5 - Social relationships and media

3 cases from the social media ban article?

Case #1:

• A 14 year old "Amy," felt urges to go onto social media like snapchat after the ban.

• Now she has new habits, reaches for her phone less, and shows more healthy behaviours

• Mentioned that she didn’t see any content on the bondi shooting and was glad.

 

Case #2

• A 13 year old Aahil, still spends the same amount of time on social media.

• Now just through fake accounts and birthdays.

• His mother Mau, noticed a change, saying he is moodier and plays video games more while being less sociable.

Case #3

 

• 15 year old Lulu, also spends the same amount of time on social media with new accounts.

• Said she is reading more though since the ban influenced them.

• Started using WhatsApp and Messenger more to contact friends.

"When access is disrupted, some young people may initially experience irritability, restlessness, or a sense of social disconnection… not because the platform itself is essential, but because a familiar __________ has been removed."

coping mechanism

Social media

Digital communication platforms that allow users to create and share content (e.g., information, ideas, photos, etc.), and to interact with other users

What are some ways that social media increases your stress levels:

• Information overload

• Seeing political content

• Pressures

• Upward social comparison

Digital stress scale

• Availability stress - pressure and social obligation to be constantly accessible and responsive via digital means.

• Approval anxiety - nervousness and anxiety about how others will respond to social media posts and digital self-presentation

• Fear of missing out - anxiety about being excluded from rewarding social experiences, concern about what others are doing, fear that peers are having more fulfilling experiences.

• Connection overload - overwhelmed by the volume of digital communications and notifictions

• Online vigilance - preoccupation with stay connected to digital devices, (ex. compulsive checking behaviours, nomophobia)

2 arguments for social media use?

• Social media is bad --> “This great rewiring of childhood, I argue, is the single largest reason for the tidal wave of adolescent mental illness that began in the early 2010s”

 

• Social media is not the main issue --> “Once the primary predictors of well-being and ill-being are accounted for, social media use is a negligible factor in explaining variance in well-and ill-being.”

Whats the issue with the claim that more time on social media = increased mental health issues?

• Most social media research assumes social media PREDICTS mental health and wellbeing

  • Social Media Use --> Mental Health

 

• What about the reverse?

  • Mental Health --> Social Media Use

Meta-analyses typically show an average association between social media and wellbeing to be close to ___

zero

Active vs passive SMU on loneliness?

• Active SMU

  • 20% higher loneliness

  • 50% no effect

  • 30% lower loneliness

 

• Passive SMU

  • 1% higher loneliness

  • 47% no effect

  • 22% lower loneliness

Most social media research has relied on

one-time surveys that average results across people (cross sectional)

Many people can use social media without meaningful effects on their wellbeing. Some people are more likely to benefit (or be harmed) than others

Likely depends on

who is using social media and how they are using it

For social media and wellbeing, the relationship is likely

bidirectional

 

• For some people, social media may be part of a negative downward spiral

• For others, social media may be part of an upward spiral