Social media has only 'trivial' impact on children's happiness, report finds

An eight-year study refutes previous assertions that social media use has a detrimental effect on young people

Social media influencing children's perception of their body image, prompting calls for schools to offer support.    

Social media use has only a "trivial" effect on children's wellbeing, according to a comprehensive report.

The authors of the Oxford University study, which was carried out over an eight-year period and involved more than 12,000 children aged 10 to 15, blamed "sloppy science" for previous research which suggested that time spent on social media was damaging to the mental health of young people.

The research found that the relationship between wellbeing and social media use was more "nuanced" than previously thought.

“They are inconsistent, possibly contingent on gender, and vary substantively depending on how the data are analyzed. Most effects are tiny—arguably trivial,” said the report.

The study did, however, uncover a gender divide, with young females more likely to be impacted negatively by social media than boys.

The report called on companies operating social media platforms to share data and support independent research in order for the effects of increased time spent online on young people to be better understood and managed.

Anne Jackson, a Dubai-based life coach who also works with young people, was not surprised by the findings.

"One of my child clients who is 13 decided to go off all social media. She said I am addicted to it, so I am going to try and come off it for a month to see what happens," said Ms Jackson, who owns One Life Coaching ME.

“After the month I said to her what have you learned? She said I have learned I really like social media and I have really missed it.”

“In disconnecting her social media, the teenager felt she was missing out as so many of her conversations with friends took place online. It made no difference to the time she spent studying, as she was a diligent student. She did, however, not miss the inferior feeling she felt when she saw images of 'amazing teenagers'.

“But again, that’s not necessarily the fault of social media because the images were thrown at us before social media through magazines,” said Ms Jackson.

Social media is an escape, she said. And although it is relatively new, there have been many other escapes in the past, from “heading out into the woods” to reading books. It can be an easy place to get lost, said Ms Jackson.

“It’s about how you integrate it into your life in a healthy fashion and then it’s not particularly harmful,” she said.

However, other experts warn it has the potential to do great harm.

“To use the word trivial is definitely something that is surprising to me,” said Barry Lee Cummings, who founded and runs Beat the Cyberbully, an awareness and education campaign in the UAE which works with young people, parents and teachers about what can go wrong online.

He has seen the harm it can cause first hand in his sessions with teenagers.

“What I’m hearing when I do these sessions is that it definitely does have an effect on children’s wellbeing,” said Mr Cummings.

“I get feedback from young people, specifically young girls, to say they are going to change the way they utilise social media based on what they have learned in our sessions, because they weren’t fully aware of who could potentially see it and what could then happen when someone has access to that information about them.”

Girls have even approached him to ask him what they should do after sending inappropriate images to boys, as they are often reluctant to talk to their parents about it.

“They fear mum and dad are going to take away their technology. And that’s their biggest fear, that their iphone or tablet will be taken away from them,” said Mr Cummings.

“That worries them more than the fact their nude picture is being sent around the school. They don’t want to be cut out of the digital world. And that’s kind of scary when you think about it, that they are more scared of the thing that’s causing the problem being taken away.”