social disconnection or smartphone addiction), digital devices and social media can also be used to promote positive activities and mental-health outcomes among youth. Since restricting usage is difficult to maintain in the long run, an educational approach based on stimulating activities and critical thinking could help counteract detrimental effects potentially caused by the overuse of digital devices’ overuse. In that sense, I believe that activities promoting social cohesion and creativity represent our best chance to balance the effects of mindless scrolling and exposure to harmful content online. Although I believe educational ventures can help us exploit the beneficial effects and applications of social media, I agree that it is important to set the alarm regarding all the negative effects that have been associated or suggested to be linked to the overuse of digital devices and social media. Nevertheless, I think further investigation and alternative methodologies for studying this topic are the key to unequivocally understand which online activities can be positive or negative for the mental health of children and adolescents.