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Is My Teen Really Addicted to Social Media?

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Is My Teen Really Addicted to Social Media?

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Teens Addicted to Social Media

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I used to think social media was a force for good. Now the evidence says I was wrong

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I used to think social media was a force for good. Now the evidence says I was wrong

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I used to think social media was a force for good. Now the evidence says I was wrong | Matt Haig

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More and more, it’s clear these platforms create divisions, exploit our insecurities and risk our health, says novelist Matt Haig

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More than 200,000 teens had plastic surgery last year, and social media had a lot to do with it

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The American Society of Plastic Surgeons released new guidance for cosmetic procedures on teens.

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Most American teenagers are constantly using social media, and half admit that it distracts them from looking up and talking to people right in front of them, a new survey shows.

More teens now say they prefer texting to talking to other people in person, and they admit smartphone apps are waking them up at night and distracting them from homework, the survey by Common Sense Media shows.

No surprises there to anyone who knows a teenager, but the survey also shows that teens are very much aware of the pitfalls of social media use. They suspect that social media companies are trying to manipulate them, and they deny that their constant use of Instagram, Snapchat and other apps is making them lonely.

"Social media has transformed adolescence and the lives of millions and millions of teens," said Jim Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense Media, which conducts research into media use.

"Teens have even told us in this landmark report that they are distracted from their friends, from their homework and from sleep," Steyer told NBC News. "A lot of teens feel addicted to social media."

Common Sense interviewed more than 1,100 teens aged 13 to 17 for about three weeks this spring and found some surprises. Teenagers are not mindless slaves to their smartphones, the survey found.

"Teens are often depicted as being heedless of the consequences of spending so much time on their smartphones," the report reads.

"In reality, our survey reveals that teens are fully aware of the power of devices to distract them from key priorities, such as homework, sleep and time with friends and family."

More than half - 57 percent - said social media distracts them from doing homework and 54 percent admitted that they sometimes ignored people they were with to pay attention to social media. And 29 percent said a text or other notification had woken them up at night.

"A large proportion of all teens (44 percent) say they get frustrated with their friends for being on their phones so much when they're hanging out together," the report reads.

There's no doubt that mobile devices dominate the lives of young people. More than 80 percent of the teenagers surveyed said they used social media.

That's no more than in 2012, but now, 70 percent say they're using social media multiple times a day, compared with just a third of them in 2012, the survey found.

Apps often drive this. One example is the Snapchat "streak," in which users must send at least one message every single day to certain friends and acquaintances.

And while the teens don't necessarily fight back by refusing to be drawn in, they are at least aware of what's happening, the report showed.

"Nearly three out of four teens (72 percent) believe that tech companies manipulate users to spend more time on their devices," the report reads.

"We find it very encouraging that teens are very aware that social media companies like Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook are manipulating them. That means that they're increasingly aware that those companies don't necessarily have their best interests at heart," Steyer said.

But teenagers like the technology. The proportion of teens who say their favorite way to communicate with their friends in person dropped from 49 percent in 2012 to 32 percent in 2018.

It's not all negative. A quarter of the teens surveyed said these apps make them feel less lonely, and only 3 percent said using them makes them feel more isolated.

"A major difference since we did this study five years ago is that teens prefer texting to talking," Steyer said. "They literally would rather text than talk to someone face to face or on the phone. As a parent, I don't like that."

Parents can and should limit time spent on mobile devices and using social media, Steyer said.

"We have to get our teens off of devices, away from social media and platforms," he said, "away from just staring at phone screens and out in the beautiful outdoors."

"This is not going to go away. The genie is out of the bottle. This is reality going forward in our kids' lives, but we can provide them guidance and judgment as to how best to use social media in a positive way."

The survey also puts to rest any lingering doubts that Facebook is for old people only. Just 15 percent of the teens surveyed said it was their first choice in social media.

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Teens would rather text than talk to you, survey finds

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More teens are distracted by social media, using smartphone apps like Snapchat and Instagram constantly, a new survey by Common Sense Media shows.

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I attended an interview with Nancy Jo Sales about her book American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers, at the 2016 Woodstock Writers' Festiva l. Her research, based on conversations with over 200 teen girls from across the country representing all different demographics, painted a very disturbing picture of the world our teenage girls are living in:

Over 70% of teens have smart phones which means they have access to the internet which in turn means they have easy access to pornography.

Most teens are on their phones all the time - in school, in bed at night, when they go to the bathroom, while you are trying to talk to them, and while they are trying to do their homework.

They are in instant access with each other all the time - living in a perpetual state of staccato interruptions.

There are virtually no enforceable societal or parental controls short of depriving a child of a phone which then subjects them to rejection from their real and virtual friends.

The popularity contests of childhood are on-line now and revolve around how many "likes" you get. A low number of "likes" typically translates into low social status, and possible shaming and bullying. A high number of "likes" translates to popularity and the pressure to sustain your status.

During the Q&A, an articulate 13-year-old girl confidently shared her point of view. She thought parents are out of touch when it comes to their concerns about the over-sexualization of teens. She said she feels empowered that she can send nude pictures of herself on the internet and saw that as an expression of her agency over her own body. She likened parents worrying about their kids sending nude selfies to parents "in the 80's" who were afraid of their kids listening to rock n roll - they just don't understand.

As this young girl spoke with such certainty of her point of view, my heart hurt and was saddened and I was scared for her and this generation. As you will see, I hold a very strong opinion myself on the matter. But, what I would really like to come of this is not to make each other wrong, but rather to find a way to truly hear each other's concerns and evolve a cooperative response to this situation.

Here are my specific concerns:

With an under-developed prefrontal cortex, a teenager's decision-making is less likely to successfully weigh outcomes, form judgments and control impulses and emotions. At the same time, they have a fairly well-developed nucleus accumbens (the area of the brain that seeks pleasure and reward). Throw in hormones and we have the perfect recipe for immediate gratification, thrill seeking, and impulse behaviors far outweighing careful consideration of potential consequences. As a result, teens are more susceptible to becoming addicted to nicotine, drugs, and cellphone use and engaging in rebellious and risky behaviors.

The vulnerability of teens is intensified by the fact that as they move through the rite of passage that is their teenage years, the approval of their friends is increasing and eclipsing the value to them of parental approval.

A confluence of the following forces has created an artificial secret world that is consuming
the time and mental focus of teens and subjecting them to risky, competitive behaviors:
--the popularity of social media among teens
--the normalization of Smart phone usage
--the easy exposure to pornography
--the influence of the Kardashian concept of female beauty<
-- the trend to up the ante and push the boundaries of sex and violence in visual media.

What is being forfeited in this situation? Research shows teens are extremely deficient in face-to-face communication skills. What else are they missing out on in terms of personal growth and development, social skills, and academic discipline and learning? What about their stress levels?

This is a gold mine for the technology and pornography industries who financially benefit - every click equals more money for them. Teen girls have come to believe it is normal and desirable to sex up their look. They don't know any other way to be that gives them access to so much social currency among their friends. Kids are addicted to accumulating "likes" and the more sexualized their visual content, the more "likes" they get. If that's not child pornography, I don't know what is!

I worry about the peer pressure for girls to post nude photos and for boys to accumulate as many as possible. Have nude selfies become the baseball cards of this generation?

Posting provocative selfies is not a demonstration of a teen girl's agency over her own body. Flirting with the forbidden might be thrilling, but it is far from a reflection of her power and love of her body. Putting herself on public display simply screams, "Look, everyone I'm sexy!" The reality is these girls are subjecting themselves and each other to body shaming - a game of who looks better than whom and who is being most provocative. They are also providing free pictures for porn sites. And guess what subject matter is most popular there? Teenage girls!

When a girl gets a request from a boy for a nude photo, she might think it's because he likes her. Sadly, her nude photo will probably just give some boy bragging rights for putting another notch on his belt. Stimulating each other's raging hormones is not empowering, it is a dangerous game. Off-line, it often escalates to heartless sexual acts that cheapen their self identity and the potential beauty of sexual expression.

