Research confirms a link between social media use and anxiety among teenagers

Research has confirmed the link between social media use and anxiety among teenagers. More work is ongoing. Experts at Oxford University are beginning a 10 year study into teenage mental health. It's called BrainWaves. Their initial research suggests that the more time youngsters spend on social media the more likely they are to suffer from anxiety and depression.

Currently, the study has involved information collected from 7,200 students in the UK. The study's objective is to find good evidence about this much-discuss link. There has been a lot of discussion both by politicians in the UK and I believe elsewhere about the detrimental effects of being addicted to smart phones through which social media is constantly accessed.

There was a recent report in The Time yesterday which provided evidence that the administrators of TikTok know that their platform is addictive and they desire it to be addictive. This is the objective. They deliberately target young people and hook them in. They present to the world a different picture. A picture in which they state that they are doing their best to make it less addictive but behind the scenes, in truth, they are doing the opposite it appears to me.

Some schools in the UK are banning smart phones from the school grounds in the interests of students' health and welfare and I presume to make them more productive while they attend classes.

It has been found that some teenagers spend eight hours a day on their smart phones bouncing around social media posts.

Some of the data is astonishing. NHS information shows that more than 1 million children and teenagers under 18 are in contact with NHS mental health services. Girls are more likely than boys to have problems. One in five girls aged 16 are in contact with NHS mental health services and these problems have increased significantly over the past five years.

This study by a team at Oxford and I understand Swansea University and The Day newspaper will conduct research involving 50,000 adolescents. The objective is to build evidence on a link between social media use and mental health.

The study is being led by John Gallacher, a professor of cognitive health and Oxford. He told the Financial Times that initial results "found a linear relationship between higher rates of anxiety and depression and time spent networking on social media sites. In the most extreme cases, we have young people reporting they were spending up to 8 hours a day using these sites."

In the UK, a private members bill will be introduced tomorrow in the House of Commons to tackle addictive phone use in children.. The bill proposes a legal requirement that schools are phone-free.

It is called the Safer Phones Bill. It has cross-party support. It's being tabled by Labour MP Josh McAlister. He said: "The evidence is mounting that children doom-scrolling for hours a day is causing widespread harm. We need the equivalent of the "seatbelt" legislation for social media use for children. Adults find it hard enough to manage screen time, so why are we expecting children to manage this addictive content without some shared rules?"

In Australia, last month, plans were announced for a social media ban for under 16's. In the UK, charities are calling for the UK to follow suit.

Anne Longfield founder of the Centre for Young Lives (a think tank) said: "This bill opens the door to a crucial national debate about the negative impact smart phones can have on children, and the urgent need to address those problems. Parliament now has an opportunity to reset children's relationship with smart phones, and marginalise their impact and influence on developing young minds."

------------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Giant cats videoed on iPhone 13 Pro

Screenshot from the video

Don't need to add words. This is a YouTube short made with the superb iPhone 13 Pro with super-wide lens. The quality is amazing. What a superb job the video maker did. The video is a promo for this superb smartphone. I am tempted to buy one myself although at the moment I used a Samsung Galaxy Ultra S21.

Are today's teenagers better for cat welfare than previous generations?

It's worthwhile asking whether today's teenagers, in developed countries, are going to improve cat welfare or not. They are the future. We depend upon them to make improvements in domestic and wild cat welfare and it needs improvement. So what is today's teenager like compared to past generations?

It seems to me that there are two major influences on modern-day teenagers: the internet and smart phones which has led one specialist on the subject to described them as 'iGens' -  and Covid-19.

Teenager with cat. Picture: Pixabay.

I know Covid-19 is a very recent event but it is so major and so impactful that it has to be included in this discussion. The pandemic also serves to reinforce the modern teenager's dependence upon smart phones and the internet. This in turn leads them to a less active, outdoor life and one which is more centred within themselves and at home.

But this in turn leads to poor emotional health. It is well reported that today's teenager tends to suffer greater mental health issues than previous generations. Some put this down to social media which has a competitiveness about it in terms of attainment and a person's image i.e. how they are projected towards the world. There is a lot of false messaging on the internet.

There is an increase in problems with self-image, dissatisfaction with their bodies and their standing in the world. IGens spend 5 to 6 hours a day using their smart phones hanging out online and texting et cetera. More than two hours a day can cause mental health problems, it is said.

IGens grow up more slowly. They hang out with their parents more, put off sex and the task of obtaining a driver's licence. Is this a consequence of being self absorbed and living within your head inside the home rather than going out and exploring the world and taking some knocks and learning about life? If they grow more slowly they are going to be less well developed emotionally and less ready to deal with life's problems. Isn't that a fair assessment?

It is believed that iGens are more caring for others. They are more aware of diversity and perhaps this is the woke movement which has caused a greater awareness of equality in society.

Perhaps it is fair to say that today's teenagers are more protected. Not by design but by consequence of being glued to a smart phone and the Internet and texting etc.. It creates a cosseted environment in which the girl or boy is removed sometimes from the reality of the world which in turn slows development and growing up to adulthood. The inability to buy one's own home exacerbates the problem. And career advancement has been damaged by Covid-19. This may last a long time.

Today's teens watch less television, drink less, use heroin less, use meth less, carry weapons to school less and so on (American survey). They appear to be better behaved but this may be because of a general trend in society and a greater awareness and education about the dangers of using these drugs. Teen pregnancy has declined rapidly apparently over the past really case. Is this in line with a failure of teens to grow up?

I sense, and it has to be a sense because the data is incredibly complicated and there are so many layers to this discussion, that today' teenager is more likely to be suffering from some to the mental health issue arising out of failure to engage the world because they are overly-engaged in Internet interactions and smartphone use which has been exacerbated by the Covid pandemic.

This in turn should result in better domestic cat care in the present because domestic cats are going to be with teenagers more often. In the long term there may also be a benefit in terms of animal welfare because the greater the interaction between teenager and family cat the more the teenager learns about the animal which should promote welfare in the future. Perhaps I'm being idealistic.

Cat welfare is about education above all else. The alternative point of view is that if modern teenagers are too engrossed in entertaining themselves using the Internet rather than educating themselves about the hard facts of animal welfare, both domestic and wild, then perhaps in the long term there will be a dearth of passionate and committed animal welfare advocates.

The bottom line is that the modern lifestyle of teenagers in the West is in general terms unhealthy.