A. The use of social media is neither beneficial nor harmful in itself for young people. Adolescents’ online lives reflect and impact their offline lives. In most cases, the effects of social media depend on adolescents’ personal and psychological characteristics and social circumstances, which overlap with the specific content, features, or functions offered by many social media platforms. In other words, the effects of social media likely depend on what adolescents can do and see online, their pre-existing strengths or vulnerabilities, and the contexts in which they grow up.3
b. Adolescents’ online experiences are affected by both 1) how they shape their own experiences on social media (e.g., they choose who to like and follow); and 2) both visible and unknown features integrated into social media platforms.
vs. Not all results apply equally to all young people. The scientific results provide a piece of information that can be used with knowledge of the strengths, weaknesses and context of certain young people to make decisions adapted to each adolescent, family and community.4
D. Adolescent development is gradual and continuous, beginning with biological and neurological changes occurring before puberty is observable (i.e. from around age 10) and continuing at least until Dramatic changes in the youth’s social environment (e.g., peers, family, and school context) and neurological changes are complete (i.e., until approximately age 25).5 Age-appropriate social media use should be based on each adolescent’s maturity level (e.g., self-regulation skills, intellectual development, understanding of risks) and their home environment.6 Because adolescents grow at different rates and there is no available data indicating that children are no longer affected by the potential risks and opportunities posed by social media use at a specific age, research are underway to specify a single time or age for many adolescents. of these recommendations. In general, potential risks are likely to be higher in early adolescence – a time of greater biological, social and psychological transitions – than in late adolescence and early adulthood.7.8
E. As researchers have discovered more generally with the Internet, racism (that is, often reflecting the views of those who build the technology) is built into social media platforms. For example, algorithms (i.e. a set of mathematical instructions that guide users’ daily experiences down to the posts they see) can often contain centuries of racist policy and discrimination.9 Social media can become an incubator, providing community and education that fuels racist hatred.ten The resulting potential impact is far-reaching, including offline physical violence and threats to well-being.11
F. These recommendations are based on psychological science and related disciplines at the time of writing this article (April 2023). Collectively, these studies have been conducted with thousands of adolescents who completed standardized assessments of their social, behavioral, psychological, and/or neurological functioning, and also reported (or were observed) engaging in functions or activities. specific social media content. However, these studies have limitations. First, findings suggesting causal associations are rare, because the data needed to draw causal conclusions are difficult to collect and/or may be available within technology companies but have not been made accessible to independent scientists . Second, long-term longitudinal research (i.e., over several years) is often not available; thus, associations between adolescent social media use and long-term outcomes (i.e., into adulthood) are largely unknown. Third, relatively few studies have been conducted among populations of marginalized youth, including those from marginalized racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, socioeconomic backgrounds, those who are differently abled, and/or youth with social challenges. development or chronic health.