With the amplification of a sexualized sense of self coupled with the external search for validation, what chance do these children have of learning how to deeply connect with themselves and others and to develop the life coping skills they will need as whole people? I wish these kids could know that they are so much more than what is portrayed in a nude photo on the internet. I wish they could be as motivated to deeply know themselves as they are to gathering superficial "likes" online.

Where do we go from here? How can we, as a society, help these children? I welcome your thoughts on this.

If you would like to know more about me, and my work please visit my website or email me at judithjohnson@hvc.rr.com

If you would like to suggest a topic for a future blog or ask me to address a particular situation or issue, please email me at judithjohnson@hvc.rr.com

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There isn't a part of adolescence that isn't affected by social media and gaming these days-so what are parents to do before it's too late?
" ADHD study links teens' symptoms with digital media use" was the headline on CNN last week.

I, for one, was not surprised. Like any addictive behavior, there is always bound to be a correlation between that and mental health issues. Cause and effect; effect and cause. Between the brain connection to a behavior or substance and the brain to itself.

As humans, we are wired to adapt, and as teens currently "in development," the brain is actually growing and adapting in response to behaviors and outside stimuli in real-time.
Nothing New
It was supposed to be the end of civilization-everyone was nose-deep in a newspaper or book, and riding the train or sitting in a cafe became more about me-time than interacting with your fellow neighbor. Sound familiar?

This was one of the legitimate fears from the 19th and 20th century (as far back as 1860): that as people become more reliant on literary and technological devices, they will be more stressed out as well as ignore each other on the trolleys, buses, and trains. The fear was that we would become less social because of reading-or because of the telegraph, phonograph, radio, 8-Track, cassette tape, computer, or... you get the point.

This means that we have a new type of person in society: one who gets daily satisfaction solely from online successes. This new aspect of real-life society is targeted and cultivated by our teenagers.
How Can Parents Tell?
The telltale signs of addiction to the internet and social media are within the range of compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorders. The earlier that the brain rewards itself for social and "personal best" achievements on computers and apps, the longer we will depend upon devices to get those rewards. There is a mental and emotional release when getting a top score or achieving likes and shares beyond normal.

But today's "device in hand" society seems a bit more insidious and harmful, especially for your teen, who is learning behaviors that may guide them for life.
It Starts Younger Than You Think
If your child grew up in the 2000s, chances are that they didn't grow up watching you on your smartphone all the time. Your parents probably put you in front of the television or VCR too much during your formative years, but today is a bit different.

The mass purchasing of smartphone and MP3 devices has been popular for not even 20 years, meaning that our fears and even our medical advice on how young children should see the screen has changed with the times. At some point, even the least among us, age 3 to 93, has had a device or was being put in front of one while the family ate out.

And then, all of a sudden, every parent bought a tablet or smartphone for junior, because the more you see a product, and the more acceptable it becomes (and cheaper), the better you feel as a parent in letting it happen to your family.

Suffice it to say, if your kids are under 20, then they have grown up seeing you and everyone in society holding, reading, and constantly posting on their devices.
Yes, Your Teen Likely Has a Secret Account
From birth, we learn to be secretive, to lie, or to create narratives that justify behavior that might be thought unacceptable. When it comes to online activity, parents can't monitor their kids all the time, especially at school or when they're with friends. Even monitoring apps and device-time parental controls can fail, or parents don't use them properly.

So if you suspect that your teen, tween, or pre-teen is using a secret phone or account, take the time to address what you feel is behavior worthy of losing your trust or harming them. Or level with them about what they're actually doing online that would cause them to be secretive.

There are plenty of people, games, and apps that will target your child in harmful ways, so if there is secrecy surrounding their online usage, then you have to be in control of how much time they spend and what apps and sites they visit.
Yes, Teens Are Spending Too Much Time Online
For a relatively new invention, the smartphone has taken over our lives. This means that your child, once "plugged in," will begin to think about their accounts and games all the time. The internet is like anything in life in this: Once a person is invested, they will allow it certain control over their thinking.

Staying online past bedtime, interacting with their smartphone as soon as they wake up, and using their smartphone at least once an hour are all signs that the device has become an indispensable way of life for the teen.

Assume the best of your child, but limit their time as best and as much as you can. Remind them that they can't really experience life through that device-they have to "look up" more from their hand or lap.
Yes, Teens Are Distracted at Home, School, and Work
If your child's grades have dipped, or they seem despondent at home, and you suspect it's because of the behavior and fallout from too much device time, you have your "yes."

Social apps aren't just one or two sites anymore. All of the internet is social. From comment boxes to chatting on the newest site or messenger, we are all forever connected on almost every site, whether it's meant to be social in nature or not. And companies are creating plenty of "kid chat" and kid-friendly internet platforms to share the wealth.

This translates to and has taken over all of our familiar social environments and levels of parenting -from kids checking their phones during halftime to them jumping to the screen every time there is a buzz, ring, ding, or pop.

BBQs, Sunday drives, school functions, family dinner-every place is now a hub for spending those non-WiFi data minutes, even though we really are invested (somewhat) in the real-life social scene.
Yes, Teens Know Way More Than Adults About the Whole Social Media Thing
Whether it's the newest post-Facebook, post-Twitter, advanced-Instagram app that you won't know about until it's not cool anymore, your kid is hipper than you at knowing exactly what the device is selling or offering at "freemium" (apps that start free and then offer in-app purchases).

They are also the first generation to grow up with smartphones and the stress and anxiety that come with them. Never in human history have we acclimated to a device this quickly and widely, except maybe the pencil. And it is because of the new social norm of being device-ready citizens that we have normalized new behavior, which your kids will emulate whether or not you do.
Yes, Have an Intervention for Your Teen If You Need To
The bottom line is that your child may become addicted to social media apps, video games, or online presence. The earlier you intervene, the better.

If your pre-teen is talking about pressures and topics that you think might be wrong for their age group, set limits, and be honest about what they're actually doing online. If your teenager is showing signs of fatigue from late-night gaming or posting and texting, then limit or suspend online activity until they understand how serious you are about their mental health and addictive characteristics.

Like all parenting and stages of teenage development, there is a learning and a social curve, as well as the reality that whatever we do, we are creating our own path with our children. We do this all at the same time and continuously as we age.

So, like anything, we need to be open and honest with our children about our fears and the reality of online life. Because if we don't, we are ignoring what is often the biggest part of their life-that is, life online.

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Is My Teen Really Addicted to Social Media?

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Teen gaming and social media addiction is no longer virtual.

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"Learn about the effects of social media on the teenage brain" (3:38).

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As many parents probably already know, their teenage kids can be absolutely addicted to social media. And with the various websites and array of social media platforms, sometimes teens can spend all day glued to their screens. While I'm not exactly defending teens' reasons to be stuck on social media all day, enlightening others is a good goal to have when trying to raise awareness about the potential negative impacts that social media can have.

One of the first reasons that comes to mind when talking about why our generation is addicted to social media is probably because of the Fear Of Missing Out, or FOMO. While some don't care if they're the first ones to see a new post by someone popular in their school, or even a celebrity, teens often give a lot of attention to their phones so they can see and understand what's going on in the world in terms of pop culture.

Basically, it's the fear that many teenagers have that if they don't go on social media, they will miss out on a huge event, or something that they deem as important. Often in school, a student's peers may be discussing a post or video that they all saw and shared the previous day, and if that student wasn't on social media at the time, they feel left out of the conversation, and not as engaged in it as well.

In BBC's article, titled, " FOMO: How the Fear of Missing Out drives social media 'addiction '", several high school students were challenged to not go on their phones or check their notifications for a week. One person said that the longer they didn't go on any of their social media platforms, "the more disconnected and isolated from the world [she] felt". FOMO is one of the main reasons why many teenagers feel the compulsive need to spend a decent chunk of their time on social media; to make sure they are up-to-date with all happenings in order to fit in.

