Science & Technology, Australia (Commonwealth Union) – The impact of social media has often been reflected in many studies on how addictive seeking validation with likes or other engagements impacts self-esteem.
University of New South Wales (UNSW) research has found that the potential of facing judgement online could impact their capability as adolescents to concentrate on everyday tasks.
The COVID-19 pandemic and global lockdowns further enhanced our online engagements online much more, particularly for young people.
“Much research has been directed at understanding the impact of online interactions on adolescents’ wellbeing and cognitive functioning. But the evidence is mixed, leaving us parents, policymakers and educators at a loss as to whether we should encourage or prevent social media use in our young people,” explained Dr Susanne Schweizer, a UNSW psychologist.
According to the study published in Scientific Reports, Dr Schweizer and her researchers evaluated how the threat of being scrutinized by others online impacts both the wellbeing and cognition of adolescents.
The study had formed a situation that imitated the threat of being assessed or judged by peers online, a feeling that often comes after making a post or engaging on social media.
Before finishing an online learning task, participants were instructed to record an audio clip of a self-introduction. It was then revealed to them that these audio clips would be listen to and evaluated by others online.
Dr Schweizer explained that when the online learning task occurred, a ‘views and comments tracker’ was present below the screen. Participants were unaware of the recordings that were being viewed or commented on, nor were they aware of whether the comments were positive or negative. This was to make it analogue to how it is like in real life, when you have to carry out a task, you cannot track what is occurring online, but you know there will be evaluation to an extent.
The research was completed by 225 people, between 10-24 years old, who were also instructed to rate their anxiety and stress levels at various points throughout the procedure.
Results indicated that all the participants documented a higher increase in negative moods after social evaluative threat contrasted to the control condition. The threat of social evaluation also led to less accuracy in fulfilling the online task.
Dr Schweizer stated that there has been a 52% rise in time spent online by young persons during the pandemic and stated that it was important in the present, more than ever, to assess ways it impacts learning together with wellbeing.
“Our research showed that when young people thought that others might be evaluating them, they felt upset and their ability to perform a basic cognitive task was impaired. Assuming these findings reflect the impact of online social evaluation, then these results are concerning.”
Dr Schweizer further indicated that social media has been readily condemned in public opinion as bringing about mental health problems in young people,
“But when you look at large-scale data sets longitudinally, the impact of social media use and general screen time on wellbeing and cognition shows mixed results. We wanted to look at what the specific mechanisms were – how exactly does social media influence young people’s wellbeing in both good ways and bad ways.”
In a developmental period, adolescence is described by a shift away from the immediate family and towards engagements with wider peer networks. Social interactions during this time will have a significant part in developing a sense of self, wellbeing and learning, according to the researchers.
Adolescents are further known to be on an average of 6 hours online, for non-academic purposes, where most of it is on social media.
But as she explains, participants in the research were only being analyzed by an anonymous entity. The study is likely to be beneficial to researchers across the world to get further insights into adolescent behavior online.
