Positive online experiences for young people associated with less loneliness

If you’re agonizing over the long hours tweens and teens spend scrolling and posting to Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and other social media sharing and messaging platforms, new research from UC Berkeley has enlightening news to share.

When it comes to screen time, the issue isn’t so much the number of hours they spend online, but the quality of their interactions online, suggests a study of more than 700 adolescents in Peru for the South American country’s toughest COVID-19 lockdown. in spring 2020.

Overall, the teenagers in the study who found help online -; like chatting with friends and relatives via WhatsApp or joining multiplayer online video games -; reported less loneliness.

“Our results support our hypothesis that How? ‘Or’ What you spend your time on screens, and not How many the time you spend online is the best indicator of loneliness and well-being, ”said lead author of the study, Dr Lucía Magis-Weinberg, development specialist at the Institute for Human Development of UC Berkeley.

“In light of this, teachers and parents might want to focus more on promoting positive online experiences for young people rather than limiting screen time,” she said.

Posted last week in the Adolescence Research Journal In a special issue on the impact of COVID-19 on adolescents around the world, the findings challenge a common assumption that pandemic distancing measures, combined with excessive use of social media, are a recipe for an epidemic of loneliness.

“There has been this negative talk about screen time causing loneliness and depression. But our results add more nuance and show that, when used in a positive way, online interactions are in fact associated unless loneliness. This is especially true when teens have no choice but to connect with their friends online, “said Magis-Weinberg.

The study was launched in April 2020, when Peru entered a strict COVID-19 ban that confined tens of millions of residents to their homes. Only one family member could leave for approved races at a time, and the young were mostly isolated indoors.

For six weeks, researchers interviewed thousands of college students aged 11 to 17 to understand their behaviors and relationships online under conditions of social isolation and to assess how these factors relate to their moods and feelings. of belonging.

On a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (frequently), students rated the extent to which they agreed with statements such as “I feel valued by people on my social networks”, ” people on my social networks give me advice “,” People on my social networks make me feel like I don’t belong “and” People on my social networks treat me badly “.

They also completed separate questionnaires about the electronic devices they used, their social media preferences, their level of loneliness, and their overall well-being.

For most students, smartphones were the preferred device for connecting to non-educational online activities, followed by laptops and then video game consoles.

For girls, social media, messaging apps, and YouTube videos were the most popular online hobbies. The most popular online activities for boys were playing video games and watching videos.

When it comes to their mental health outlook, students reported more positive than negative online interactions, especially when discussing issues and getting helpful feedback through WhatsApp, the most popular messaging platform. most popular in Peru, among other social media platforms.

Data from 735 of the monitored students was ultimately used for the study.

“The results show that using social media to actively connect with friends and family and find support – instead of just scrolling endlessly on Instagram and comparing yourself to others and feeling left out – can have a positive impact on well-being “, Maris- says Weinberg.

The study is part of a larger, long-term effort led by Magis-Weinberg and Ronald Dahl, professor of public health and pediatrician at UC Berkeley, to collaborate with educators from a network of 65 schools in Peru and in Mexico to promote digital citizenship and the healthy use of technology among more than 15,000 adolescents.

In addition, he is among the first to document the impact of the use of social media on adolescent mental health during the pandemic in the ‘Global South’, a term used for regions of the world outside of Europe. and the United States.

“The vast majority of young people grow up in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, but most of the research on these issues has been skewed towards the United States and Europe,” Magis-Weinberg said.

“So it’s really important to capture and document the voices of young people growing up in Latin America, especially at a time when so many of us rely heavily on electronics and social media to stay connected,” he said. she adds.