Another reason why teenagers today obsess over social media is because their profiles really dictate how they appear to others. That is, the more likes and/or followers they have, the more popular and envious they come off as to others. Some teens may constantly be on social media platforms to hunt for more followers, make their posts the best that they can be, or find a way to get more likes on their posts.

Psychologist Emma Kenny states that likes on social media sites, such as Instagram, give you a physiological high, and is a reward cycle, prompting users to keep going back to and worrying about the amount of likes that they get. A lot of teenagers, myself included, have deleted posts if they didn't get a high enough number of likes.
Getting a low number of likes and followers, in teenagers' minds, equates to low status and ridicule, especially in a school environment, while having a high number of each equates to popularity.
An additional reason why teens may be addicted to social media is because of how quickly and easily they can communicate with their friends, no matter where either of them are. With the click of just a couple buttons, kids in my generation are able to send pictures to each other on Snapchat, as well as gossip and converse through DMs (direct messagings) or IMs (instant messaging). Teenagers can appear as if they are addicted to social media, even if they are not, because they devote a lot of their time to talking to their friends online through these social media platforms.

Social media can act as an escape from the real world. If a teenager is stressed, sad, or even depressed, they may turn to social media to forget their problems, even if it is only for a couple of hours. It's also a lot easier to express yourself on social media, and teens who may be shy in real life are more likely to have a bolder online presence; they are able to think about their words, and come off as witty, even if in real life they are nothing like that at all. Additionally, if a teenager is feeling isolated or disconnected from their family or friends, they may turn to social media.

On these platforms, it's easier to make friends, and more often than not, people are accepted wholeheartedly and right away, creating a sort of safe haven for those who feel this way. Most of the time, people post certain events in their lives, whether positive, like getting a job or getting into college, or negative, like failing a test or having a loved one pass away, in order for their online friends and followers to comment and give them praise, support, or reassurance.

A final reason why teenagers may spend an abundance of their time on social media, or on their phones in general, is to pass the time to avoid being bored. Too many times during dinner parties or get-togethers full of adults have my sister or I decide to pass the time going on our phones and scrolling through social media rather than just sit there and do nothing. It was not as if we wanted to avoid talking to people: it was just the fact that no one wanted to talk to us. Instead of doing absolutely nothing throughout the hours that these events took (and becoming wholly bored in the process), we take it upon ourselves to become engrossed in our phones to give us something to do.

So, with all of that in mind, it's painfully clear that a good portion of the world's teenagers are addicted to their phones. The impacts of this, though, are frighteningly negative. The "perfect" people that are showcased online tend to lower teenagers' self-esteem. Without even thinking, we compare ourselves to others, especially those we see on social media platforms. When teens determine that they aren't "good enough" because they don't look a certain way, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, a hard time sleeping, disconnectivity, obsession with self-image, substance use, loneliness, and self-harm may manifest itself in teenagers.

Moreover, because teens spend a lot of their time on social media, they have less and less face-to-face conversations and connections because they are experiencing that all online. While this doesn't seem like such a bad thing, the psychology website PsyCom reports that this results in a difficult time fine-tuning empathy and communication skills, attributes that need daily practice and experience.

For teens, it's quite understandable and obvious, really, why they spend so much time on social media. Whether it's to stay up-to-date with events, or just to pass the time because they have nothing else to do, social media is certainly a large part of a teen's lifestyle. While there are some positive sides to social media, like being able to stay in touch easily, there are too many negative effects of social media which cannot simply be ignored. While it won't go well if you tell your teen to completely cut out social media, it would be a good idea to limit their time on it, given all of the potential downsides.

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Why Teens Are Addicted to Social Media - PediMom

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By Suha Malik, age 15 As many parents probably already know, their teenage kids can be absolutely addicted to social media. And with the various websites and array of social [...]

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How parents can help their kids navigate the pressures of their digital lives - without pulling the plug on the positives

As adults witness the rising tides of teenaged anxiety, it's tough not to notice a common thread that runs through the epidemic - something that past generations never dealt with. Clutched in the hand of nearly every teen is a smartphone, buzzing and beeping and blinking with social media notifications.

Parents, all too often, just want to grab their teen's phone and stuff it in a drawer. But is social media and the omnipresence of digital interactions really the cause of all this anxiety?

The short answer is: It's complicated.

Recent studies have noted a significant uptick in depression and suicidal thoughts over the past several years for teens, especially those who spend multiple hours a day using screens, and especially girls. But many of the pressures teenagers feel from social media are actually consistent with developmentally normal concerns around social standing and self-expression. Social media can certainly exacerbate these anxieties, but for parents to truly help their children cope, they should avoid making a blanket condemnation. Instead, parents should tailor their approach to the individual, learning where a particular child's stressors lie and how that child can best gain control of this alluring, powerful way to connect with peers.

Many of the pressures teenagers feel from social media are actually consistent with developmentally normal concerns around social standing and self-expression.

A Link Between Social Media and Mental Health Concerns

Many experts have described a rise in sleeplessness, loneliness, worry, and dependence among teenagers - a rise that coincides with the release of the first iPhone 10 years ago. One study found that 48 percent of teens who spend five hours per day on an electronic device have at least one suicide risk factor, compared to 33 percent of teens who spend two hours a day on an electronic device. We've all heard anecdotes, too, of teens being reduced to tears from the constant communication and comparisons that social media invites.

Through likes and follows, teens are "getting actual data on how much people like them and their appearance," says Lindsey Giller, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute who specializes in youth and young adults with mood disorders. "And you're not having any break from that technology." She's seen teens with anxiety, poor self-esteem, insecurity, and sadness attributed, at least in part, to constant social media use.

Teenage Challenges and Stressors, Exacerbated

But the connection between anxiety and social media might not be simple, or purely negative. Correlation does not equal causation; it may be that depression and anxiety lead to more social media use, for example, rather than the other way around. There could also be an unknown third variable - for instance, academic pressures or economic concerns - connecting them, or teens could simply be more likely to admit to mental health concerns now than they were in previous generations.

It's also important to remember that teens experience social media in a wide range of ways. The ability to raise awareness, connect with people across the world, and share moments of beauty can be empowering and uplifting for some. And many teens understand that the images they see are curated snapshots, not real-life indicators, and are less likely to let those posts make them feel insecure about their own lives.

Above all, says researcher Emily Weinstein, who studies teens and their social media habits, parents need to keep in mind that it's probably not just social media that's making their teens anxious - it's the normal social stressors that these platforms facilitate, albeit at a different size and scale.

In the same way that different teenagers need different types of social support from their parents, they need different types of digital support, as well. If your teen seems irritable or overwhelmed by social media, pay attention to what specifically is causing those feelings.

"So many of the behaviors we're talking about have pre-digital corollaries," says Weinstein, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "They're the same sort of developmental challenges that adolescents have grappled with for decades, though now they're taking place in different spaces that can certainly amplify them and shift their quality, quantity, and scale.

"But the idea of wanting to fit in, the critical importance of peer relationships, and the process of figuring out which version of yourself you want to be and how you want to express that identity to others - those features of adolescence are not new."

What's Triggering about Social Media?

Youth and technology expert Amanda Lenhart's 2015 Pew study of teens, technology, and friendships reveals a range of social media-induced stressors:

Seeing people posting about events to which you haven't been invited

Feeling pressure to post positive and attractive content about yourself

Feeling pressure to get comments and likes on your posts

Having someone post things about you that you cannot change or control

In analyses of thousands of adolescents' reactions to digital stressors, Weinstein and her colleagues have found even more challenges:

Feeling replaceable: If you don't respond to a best friend's picture quickly or effusively enough, will she find a better friend?

Too much communication: A boyfriend or girlfriend wants you to be texting far more often than you're comfortable with.

