An article that caught my eye was about the use of social media and the effects on children. I found this article by typing in google “recent study”. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/technology/kids-smartphones-depression.html). The article was about the assumptions about the negative effects of social media and smartphones on children. The first fact I read in the article was, “It has become common wisdom that too much time spent on smartphones and social media is responsible for a recent spike in anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, especially among teenagers.” This led me to go upstream and check the facts on that claim. I typed on google, “Does social media cause depression” and it led me to an article from Childmind.org. (https://childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/). The article was written by Caroline Miller, so before reading I went and made sure she was a reliable source. I typed on google biography about Caroline Miller, and I found that she is is the editorial director of the Child Mind Institute, and that this article is reliable. She reports in her article that, “Evidence is mounting that there is a link between social media and depression. In several recent studies, teenage, and young adult users who spend the most time on Instagram, Facebook and other platforms were shown to have a substantially (from 13 to 66 percent) higher rate of reported depression than those who spent the least time.” This led me to find the truth in the New York Times article that said, “The latest research, published on Friday by two psychology professors, combs through about 40 studies that have examined the link between social media use and both depression and anxiety among adolescents. That link, according to the professors, is small and inconsistent.” Although, these are two different claims I decided to look into the a study about social media and depression. I went upstream and looked at a journal from Maquarrine univerisity. https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/parental-control-of-time-spent-on-social-media-links-with-preadol.
The journal was about a study and the the purpose of the study was to investigate the connection between parental control and the amount of time their child spends on social media, verses; preadolescents’ time spent browsing social media, and life satisfaction. This study needed to be conducted because the time spent on social media can be linked with dissatisfaction of the own body and mental health.There were 582 total participants in this study, both girls and boys ranging from ages 10-12. One of each child’s parents had access to their social media from different devices.
In order to complete this study parents were asked to record how long their child spent on social media. Then the Preadolescences themselves were asked to record how much time they spent on social media on a weekday against on a weekend day.
Depressive symptoms were measured through 13 statements in a questionnaire and were asked to indicate how true each statement was for them in the past two weeks. Responses were summed for all statements to form a total score, with higher scores indicating more depressive symptoms.
The data collected shows the links between parental control over the time preadolescents spend on social media, pre-adolescents’ social media browsing, preadolescents’ social media appearance comparison frequency, and pre- adolescents’ mental health after controlling for general par- enting styles, parental mental health, and preadolescent gender.
The data shows that the majority of parents reported, have control over the amount of time their child spent on social media; but there was also a negative correlation between parent control over the time their child spent on social media and the preadolescents’ reported time spent browsing social media.
The results of this study also propose that parents which control the time of their child spent on social media may be beneficial. Those findings, however, may be unambiguous to the preadolescent period, when parents still have more influence over their child’s behaviours than in later years.
Going back to my original article from the New York times. Now let’s take a moment to read across The New York Times ….how reliable is this source? By looking at the article, I can see at least that they are reporting results consistent with what the study, and provide links to more information on it in the article. The article holds several links to more information on the study and I also checked out other studies. After going upstream on the original article I was able to find out information I needed to understand this study. The article included reliable sources to back up the information. For example, the World Health Organization provided information about how infants and young children should be exposed to less screen time to eliminate this future problem, and in the other study I found I also found that to be true.
Thus, the original study does not find social media, and phone use linked directly to the anxiousness and depression in young teens, but research suggest that limited screen time can definitely be healthier, and that there is defiantly a link between the two.
Vanessa Mannion 