Read on to learn about our intern’s findings about social media and teenagers….

In recent times, social media has received awful press: the widespread availability of ‘fake news’, the addictiveness that it induces in us, and how we now know that it is ruthlessly researching how to hook us onto our devices more. We allow our children more and more access towards social media without any real concrete evidence into how it really affects us since it is such a new, fresh phenomenon, that has only exploded in the last decade. Constant use is also thought to perpetuate unhappiness as a recent study showed that 1.1 million students were more likely to be unhappy than those who spend their time doing other recreational activities. But does it actually affect academic performance?

New European research from the University of Bamberg, Germany, set out to see whether social media actually affected student performance. However, rather than prove this notion, the study contradicted itself on frequent occasions. Those who actively used social media for help were thought to have higher grades, but those who frequently used it for pleasure were thought to have slightly lower grades. It is keen to stress how little the grades varied. Finally, those who used social media whilst doing homework also received slightly lower grades, but presumably this was due to poorer attention paid towards the homework ,since the students were essentially multitasking.

Therefore, it is clear to see that social media doesn’t result in the apparent disastrous consequences we assumed. HOWEVER, parents should be keeping an eye on their children’s usage of it, by setting realistic boundaries. Whilst social media doesn’t have a direct impact on academic performance, it does have an effect on the mental wellbeing and happiness of the child. This, we should stress, is more important than the academic performance of the kids. Whilst we cannot deny our children access to this relatively new phenomenon -which could lead to potential exclusion- minimum screen time should be recommended. The study that was commissioned also found that the happiest children were the ones that spent little time on screens (no more than 2 hours per day).

Do you agree? We would love to hear your thoughts.

Full study available on the Educational Psychology review