Digital "FOMO": If you're not up-to-date on the latest social media posts, will it prevent you from feeling like you can participate in real-life conversations at school the next day?

Attachment to actual devices: If your phone is out of reach, will your privacy be invaded? Will you miss a message from a friend when he needs you?

For Parents, Strategies on Mitigating Anxiety - Without Overreacting

With so many different stressors, a key piece of advice for parents is to individualize your approach. In the same way that different teenagers need different types of social support from their parents, they need different types of digital support, as well. Weinstein suggests that if your teen seems irritable or overwhelmed by social media, pay attention to what specifically is causing those feelings.

Giller agrees. "Really check in with your teen about what's going on," she says. Parents can and should help support and problem-solve with their teen, but they should also offer validation about how difficult these situations can be.

Don't just take your teen's phone away if you suspect drama. In most situations, it's best to work with your teen around social media expectations.

Relatedly, don't just take your teen's phone away if you suspect drama. Doing so won't get to the heart of the social issue at play - and it could potentially make your teen more upset by separating her from her friends and other aspects of digital media she enjoys.

However, as a family, you can also set screen-free times - whether it's every evening after 9 p.m., on the car ride to school, an occasional screen-free weekend, or longer stretches over vacations and camps. "Many teens say they appreciate" these chances, says education writer Anya Kamenetz, whose upcoming book The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media and Real Life explores these issues in-depth.

A significant part of your teen's phone habits may be related to her parents, too. " Be good role models in your own use of tech," advises Kamenetz. That means being mindful of your own distracted habit of reaching for your cell, but it also means rejecting the isolation that screen time can generate. Make digital media an opportunity for real-life social opportunities, she says. Share some media activities with your teenager - playing games, watching YouTube clips, or reading up on mutual interests together.

And in most situations, it's best to work with your teen to set social media expectations. "You want to build consensus and get their buy-in," says Kamenetz. Constant surveillance or control won't build trust. Make it an open, mutual discussion.

You want to get teens to put their devices down on their own, says Weinstein, "so that you're helping them build their ability to manage their interactions with and through technology." And that's increasingly looking like a key life skill that we'll all need to develop, now and into the future.

Illustration: Wilhelmina Peragine
We're in a moment where anxiety is running rampant, spreading like an epidemic among adolescents. What can we do? In a series of pieces, we look at how to help teenagers face their fears, build resilience, and grapple with the pressure to achieve - on the road to college and beyond. Read more at What Do Anxious Teens Need?

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How parents can help their kids navigate the pressures of their digital lives - without pulling the plug on the positives As adults witness the rising tides of teenaged anxiety, it's tough not to notice a common thread that runs through the epidemic - something that past generations never dealt with.

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"Question: Do you use Snapchat?" a friend asked me in a text message last week. "I can't find anyone that actually uses it."

As I began to type a reply, admitting that I actually do use the service, which lets your messages disappear after they are viewed for up to 10 seconds, the friend followed up with another text: "Well, not true, my kids use it all the time."

As an adult, you might be hard-pressed to find a human being who actually uses Snapchat, and if you do, you might be even more confused by what that person actually uses it for.

We live in a world where there are quite literally thousands of ways to talk to people from our smartphones. Text messages, direct messages on Twitter, and group chat applications like WhatsApp, GroupMe, Line, WeChat, Tango and Kik. If you'd prefer to communicate primarily with photos - which is Snapchat's specialty - there's Facebook Messenger and Instagram. And if you're a glutton for punishment, you can even use email.

A seasoned Internet user might look at people who use Snapchat in the same way they would judge someone who chooses to drink a bottle of Boones from a table full of French red wines from the 1960s.

So why Snapchat?

One of the simple and obvious answers is that Snapchat is intentionally ephemeral. Images are seen once for one to 10 seconds and then disappear forever in a digital magic trick. (Though not entirely. They do survive on a Snapchat server.)

But that's not all. This feature is great, but other people offer competing applications that can accomplish similar things.

For Snapchat, the service can do a lot more than just make images disappear.

If you go back to that second text message my friend sent, you can see the more important answer. "My kids use it all the time." The two crucial words here are "kids" and "time."

Children are incredibly impatient - especially in an age where downloading a song, watching a video or looking something up happens as quickly as their fingers can tap a smartphone screen. This is where Snapchat excels.

When you open the app, the phone's camera is already turned on. So you're right in message-sending mode and can take a photo or video in seconds. You choose whom you're going to send it to afterward.

Other social applications have you press additional buttons before you can take a picture or type a few words. With Twitter, for example, you open the app, go to the top right to press the Direct Message button, then press the camera button, all to simply reach the point where Snapchat already starts. Most other apps, including Facebook and Instagram, require a similar laborious process.

Completing a few extra steps might sound trivial, but if you're a teenager, those three actions are painful beyond reproach.

Deciding to whom you're going to send the messages on Snapchat is also quick and zippy. You don't type someone's name, you simply tag and select them from a list of people, then hit send. The app even figures out who your B.F.F.'s are (best friends forever, for the adult readers) and puts their names at the top of your contacts list. One less step; one more second saved.

That, of course, might leave you with the question of why I, an adult, use Snapchat.

This is partly because I know that the images can be thrown away, which leads to another important aspect of Snapchat. The app and service are really, really ugly. The user interface and design looks like the cross between a weird Japanese animation and a 1980s sitcom. As a result, I feel as if the pictures I take or the messages I send can be ugly, too.

Ugly gives the person using the app the feeling that whatever you do can be thrown away.

In comparison, when I'm composing something on another app, there's a level of permanence that makes me check every word, dot every i and check every filter before sending, all because I know the image could last longer than 10 seconds. I call it the anxiety of permanence.

And when you can throw things away, you can have more fun. Which children like to do. And some adults, too. This also affords a feeling of something being personal: for a few people, not for everyone.

While I don't take selfies on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Google Plus, I do on Snapchat. My messages can be goofy and light in a way that I'm more wary of on other services. And most important, I can do it very, very quickly.

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Why I Use Snapchat: It's Fast, Ugly and Ephemeral

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"Question: Do you use Snapchat?" a friend asked me in a text message last week. "I can't find anyone that actually uses it." As I began to type a reply, admitting that I actually do use the service, which lets your messages disappear after they are viewed for up to 10 seconds, the friend followed up with another text: "Well, not true, my kids use it all the time."

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Not a week goes by without another tragic story of how social media directly facilitated the injury, death or suffering of someone in the world. Earlier this month a young female child was sold in South Sudan using Facebook to increase the bidding price, while two months ago a false rumor spreading on WhatsApp in Mexico led an angry mob to burn two innocent men to death. Perhaps most infamously, Facebook has been singled out as a primary facilitator in the Myanmar genocide. As social media is increasingly used to facilitate horrific activities across the world, should the companies behind those platforms bear responsibility for the misuse of their platforms? In particular, as companies make explicit decisions regarding how much to invest in tools and staffing to counter misinformation and illegal use of their platforms, knowing full well the dangers posed by underinvestment, should they be held accountable in cases where they specifically declined to invest in protecting their users against a given threat, knowing full well that that lack of investment could lead to serious harm to those users?

Every day around the world, bad actors are misusing social platforms to commit horrific atrocities. Each time another atrocity makes headlines, the companies predictably issue statements that they are sorry about the misuse of their platform, but that there is nothing further they could have done to prevent the situation.

In the case of Myanmar, the company had long refused to answer questions regarding the number of Burmese speaking content moderators it employed or any other concrete details regarding its efforts to combat misuse of its platform to advance the violence there. The public and policymakers were left with nothing more than the company's assurances that it was doing what needed to be done. Of course, that trust turned out to be misplaced, as it turns out the company had invested insufficient resources until the public outcry and threat of legislative action forced it to boost its investment in the country. Yet, even with all of these new resources, its total investment in the country pales compared to what would be needed to match its investment in other countries that are not undergoing active genocide.

