受青春期变化影响，男孩与女孩受到社交媒体最大负面影响的年龄阶段不同

根据包括牛津互联网研究所专家在内的一个国际科学家团队发表的研究：女孩在11-13岁时可能更容易受到社交媒体的负面影响，男孩在14-15岁更容易受到影响。增加对于社交媒体的使用也可能影响到19岁时的生活满意度，生活满意度较低的青少年会更多地使用社交媒体。

图源牛津大学官网

This suggests sensitivity to social media use might be linked to developmental changes, possibly changes in the structure of the brain, or to puberty, which occurs later in boys than in girls. But, for both, social media use at the age of 19 years was again associated with a decrease in life satisfaction. At this age, say the researchers, it is possible social changes – such as leaving home or starting work – may make us vulnerable.

Social media has fundamentally changed how young people spend time, share information and talk to others. This has led to widespread concern about its potential negative impact. Yet, even after years of research, there is still considerable uncertainty about how social media relates to wellbeing. The team looked for a connection between estimated social media use and reported life satisfaction and found key periods of adolescence where social media use was associated with a subsequent decrease in life satisfaction. The researchers also found teens who have lower than average life satisfaction later use more social media.

Dr Amy Orben, from the University of Cambridge, who led the study, said, ‘The link between social media use and mental wellbeing is clearly very complex. Changes within our bodies, such as brain development and puberty, and in our social circumstances appear to make us vulnerable at particular times of our lives.’

She maintained, ‘I wouldn’t say that there is a specific age group we should all be worried about. We should all be reflecting on our social media use and encouraging those conversations but we need to understand what is driving these changes across the age groups and between genders. There are very large individual differences, so there may be certain teenagers that benefit from their use of social media whilst at the same time, someone else is harmed.'

Professor Andrew Przybylski, Director of Research at the Oxford Internet Institute said, 'Currently the amount of time young people spend on social media is a “black box” to scientists and parents alike. To improve our science we need better data and to improve parenting around tech we need to start a new conversation. It’s not about social media being good or bad, it’s about what young people are up to, why they are using it, and how they feel about it fits into the greater picture of family life.'

Dr Orben added, ‘With our findings, rather than debating whether or not the link exists, we can now focus on the periods of our adolescence where we now know we might be most at risk and use this as a springboard to explore some of the really interesting questions.’

Professor Przybylski agreed and said, 'To pinpoint which individuals might be influenced by social media, more research is needed that combines objective behavioural data with biological and cognitive measurements of development. We therefore call on social media companies and other online platforms to do more to share their data with independent scientists, and, if they are unwilling, for governments to show they are serious about tackling online harms by introducing legislation to compel these companies to be more open.'

The team, including psychologists, neuroscientists and modellers, analysed two UK datasets comprising some 84,000 individuals between the ages of 10 and 80 years old. These included longitudinal data – that is, data that tracks individuals over a period of time – on 17,400 young people aged 10-21 years old. The researchers are from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour.

The researchers are keen to point out that, while their findings show at a population level that there is a link between social media use and poorer wellbeing, it is not yet possible to predict which individuals are most at risk.

*文章转自牛津大学官网