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UVA Today checked in with Nancy L. Deutsch, the Linda K. Bunker Professor of Education in the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development, to learn how social media use affects children and how parents and communities can help mitigate its effects.

Besides her role as associate dean for faculty affairs at the School of Education, Deutsch is the director of the school’s Youth-Nex, the Center to Promote Effective Youth Development, and co-director of Thriving Youth in a Digital Environment.

Q. Social media is a part of everyday life. What issues are we seeing with teens’ use of social sites compared to adults?

A. The features of social media and the features of the adolescent brain combined can make it especially difficult for an adolescent to disengage from a social media platform, even when they feel like they are spending too much time on it.

The adolescent brain is designed to be more sensitive to social rewards, especially from their peers. So, you may not care how many “likes” your post gets, but an adolescent may be particularly motivated to see those hearts pouring in and will experience greater “highs” from those positive reactions. 

Nancy L. Deutsch, �鶹�ƽ�� Linda K. Bunker Professor of Education, says teens genuinely experience greater highs and lows from their online experiences than adults do. (University Communications photo)

They may also be more likely to compare themselves to their peers, and some may be particularly susceptible to “negative social comparison,” a feeling that they come up short when compared to their peers. This can exacerbate low self-esteem. 

The greater highs and lows from their online experiences are genuine. Adolescents really do feel emotions more intensely than adults. At the same time, their executive functioning – the process that helps us regulate our behavior and reactions – is still developing.

Q. Are there positive uses of social media for children?

A. The digital world is one context for building and sustaining relationships, and this can be particularly important for young people who feel isolated in their communities. Research during the COVID-19 lockdowns found that youth who reported having positive online experiences were less lonely than their peers.

Social media can also help them explore and develop their identities. The online world may provide a sense of affirmation and belonging for identities that are not valued or supported by the people immediately surrounding a young person. They can also be a way to stay connected to friends and family who don’t live near them, or with whom they have trouble connecting in person.

Actively exploring new hobbies and engaging in creative tasks online may meet important needs for youth, so what they are doing on social media is important. Quantity is one piece of it, but we need to also pay attention to the quality of their social media activity.

Q. If we limit children’s access to social media, how should they fill their free time?

A. Out-of-school time programs, including community-based after-school programs and school-based extracurricular activities, offer important opportunities for children and adolescents, including for developing new skills, interests, and relationships. Programs for older youth may also offer specific job training, apprenticeship opportunities or college preparation.

Unsupervised time is a risk factor for young people, so enrolling children in programs with supportive adults and engaging, developmentally appropriate activities is an important way to help them fill their time.

Teens are notoriously good at getting around rules and bans set by adults. That means we need to think in advance about how the rules will be enforced.

Bans will also be more effective when we have a clear plan for what we are asking them to do instead. If we have nothing to replace their social media worlds, we won’t be successful. We need to think about why teens are on social media and what we would prefer they do, and make sure our communities provide positive developmental opportunities that meet the needs being fulfilled by social media.

Q. Any concerns parents should be aware of?

A. It is important to remember that even if children under 16 have less access to and spend less time on social media, those children will one day turn 16 and need the skills to manage their own social media time.

We learn new skills by practicing them, often with scaffolding from more experienced people. As parents and other adults, we can help young people grow in their digital literacy and develop the skills and habits they need to live healthy digital lives.

We can also model positive online behavior and admit when we are struggling with our own social media time. Adolescents’ superpower is identifying hypocritical behavior in adults, so be honest about your digital habits and consider setting joint social media limits.

Coming up with ways that we can better regulate our social media use alongside our young people can turn what often feels like a battle into a shared goal.