How does a company like Facebook decide precisely how many moderators to hire for each language and socio-cultural focus? For a company that declines to even offer rough estimates of the number of moderators it has by language, getting it to offer any clarity into how it determines those staffing numbers is impossible.

In the case of Germany, the company had long claimed that it had done everything possible in terms of staffing and technical solutions to combat hate speech in the country. Yet, after the passage of new hate speech laws and the threats of future legislative action, Facebook changed its stance almost overnight, rapidly hiring a vast new army of moderators and deploying a number of new technical features - all the things it had long declined to do.

In the case of Myanmar, it raises the question of why, when concerns first began to be raised about the misuse of Facebook's platforms in the conflict in the country, did the company not immediately hire thousands or even tens of thousands of moderators to halt the growing misuse in its tracks before it could lead to further violence?

There are certainly no technical constraints preventing the company from hiring many tens of thousands of content reviewers, using the same scaling model as China's highly successful moderation program. After all, China's efforts demonstrate that it is quite tractable to achieve platform-scale moderation.

The issue really comes down to one of cost. Facebook and its peers simply do not wish to pay for armies of humans to engage in what amounts to a non-revenue-generating cost.

The company has repeatedly acknowledged again and again the role of misinformation on its platforms, including in the death or serious injury of people across the world and that it is actively investing in fighting misinformation. This raises the question, however, of whether the company feels that it is in any way responsible for the deaths and injuries of people harmed by the misinformation flowing through its platform.

After all, Facebook could almost overnight make a severe dent in the flow of misinformation simply by hiring 50,000 or 100,000 moderators and redesigning its algorithms and interfaces to achieve a different temporal trajectory for regionally viral content to slow the flow of false information until it can be counteracted. The problem is that these actions would cost the company considerable revenue and would affect the content virality upon which its advertising revenue depends.

Asked about whether Facebook felt any responsibility whatsoever for the Mexico murders caused by a false viral WhatsApp rumor or the child bride whose sale was facilitated by its platform, a company spokesperson offered that it felt that combatting misinformation as a whole was its responsibility and that human trafficking was against its terms of service. However, when asked specifically whether it felt that it bore any responsibility for these tragic situations, the company declined to comment.

It is worth pointing out that Facebook actually profits monetarily from atrocities committed on its platform. In the case of the child bride sale, the company earned advertising revenue from all of the users who viewed, posted or otherwise engaged with the sale content. This raises the question of whether, in such circumstances, the company conducts a subsequent review to identify all of the advertisements shown alongside the post and refund all money it earned from those advertisements. The company declined to comment when asked, suggesting that it keeps what amounts to "blood money."

In addition to direct monetary benefit, the company also benefits indirectly in acquiring behavioral and interest data about users who engaged with the child trafficking content that is used to enrich its behavioral profiles of those users to offer them more accurate and targeted advertising in future. In essence, by recording which users viewed the content, the company is able to associate and strengthen the advertising selectors associated with those accounts, increasing its ability to sell more targeted advertising to them in their future usage of its systems. This raises the question of whether the company should go back and delete all modifications made to user profiles as a result of viewing or engaging with illegal content to ensure that Facebook does not profit even indirectly from the publication of that content through its platform. Under such a model Facebook would still retain security logs showing which users viewed what content, but it would delete that activity from the user profiles themselves to prevent it from affecting future advertising to ensure it did not benefit. The company declined to comment when asked whether it currently did so or whether it has ever considered doing so.

Of course, we don't hold phone companies responsible for terrorists using their phones to coordinate violent attacks, so why should we hold social media platforms to account for the misuse of their systems?

The answer is that phone companies do not perform any moderation of any kind of their systems and that their systems facilitate only person-to-person communication, not global broadcasting. In the US, the local phone company does not have an army of human reviewers monitoring all of the phone calls transiting its networks and terminating calls that violate the set of topics and perspectives that it views as acceptable uses of its telephone connections. Nor can one's phone by itself be used to instantly broadcast false information to a billion plus people globally.

Facebook, on the other hand, actively moderates its platform, deciding what is allowed to stay and what to delete, based on its own internal guidelines of what it considers to be acceptable speech. As a moderator that is already actively reviewing the content on its platform and evaluating posts according to a set of corporate guidelines, the company is necessarily stepping into the space of active editorial control.

Most importantly, however, the phone company's one-to-one communications model means that misinformation travels slowly, a person at a time. With social media, a post can be sent to millions with a mouseclick. This makes it far more dangerous as a tool for spreading misinformation.

In the end, should we hold social media platforms to account for misuse of their systems that leads to human rights abuses, serious injury, death and even genocide? If a company knowingly fails to invest in what it believes is the necessary level of moderation in a given country due to concerns about cost, recognizing that that refusal to invest will likely cost human lives, should be held accountable? Should the company at the very least be required to hand back the direct monetary profit they earn from those atrocities and delete the behavioral data they record that will indirectly monetarily profit them in future? The fact that Facebook declined to comment on any of this reflects that for now the companies aren't being forced to grapple with these issues. Until governments step forward and force the companies to take some level of responsibility, the companies and their leaders will likely continue to stand their ground and " delay, deny and deflect."

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Should Social Media Be Held Responsible For The Atrocities And Deaths It Facilitates?

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As social media is increasingly used to facilitate horrific activities across the world, should the companies behind those platforms bear responsibility for the misuse of their platforms? Should they at the very least be required to hand back the money they earn from facilitating those atrocities?

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Do digital companies have a duty to curate content that some find alarming? That's the current dilemma of social media businesses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Spotify, and other platforms, which have self-defined as "agnostic" distributors-that is, neutral carriers not responsible for the content published through their channels and networks. These iconic brands, avatars for the enhanced exercise of freedom of speech on a scale previously unimaginable in the history of communications, now find themselves targets of increasing criticism for purveying content that is perceived as damaging, even dangerous, by their global community of users. What is the social responsibility of social media?

What's at stake is the ongoing conflict between the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech, a right often under attack throughout its long history, and a contemporary culture that permits-even rewards-extreme, inflammatory commentary by measures of views and click-throughs, and amplifies it to an unprecedentedly large audience through the Internet.

Critics argue that like publishers, these "distributors" are responsible for the content they carry and present, if even they don't create it. Companies argue that it is not their right or duty to censor third-party content.

Of course, like all companies, these businesses have standards that can be referred to. And these "community standards" are increasingly being belatedly invoked as the limits of free expression have stretched to the breaking point, with a growing negative pushback against tech companies that once seemingly could do no wrong in the eyes of their enthusiastic users.

Item: Twitter finally joined its tech industry peers in deleting some content produced by Infowars, a site specializing in conspiracy theories, hate speech, and harassment of its perceived enemies. YouTube, Facebook, Apple, and Spotify all invoked their "community standards" as the reason for deleting that site's comments.

Item: Amazon deleted products on its site that featured Nazi and white supremacist symbolism after their presence was pointed out to the online retailer by activist groups. The company said it removed products that "violated [its] policy against product listings that promote hatred, violence or discrimination."

The U.S. is unique in having a First Amendment. Read broadly, it calls for no "abridgement" of speech. Historically, the common sense rule regarding speech that leads to prohibited or even criminal action has been applied, best expressed in the maxim that yelling "fire" in a crowded theater leads to public disorder and life-threatening action. For many European countries, with the experience of fascism and genocide in their modern histories, speech is regulated to prevent subsequent social unrest. For example, Google operates in Europe under different codes of privacy than in the U.S. (What to make of Germany's recent relaxation of the general ban on Nazi symbols in video games, now grouped with other exceptions such as academic studies, films, theater plays, historical exhibits, and other cultural expressions? The use of generally forbidden imagery will be determined on a case-by-case basis, says the German government. Is this a sophisticated upgrade to "deal responsibly with difficult subjects," as Felix Falk, head of the gaming industry lobby, says? Or an invitation to the global alt-right to bait the general public with anti-Semitic views?

