Q&A with Georgia Turner: Using science to explain the link between social media and student well-being
When it comes to students’ well-being, it’s no surprise that social media and technology play a key role. In fact, no other generation has been exposed to social media in the way that current students are. We huddled with Georgia Turner, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cambridge studying the link between social media and mental health, to hear about her research and how educators can support students as they navigate their social world.
Check out the insights she shared with us below:
As you may know, The Social Institute is all about student voice and empowering students to navigate social media and well-being. Could you talk a bit about your background and line of work and how it relates to student well-being?
My work uses mathematical models from psychology to try and understand mental health. There has been an increase in social media use in recent years, along with reported adolescent mental health symptoms. A lot of people wonder whether social media is responsible for this change, but social media is far from the only change to modern adolescents’ lives: the stress of climate change, or not knowing if they will afford a house when they grow up, among others, could also be affecting adolescents’ mental health. Using mathematical models, we can try to understand the impact that various factors have on adolescent mental well-being rather than assuming that technology and social media are inherently bad and responsible for all mental health declines.
Overall, I am interested in the relationship between technology and mental health. I find it interesting how you can use math to understand human behavior, and I have always wanted to use this to impact the world for the better. Not only does my work have the potential to help others, but it affects me as well. I have never been happy with my own phone and social media use, and I want to understand my own decisions and feelings of lost control too!
One of the topics that you are researching is that people develop different types of relationships with social media – could you share a bit more about what these relationships are?
As researchers, we have to consider different relationships with social media in order to find generalizable scientific truths. However, students’ relationships with social media vary for each individual. One example is that social media can negatively impact body image when our feeds are filled with people with idealized bodies. But actually, while cis-gender adolescents with problematic internet use do indeed feel less positive about their bodies, research has found that transgender adolescents with more problematic internet use actually have a more positive body image. More research is needed to determine if these relationships between internet use and body image are causal and if so, to understand why. While we don’t know exactly why, one reason could be that social media can help transgender adolescents connect with others that they don’t see in their own environment. This shows the importance of making specific claims about whom social media can harm and how, rather than assuming that social media affects everyone’s body image in the same way.
For students in general, social media can have benefits as well as disadvantages: social media gives students an opportunity to connect with people far away and augment their social world, although it could also lead them to spend more time than they would like on their devices or develop an unrealistic view of others.
You share that ages 10-24 are a time when students are usually within the adolescent age range and sensitive to the social environment. Can you explain what you mean by social information? What does this mean for students?
Social information is anything one learns about their peers or their social environments. Adolescents, which we define as those aged 10-24, are particularly sensitive to social information. This could be for evolutionary reasons, as it is a time when adolescents are supposed to make new connections in their lives.
One study found that adolescents are more likely to take what we think of as risks, such as smoking or driving dangerously. This led to the theory that adolescents are more risk-taking than adults. But actually, if you think about it in another way, you can view it as adolescents valuing things very differently. It’s not that adolescents take more risks, but it’s that they will not take social risks. Even though they know that driving a car can be dangerous, in their minds, it’s more dangerous not to be accepted by friends.
We know that educators play a critical role in student development. Through your research, do you have any tips for teachers who may be struggling to help students when it comes to social media and their mental health?
I have two main tips that educators can take.
- The first is to try and see social media as a part of students’ lives. It is easy to want to take social media and technology away from students when we see them struggling with it. But in reality, tech is a portal into this huge part of their social life. We as adults have to take seriously what is happening on their phones and not just view it as a toy that can be taken away.
- Second, empower teens with the tools they need to understand the risks of social media and privacy. Instead of harping on the don’ts and the risks, empower students to understand why they happen and how to prevent them. In Emily Weinstein’s book, Behind Their Screens, she talks about how students feel that technology is such a big part of their lives and they can’t choose not to use it.
The Social Institute has 7 Social Standards that students, schools, and families can look up to as ways of living. One of our Standards is “Protect Your Privacy,” which means staying in control of our personal information. Do you have any tips for students and educators on how they can protect their privacy online?
I have two tips that students and educators can use to protect their privacy online:
- Be aware of how public and private your account settings are. If you don’t want others to see your personal information, be sure your account is private. If you want to decide whether to make something public or private, you can ask yourself who the person is who you would least want to see your information and assume that they can see it. Don’t post content online unless you’re okay with that person seeing it.
- Think of others’ privacy as well as your own. If you choose to post something, think about the others in the picture and if they would be okay with you sharing it too. You are not just protecting your own privacy but theirs as well.
The connection between social media and well-being can’t be denied. By implementing proactive and positive social media education, we can empower students to use social media and tech to fuel their health, happiness, and future success. Read our blog, How to empower students to manage social media in healthy ways to avoid anxiety, for actionable steps you can give to your students to start helping them navigate social media in positive ways.
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The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in understanding student experiences and creator of #WinAtSocial, a gamified, online learning platform that equips students, educators, and families to navigate social experiences — online and offline — in healthy ways. Our unique, student-respected approach incorporates topics like social media, technology use, and current events that have a significant impact on student well-being. Lessons teach life skills for the modern day to inspire high-character decisions that support the health, happiness, and future success of students, while capturing data that provides insights to school leaders to inform school policy and communications, and enable high-impact teaching and a healthy learning environment. For schools, our turnkey technology allows for easy implementation and a comprehensive game plan to support the well-being of school communities. For schools, our turnkey technology allows for easy implementation and a comprehensive game plan to support the well-being of school communities.