The ‘double-edged sword’ of social media in adolescent mental health
S1: I'm Andrew Bracken and this is Screen Time , featuring conversations about technology and kids in today's digital age. When talking about social media use and its impact on the mental health of young people today , the conversation often gets dominated by perceived harms. But online spaces have also become a central way for young people to connect with each other , especially amid an emotionally challenging , often lonely period of life. And that's especially true for young people from the LGBTQ plus community , as well as other marginalized groups. Daniela munoz Lopez is a researcher and PhD candidate at the University of Washington , and she studies the complex relationship between digital media use and adolescent mental health. She shares more about what the research tells us , and why she feels it's important to include youth voices in discussions around technology and Our conversation started by talking more about what we know about the connection between media use and adolescent mental well-being.
S2: What's tricky about this is that a lot of things are often so mixed. There's a lot of research out there that's looking at the relationship between digital media use and adolescent mental health and well-being. So many studies out there , and it's tricky because there are , you know , some conflicting studies. There's some studies that are showing really negative effects , but also some studies that are showing really positive effects. And that's also just the nature of the research. It's really hard to get a definitive answer. And because of that , I really actually like to think of social media use as more of like a double edged sword in the relationship between adolescent mental health and well-being. What we're seeing is that there's a lot of opportunities for benefits and for adolescents to really , like , find community and find sources of support. But there's also , unfortunately , chances for , you know , internalizing symptoms like depression and anxiety to be almost exacerbated or be influenced by social media , digital media use. So it's a really complex piece of literature just because there's so much changing , so much going on. There are a lot of opportunities , which I think is something that is sometimes not highlighted as much , but it's definitely super important to think about as well.
S1: In relation to social media use. You mentioned , you know , the sense of of community. Tell us more about that , how you're seeing that play out in the research in your area of study.
S2: So social media spaces and digital media as a space of community is super important and super critical , especially for adolescents who maybe come from a marginalized community. For example , we can think of how there could be adolescents who are part of the LGBTQ plus community , who maybe don't feel comfortable or don't feel safe reaching out to people in person and don't feel comfortable with , you know , finding those sources of support in person because maybe they're not able to and they're not safe doing so. But with online spaces , they can reach out to others and find these groups and find these communities where they can ask , reach out and get support , you know , relate to other people. And we can also see this with like other marginalized groups as well , how they can really just go on these digital spaces and find others that they could relate to and find sources of support in that way that maybe is not easily accessible in real world spaces.
S1: And we have seen some research point to greater social media use in black and Latino youth compared to other racial groups.
S2: So the International Adolescent Connection and Technology Lab , which is led by our fantastic Pi doctor Lucy Weinberg. We primarily study social media use and digital media use in international spaces , primarily in Latin America. So a lot of the work that I've done has been largely focused on , um , understanding the experiences of Peruvian adolescents and with Peruvian adolescents. Specifically , we are seeing that older adolescents and girls tend to experience more of these internalizing symptoms like symptoms of depression , symptoms of anxiety , especially in relation to something that we call digital stress , which is essentially the subjective experience of being online. Yeah.
S1: Yeah.
S2: Interactions that you're having online are just the the fact of having your phone around you. What we tend to see is that there are increasing rates of digital stress. And typically what we see is that girls and older adolescents are experiencing more digital stress and that these do have a relationship with internalizing symptoms so that symptoms of depression , symptoms of anxiety , and perceived stress.
S1:
S2: So that's around the 10 to 15 age mark. That's when we start to see a large rise in anxiety , depression and eating disorders. So it's a really vulnerable period. And there's when you think of adolescence you you know there's so many developmental changes that are going on. You're going from elementary school to middle school to high school. There's a lot of biological changes. You're going through puberty. You're also establishing your own sense of identity , your own autonomy. So there's so many changes going on. And social media is actually interacting with all of these changes at the same time. So we do see that this onset really tends to start in that adolescent period , which is such a critical window of opportunity for also like intervention and understanding of what's going on.
S1: What tools are available for young people and their families to. To better manage digital stress.
S2: In our lab , we work a lot with Common Sense Media and they have a really great course on digital citizenship where it walks adolescents through , I believe , 6 or 9 topics of just being users of digital spaces. Um , so it talks about like cyberbullying , phishing , that kind of stuff and really gives tools , um , adolescents , the tools that they need to navigate these online spaces. There's also really great platforms , such as the social media test drive , which was developed by Cornell University. And it's essentially like a mock Facebook that adolescents can go on to and essentially practice being online before they actually get their own account. And in our lab , we're actually currently working on translating the entire social media test drive to Spanish so that it could be more widely accessible.
S1: You mentioned this social media test drive , like a social network with training wheels , as a way to kind of learn how to use it. That's a really interesting approach , and probably something a lot of like older adults could have used.
S2: And there's so much , you know , that goes into being a digital citizen of being in these online spaces. So I think the tools that we have now do a great job of being developmentally appropriate and really taking and trying to take into account adolescent experiences. I think something that , again , is extremely crucial and so beneficial is just having adolescent voices , because adolescents do have their own autonomy. They know how to use social platforms to do a lot of good , to really advocate for themselves , to come together as a community and really like move forward change. So they really are experts of these digital spaces. So what would be super beneficial is having more of their voices in everything that we do and having their input. And this is something in research we like to refer to this type of work as like having a youth advisory board. So having youth actually work and talk with researchers about the research that's going on. So is the research actually capturing what we wanted to capture ? Is it capturing adolescents experiences in the best way ? And this is something that I think could be implemented a lot more as well , is just having adolescent input in the moment while things are being developed.
S1: And finally , you've kind of covered a lot here , but I'm just curious if you can leave us with one thing that you'd recommend for parents or families at least to think about when it comes to adolescents and their use of media.
S2: So it's super important to think about how , again , there's so many opportunities of being online and these opportunities aren't going to come about without that scaffolding. So having these conversations with adolescents , modeling the social media use , the digital media use is super critical and important. Also , adolescents really have their own sense of autonomy. They're developing that. They're developing their own sense of identity. And it's really important to be a part of that and just listen to what adolescents are saying and what they're experiencing. You know , even something like doing a TikTok dance with your adolescent could be so beneficial because you're sort of entering their world , their space , and trying to understand what that's like for them.
S1: You can find more resources on all things Kids in Tech at our website , KPBS , anytime. What questions do you have when it comes to your kids and screens ? My email is Screen Time at KPBS. I'm Andrew Bracken. Thanks for listening.