What's also at stake here is the brand reputations of these tech companies. Questions about data privacy, the commercialization of private data, revenge porn, blatant disinformation, and outright threats have spurred a variety of rules and laws to curb unlimited freedom of expression through digital distribution channels, and have created a cloud of concern over the once golden-haloed firms. The answers to these questions have real consequences in share prices, employee activism, and future workforce recruitment as well as lawsuits, unwanted government regulation, and user un-subscriptions.

I'm looking forward to the case studies that will be written to analyze how the big tech brands navigate the increasingly stormy waters of taking stands by defining standards, and maintaining their integrity and reputation while doing so.

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What is the Social Responsibility of Social Media?

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Do digital companies have a duty to curate content that some find alarming? That's the current dilemma of social media businesses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Spotify, and other platforms,

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Key principles for all age groups include:

Keep lines of communication open

Create a list of Internet rules with your kids (See Rules 'N Tools® Youth Pledge )

Set parental controls at the age-appropriate levels and use filtering and monitoring tools as a complement--not a replacement--for parental supervision.

Supervise all Internet-enabled devices and keep computers in a public area of the home.

Talk to your kids about healthy sexuality in the event they encounter sexually explicit online pornography at home, school, a friend's house, the library or their mobile device.

Encourage your kids to come to you if they encounter anything online that makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened. (Stay calm and don't blame your child; otherwise, they won't turn to you in the future for help when they need it.)

Teach them not to interact with people they don't know offline, because an online predator or cyberbully can disguise him/herself.

Check the history file on your computer to see which sites your child has accessed.

Teach your child the golden rule: do unto others as they would have done unto themselves.

Specific Guidelines by Age Groups
Two- to Seven-Year-Olds Eight- to Ten-Year-Olds Eleven- to Thirteen-Year-Olds Fourteen- Eighteen-Year-Olds

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Internet Safety 101: Age-Based Guidelines

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Internet Safety 101, is an initiative of Enough Is Enough, a 501c(3) whose mission is to make the Internet Safer for Children and Families.

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Underlying problems may make some young people particularly vulnerable to what they find on social media, an expert says.

Credit... iStock

There has been a lot of worry about adolescents and social media over the past couple of weeks, with new studies and reports raising questions about mental health and vulnerability, sleep and suicide. I recently wrote about the question of whether the word "addiction" is helpful in understanding our worries about adolescents and their relationships to the devices that connect them to their friends and their world.

In mid-May, a report in JAMA looked at suicide rates among those aged 10 to 19 over the period from 1975 to 2016; boys have traditionally had higher suicide rates, but the gap has narrowed as rates rose among adolescent girls, with the largest percentage increases among girls aged 10 to 14. The study was accompanied by an editorial calling the role of social media use among adolescents "an urgent public health issue that merits further investigation."

Another study, just published in JAMA Psychiatry, showed a suicide bump among 10- to 19-year-olds (both boys and girls, but a larger increase in girls) at the time of the release of the Netflix series "13 Reasons Why"; the study shows association, not causation, but raises the question of "media contagion" - that is, the possibility that the show and the intense discussion of it on social media may have led to some imitative behavior, and cites "the need for safer and more thoughtful portrayal of suicide in the media."

Dr. Michael Rich, an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Children's Hospital, cautioned against the impulse to look for binary answers to complex problems by drawing too-simple connections between social media and suicide, or video games and violence.

"What we need to do is look at the whole picture around these young people; we need to look at how kids and how we all are using social media," he said.

Children may use interactive media in problematic or dangerous ways because of underlying problems, or they may be particularly vulnerable to what they find on social media. And even while the specific links between social media use and mental health (in both directions) are debated, and researchers try to elucidate the connections and the risks, there is a general acknowledgment that the emotional landscape of the next generation is increasingly tied to those online connections, for better and for worse.

"The technology isn't the problem, we're the problem," Dr. Rich said. "It's the interactivity that draws some kids in." At Boston Children's Hospital's Clinic for Interactive Media and Internet Disorders, he said, they are seeing four manifestations of what they call problematic interactive media use, including gaming (mostly boys), and social media (mostly girls). And then there is pornography, "which is touching kids younger and more profoundly than anyone imagines," he said. And finally there is "information bingeing," with kids "disappearing down a rabbit warren of hot links."

What these different problematic behaviors have in common, Dr. Rich said, is that many of the children involved had underlying issues to start with, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, social anxiety or depression. He and his colleagues are coming to believe, he said, that the problematic use of interactive media "is not a diagnosis at all, but is a syndrome of these other already established psychiatric disorders."

And when kids get treatment for that underlying problem, he said, "We often find these behaviors disappear or get much more manageable."

Dr. Ana Radovic, an assistant professor of pediatrics at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, an adolescent medicine specialist who does research in mental health services, said that only about a third of teenagers with depression get treatment, and it can take a long time.

At a clinic that serves teenagers who are severely depressed or suicidal, she began doing interviews about how they were using social media, and found she was hearing both positive and negative stories. "For example, there was one teen who shared with me that she enjoyed following a band that she liked on Instagram, and it made her feel better," Dr. Radovic said. "And then all of a sudden she saw a picture of the band member self-harming and cutting her arm."

Other adolescents talked about finding help through online groups - perhaps they found support through L.G.B.T.Q. sites which they didn't find at home with their families - or about being talked out of suicidal thoughts on Reddit. "It's a balancing act for some of these teens, finding help and support online but not being able to filter out the negative things," Dr. Radovic said.

And a great deal of that balancing act may have to do with how teenagers are feeling before they go on social media, which then affects what they do on their devices, as well as how they react. Kids who are already feeling depressed have a negative cognitive bias, which affects how they interpret what happens on social media, Dr. Radovic said: "It's a complex relationship, where you start off, what happens to you online, how you interpret what happens to you."

"Teens are really driven by their peers, really rewarded by peer interactions," Dr. Radovic said. "They're exploring their identity, being creative, and sharing things that they've done, but it's difficult for them to filter out the negative," she said, and even more so when they are already vulnerable.

There are changes that tech companies could make in how social media works, Dr. Radovic said, which might reduce some of those negatives and change the online experience. For example, Instagram is looking at doing away with "likes" in a pilot program in Canada, to reduce social pressure and comparisons. There are ways to make things safer, she said, and even helpful; social media could play a part in the "safety plans" that teenagers make to handle suicidal feelings, if they come.

On the other hand, Dr. Radovic said, "there's more and more evidence about sleep and suicidality," with poor sleep a risk factor. And a new report from Common Sense Media emphasizes the ways that mobile devices have invaded our bedrooms, with both teenagers and their parents reporting waking up to check their devices, and using them right before falling asleep - and first thing on waking up.

The ways we use our devices, and the ways our children use their devices reflect who we are and how we're doing, but they also reflect the power of the technology. Dr. Radovic asked, "Can we change how people are using their social media so they're not multitasking constantly, not having it keep them up?" Can we help teenagers filter their online experience to stay away from negative exposure? Or even help them figure out how to use social media to get help when they need it?

"We have sort of checked out of parenting in the digital domain and had them do their own thing both because we felt completely inept next to them, but also because they said, 'this is my space, not yours,'" Dr. Rich said.

"They need us in that space - we draw an artificial distinction between online and offline, real world and virtual world," while for them it is a seamless reality, he said. "We need to parent them in that space."

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When Social Media Is Really Problematic for Adolescents (Published 2019)

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Underlying problems may make some young people particularly vulnerable to what they find on social media, an expert says. There has been a lot of worry about adolescents and social media over the past couple of weeks, with new studies and reports raising questions about mental health and vulnerability, sleep and suicide.

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Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech

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Amid growing concern over social media's impact and influence on today's youth, a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens finds that many young people acknowledge the unique challenges - and benefits - of growing up in the digital age.

