Contrary To Popular Opinion, Most Teens Get Real Value Out Of Social Media

Studies

from the the-data-disproves-the-moral-panic dept

There’s this narrative out there that “it has been decided” that social media is “bad for children” and that it is such a big danger that “regulation is needed.” A few months ago, we wrote about a Berkeley professor who claimed that this was settled and that there was “no longer any question as to the nature of the harm to children around the globe.” In that post we went through all of the linked research showing it proved nothing of the sort.

For example, lots of people rely on the reporting around the Frances Haugen leaks from inside Facebook to argue that “Facebook knew” that Instagram causes “body image issues” for children (and then most people leapt to the belief that the company then ignored and downplayed that finding). But, as we noted, the actual study told a very, very different story. As we pointed out at the time, the study was an attempt to do the right thing and understand if social media like Facebook was actually causing negative self-images among teenagers, and the study found that for the most part, the answer was absolutely not.

It looked at 12 different potential issues, and surveyed teenaged boys and girls, and found that in 23 out of 24 categories, social media had little to no negative impact, and quite frequently a mostly positive impact. The only issue where the “negative impact” outweighed the “positive impact” was on “body image issues” for teenaged girls, and even then it was less than one-third of the teen girls who said that it made it worse for them. And the whole point of the study was to find out what areas were problematic, and which areas could be improved upon. But, again, in every other area, “made it better” far outranked “made it worse.”

Of course, you might question whether or not you can believe Facebook’s own research. But now the Pew Research Center, whose work tends to be impeccable, has released a study also highlighting how social media generally seems to be making teenagers’ lives better, not worse.

Eight-in-ten teens say that what they see on social media makes them feel more connected to what’s going on in their friends’ lives, while 71% say it makes them feel like they have a place where they can show their creative side. And 67% say these platforms make them feel as if they have people who can support them through tough times. A smaller share – though still a majority – say the same for feeling more accepted. These positive sentiments are expressed by teens across demographic groups.

When asked about the overall impact of social media on them personally, more teens say its effect has been mostly positive (32%) than say it has been mostly negative (9%). The largest share describes its impact in neutral terms: 59% believe social media has had neither a positive nor a negative effect on them. For teens who view social media’s effect on them as mostly positive, many describe maintaining friendships, building connections, or accessing information as main reasons they feel this way, with one teen saying:

“It connects me with the world, provides an outlet to learn things I otherwise wouldn’t have access to, and allows me to discover and explore interests.” – Teen girl

So, once again, the general sentiment is that for many teenagers social media improves their lives. For an even larger portion, it neither improves nor makes their lives worse. It’s just a small percentage who find it problematic.

And… that sounds about right. For lots of people of all ages the evidence suggests that, when used well, social media is a nice and useful tool for staying connected with friends, and sometimes enabling them to express themselves better.

It is true that, for some people, it becomes a challenge, and they get sucked into it, and it becomes problematic. But, honestly, given that most teenagers have periods of their teenage years where they feel isolated and alone (for which it would be easy for them to blame social media), these numbers seem astoundingly positive.

The report does note that the “negatives” of social media are mostly around teens feeling “overwhelmed because of all the drama” and that it makes them feel “like their friends are leaving them out of things.” But, um, those feelings happened in the pre-internet days quite frequently as well. They’re, sorta, what happens as a teenager. It’s unclear that we can or should blame anything on the internet for that.

Perhaps even more interesting, the Pew study suggests that all of the media coverage about social media being bad for teens has convinced kids that it must be true… for others. Because they’re not really seeing it themselves. The numbers here are striking. While 32% believe that social media is “mostly negative” for “people their age” only 9% think it’s true for themselves personally:

There’s a lot more in the study that shows there is a lot of nuance here, but one thing seems extremely clear: the idea that social media is universally bad and dangerous for kids is completely false. For many, many kids, it’s actually quite positive. For some it’s neither good nor bad. It’s only bad for a small percentage who have struggled with it. And, even then, the reasons why they’re struggling sound an awful lot like the kinds of social struggles that existed long before the internet or social media existed.

All of this seems to raise some pretty important questions — especially about politicians, academics, and the media who keep feeding us this moral panic that social media is unquestionably bad for teenagers. In California, we’ve already seen a terrifyingly problematic law pass unanimously, with it being stated in the law itself that social media was known to be dangerous for kids.

Similar bills are showing up in states across the country.

Meanwhile, in Congress, lawmakers are rushing to pass KOSA, the Kids Online Safety Act, build on this very same premise.

And, yet, once again we see that the very factual basis for these laws is false.

Stop letting policymakers and the media scare people into believing a moral panic that just isn’t true. Because, in the process, we’re passing a variety of dangerous laws that will actually do a ton to stifle these services that many more people get true value out of, and replace it with something much more limited, with much greater surveillance.

Filed Under: moral panic, social media, teens
Companies: pew research