Today, social media use is nearly universal among teens. While notable shares say they at times feel overwhelmed by the drama on social media and pressure to construct only positive images of themselves, they simultaneously credit these online platforms with several positive outcomes - including strengthening friendships, exposing them to different viewpoints and helping people their age support causes they care about.

Roughly eight-in-ten teens ages 13 to 17 (81%) say social media makes them feel more connected to what's going on in their friends' lives, while around two-thirds say these platforms make them feel as if they have people who will support them through tough times. And by relatively substantial margins, teens tend to associate their social media use with positive rather than negative emotions, such as feeling included rather than excluded (71% vs. 25%) or feeling confident rather than insecure (69% vs. 26%).

Young people also believe social media helps teens become more civically minded and exposes them to greater diversity - either through the people they interact with or the viewpoints they come across. Roughly two-thirds of teens say these sites help people their age interact with individuals from diverse backgrounds, find different points of view or show their support for causes or issues. And they see digital environments as important spaces for youth to connect with their friends and interact with others who share similar interests. For example, 60% of teens say they spend time with their friends online on a daily or nearly daily basis, and 77% say they ever spend time in online groups and forums.

The survey also illustrates the ways in which teens navigate social norms around what - and how often - they post to these sites. It is much more common for young people to post about their accomplishments or family life than to discuss their personal problems or political beliefs on social media. And while Millennials - some of whom are just older than teens - have been deemed the "selfie generation," roughly half of today's teens say they rarely (25%) or never (26%) post selfies on social media.

For some teens, sharing their life online can come with added social burdens: Around four-in-ten say they feel pressure to only post content on social media that makes them look good to others (43%) or share things that will get a lot of likes or comments (37%).

At the same time, the online environment for today's teens can be hostile and drama-filled - even if these incidents may fall short of more severe forms of cyberbullying. Some 45% of teens say they feel overwhelmed by all the drama on social media, with 13% saying they feel this way "a lot." And a similar share of teens (44%) say they often or sometimes unfriend or unfollow others on social media. When asked why they've digitally disconnected from others, 78% of this group report doing so because people created too much drama, while 52% cite the bullying of them or others.

These are some of the key findings from the Center's survey of 743 teens, ages 13 to 17, conducted March 7-April 10, 2018. Throughout the report, "teens" refers to those ages 13 to 17.

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Teens' Social Media Habits and Experiences

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Teens credit social media for helping to build stronger friendships and exposing them to a more diverse world, but they express concern that these sites lead to drama and social pressure.

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By Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent

Bill Posters

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg - or is it?

In a video on Instagram this week, Mark Zuckerberg confessed to controlling the stolen data of billions of people and said he owed it all to an organisation called Spectre.

The video was of course faked, and on this week's Tech Tent we examine the dilemma it posed for Instagram's owner Facebook.

Stream the latest Tech Tent podcast on BBC Sounds

A few weeks ago, the social media giant came under fire for allowing a doctored video of the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to remain up.

So how would it react when the faked video of its founder emerged?

The video featured the real Mark Zuckerberg, but the voice and the words emerging from his mouth were not his.

It was the work of two artists, Daniel Howe and a man going by the name of Bill Posters, and was part of an installation on show in Sheffield this week.

When we spoke to Bill Posters he told us that the video had been planned long before the row over Facebook's treatment of Nancy Pelosi.

The aim was to throw a light on Facebook's business model, which involved using behavioural psychology to persuade people to share intimate details of their lives so that they could be targeted with advertising.

"We're shining the light on Facebook and Zuckerberg himself to ask what happens now when it's your privacy and your data that's been used in obscure or unintended ways" he said.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook did not remove the video, It said it followed the same policy as with the Nancy Pelosi video and other misinformation on its services - let third party fact-checkers determine whether it was fake, and then make it less visible in users' feeds rather than taking it down.

#deepfake

Bill Posters points out that the video featured the hashtag #deepfake and was never meant to deceive anybody.

It is hard to believe that anybody happening across this artwork with a voice which sounds nothing like Mark Zuckerberg would be fooled.

But month by month, deepfake technology is getting ever more sophisticated.

Soon, it will become extremely difficult to spot whether words have been put into the mouths of politicians, or whether celebrities' faces have been placed in scenes where they were not present.

Both identifying such videos and deciding what to do about them will become an even greater challenge for Facebook's moderators, while giving the company a powerful role in determining the limits of free expression.

Bill Posters says that means things need to change.

"To do that it needs collective understanding of very hard, obscure, hidden technologies and methods. But it also needs regulatory oversight as well," he said.

Regulation time?

The call for regulation of Facebook and the other US tech giants is getting louder - from Europe in particular.

Tech Tent also hears from European Commissioner Carlos Moedas and leading UK tech figure Hermann Hauser, who both insist that Europe is setting the pace - with the GDPR data privacy directive just one example.

And Hermann Hauser has one radical solution to the huge power and dominant market share of Google, Amazon and Facebook - break them up.

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Facebook was confronted this week with a fake video of its own founder Mark Zuckerberg.

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Smartphones and Social Media

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Smartphones and Social Media - Child Mind Institute

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Teenagers and young adults — ages 16 to 24 — are the most intense users of social media. Benefits of social media use include enhancing friendships and decreasing loneliness. But there is also evidence that overuse has a negative impact on self-esteem and satisfaction with their lives. And this soci…

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If you thought you could coast when it comes to talking to your younger child about social media, think again. Your tween may be counting down the days until they turn 13. Not only do they officially become a teenager, but they are also now technically allowed to use social media accounts like Instagram.

If it were up to the country's top doctor though, 13 is still too young for children to be on social media. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says kids this age are still developing their identities, and the environment on social media often creates a distorted view of self-worth and relationships. The Surgeon General adds he knows it's hard to keep kids off social media due to its popularity. But, he suggests parents create a united front and not allow their kids to get accounts until later in their teenage years.

Still, children will find a way online anyway. The number of children under 13 using fake birthdays and a parent's email address to create accounts on popular social media sites (whether they have permission or not) is a bit startling.

According to 2022 research from Ofcom, the regulator for communications services in the United Kingdom, 33% of parents of children ages 5 to 7 said their child had at least one social media account. About 60% of children ages 8 to 11 owned an account. That means instead of kickball, conversations at recess for your fourth grader may very well be focused more on who posted what on Instagram or TikTok last night. Scary, we know.

That's why the American Psychological Association (APA) came up with a new set of guidelines for parents and children to help them create safe social media habits.

Guidelines for Safe Social Media Usage

We all know teens and tweens are going to use social media no matter what, so it's important to set boundaries and expectations. That was the basis for the APA's new recommendations on social media use. The APA's advisory group came up with 10 recommendations.

One of the first points the APA makes is that kids should have some kind of social media literacy training. "Social media is neither inherently harmful nor beneficial to our youth," APA President Thema Bryant, Ph.D. says in a news release. "Just as we require young people to be trained in order to get a driver's license, our youth need instruction in the safe and healthy use of social media."

Among the other recommendations, the APA says social media use should be tailored to kids' developmental capabilities. For kids on the younger side, adults should closely monitor their usage, which includes discussions around the content they are seeing. Tweens and teens should also be limited in how they're using social media to compare beauty and appearance, as well as be monitored for any signs of problematic social media use, which may interfere with their daily routines, sleep, or physical activity.

"We hope these recommendations will be helpful as we all try to keep pace with the rapidly shifting social media ecosystem," says APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr., Ph.D. in the news release. Still, the APA says more investment is needed in research to further determine the impact of social media on our young people.

Positives of Social Media for Kids

There are undoubtedly perks to having kids of the proper age and with parental consent connecting with their peers on social media. Even the APA acknowledges there are benefits, including promoting healthy socialization.

Platforms like Instagram are full of inspiration and allow kids to creatively express themselves. But parents should also be aware of potential exposure to cyberbullying and inappropriate content. Younger children in particular may not realize the consequences of their online actions, which may put them in compromising situations. These are risks that the popular photo-sharing app is taking seriously.

Over the years, Instagram has unveiled numerous safety upgrades to protect kids and teens online. Some recent implementations: an education hub for parents, supervision tools, automatic private accounts for young users, a "Take a Break" feature that discourages endless scrolling, and more.

But Eddie Ruvinsky, director of engineering at Instagram, says monitoring isn't the end-all solution. "It's really about making sure that you have trust and you have ongoing dialogue for any activity that they do," he says.

Here are a few tips to get you started when it comes to teaching your child good social media habits.

Start Talking About Social Media Early

Ana Homayoun, M.A., P.P.S, a social media expert and the author of Social Media Wellness: Helping Tweens and Teens Thrive in an Unbalanced Digital World, who worked with Instagram to create parental safety guides, says parents should start the conversation around social media early. "Even if kids aren't on social media, many are online from an early age and using different websites," she says. "In my experience, kids aren't being informed about Instagram and other social media apps from their parents-they are learning from friends, peers, older siblings, and other influencers-so it's important that parents take an active role in encouraging conversations."

Make a Game Plan

"I encourage coming from a place of curiosity and asking open-ended questions to help children identify why they want to join Instagram, what they think a positive experience on Instagram would look like for them, and who they could turn to if something feels uncomfortable and doesn't go as planned," says Homayoun. "Doing so allows them to proactively think about how they would define and create a positive online user experience," She suggests using the three S's-healthy socialization, effective self-regulation, and overall safety-as a guide for framing the discussion.

Prioritize Privacy

"A lot of people don't always know they have the ability to be private on Instagram," says Lori Malahy, research lead at Instagram. Turning your account on "private" mode means that only approved followers can view, comment, and like your content. This could prevent your child's personal information from ending up in the wrong hands. Take a cue from Dan Zigmond, former director of analytics at Instagram, who required his kids to have a private account and personally know all their followers. (Note that Instagram automatically signs up teens for private accounts).

Enforce Good Social Media Etiquette

Receiving mean comments on social media can hurt a child's self esteem-and writing the comments can get them into trouble. Talk with your child about proper social media etiquette, and utilize the tools outlined in Instagram's resource guide. For example, the app lets you filter out offensive or inappropriate words from your comments.

Set Time Limits

Tweens are still developing self-discipline, so it's not unusual for them to spend hours on social media platforms. Work together to determine an appropriate amount of time they should spend on apps each day, whether it's 15 minutes or one hour. You can also take advantage of Instagram's Activity Dashboard, which lets you set daily time limit reminders, mute push notifications, and more.

Teach Kids Accountability

Cyberbullying is increasingly common nowadays. According to the latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 16% of surveyed high school students said they were electronically bullied in the previous 12 months. That percentage goes up for those students who identify as female or LGBTQ+.

Thankfully, Instagram lets users control bullying by removing hateful comments, reporting negative behavior, and blocking individuals. "One of the most important things I'd like my son to understand is that things that happen online can affect how people feel offline," says Ian Spalter, former director of design at Instagram. "It's really important for them to take that into account with whatever actions they take online."

Practice What You Preach

You know that kids are sponges, and they're constantly learning by example. By practicing positive social media habits yourself, you're setting up your children for a rewarding and inspiring experience.

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Why It's Never Too Early to Teach Your Child Good Social Media Habits

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Teens and even tweens are going to use social media no matter what. The American Psychological Association issues new guidelines for parents and children to stay safe online.

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What's the average age when kids get a social media account? | CNN

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About 56% of US youth have their own social media accounts, according to Common Sense Media. The average age when signing up for an account was 12.6 years.

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Key points

A tween's underdeveloped frontal cortex can't manage the distraction nor the temptations that come with social media use.

The average teen spends nine hours a day connected to social media.

Spending more non-tech time together can help slow down kids' social media usage.

This guest post is by Melanie Hempe, BSN, founder of ScreenStrong.
I really love middle school kids. I have two of them! If you have been through middle-school parenting, you may have noticed what I see: Strange things seem to happen to a tween's brain the first day they walk into middle school.

One might sum up their main goals in life this way:

To be funny at all costs. (Hence, the silly bathroom jokes, talking at inappropriate times in class, and the "anything it takes to be popular" attitude.)

To focus on self - their clothes, their nose, their body, and their hair.

To try new things. They are playing "dress up" with their identity, trying on things to see what fits. They are impulsive and scattered, they are up and they are down, and it even seems that they have regressed in their development on their quest for independence.

As the parent, you are changing, too, as you enter the stage of parenting when you quickly depart from the naïve platform of "My child would never..." to the realization that, "I'm sure my child did that. I'm sorry, and please excuse his behavior, he is going through a phase."

Your list of daily parenting instruction may include statements like:

"If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!"

"How many times do I have to tell you not the use that word?"

"Stop flipping that bottle!"

"Stop burping the ABCs!"

"You're acting like a 2-year-old."

"What were you thinking?"

Then it happens: Maybe because we are exhausted from their constant begging for a phone, or because we think that all their friends have one, or because we want to upgrade ours to the latest model...we cave. We act on impulse. Our brain seems to regress like theirs, and we give them our old smartphone.

And with that one little decision comes the world of social media access-something we haven't thought about and something none of us is prepared for. Because the midbrain is reorganizing itself and risk-taking is high and impulse control is low, I can't imagine a worse time in a child's life to have access to social media than middle school. Here are just a few reasons why:

1. Social media was not designed for them. A tween's underdeveloped frontal cortex can't manage the distraction nor the temptations that come with social media use. While you start teaching responsible use of tech now, know that you will not be able to teach the maturity that social media requires. Like trying to make clothes fit that are way too big, they will use social media inappropriately until they are older and it fits them better.

2. Social media is an entertainment technology. It does not make your child smarter or more prepared for real life or a future job; nor is it necessary for healthy social development. It is pure entertainment attached to a marketing platform extracting bits and pieces of personal information and preferences from your child every time they use it, not to mention hours of their time and attention.

3. A tween's "more is better" mentality is a dangerous match for social media. Do they really have 1,456 friends? Do they really need to be on it nine hours a day? Social media allows (and encourages) them to overdo their friend connections like they tend to overdo other things in their lives.

4. Social media is an addictive form of screen entertainment. And, like video game addiction, early use can set up future addiction patterns and habits.

5. Social media replaces learning the hard social "work" of dealing face-to-face with peers, a skill that they will need to practice to be successful in real life.

6. Social media can cause teens to lose connection with family and instead view "friends" as their foundation. Since the cognitive brain is still being formed, the need for your teen to be attached to your family is just as important now as when they were younger. Make sure that attachment is strong. While they need attachments to their friends, they need healthy family attachment more.

7. Social media use represents lost potential for teens. While one can argue that there are certain benefits of social media for teens, the costs are very high during the teen years when their brain development is operating at peak performance for learning new things. It is easy for teens to waste too much of their time and too much of their brain in a digital world. We know from many studies that it is nearly impossible for them to balance it all.

How Can Kids Slow Down?

First, we need to slow down and rethink what we are allowing our kids to do. We need to understand the world of social media and how teens use it differently from adults. Here are a few tips that work well for many parents.

1. Delay access. The longer parents delay access, the more time a child will have to mature so that he or she can use technology more wisely as a young adult. Delaying access also places a greater importance on developing personal authentic relationships first.

2. Follow their accounts. Social media privacy is a lie: Nothing is private in the digital world, and so it should not be private to parents. Make sure privacy settings are in place but know that those settings can give you a false sense of security. Encourage your teen to have private conversations in person or via a verbal phone call instead if they don't want you to read it on social media.

3. Create family accounts. Create family accounts instead of individual teen accounts. This allows kids to keep up with friends in a safer social media environment.

4. Allow social media only on large screens. Allow your teens to only use their social media accounts on home computers or laptops in plain view, this way they will use it less. When it is used on a small private phone screen they can put in their pocket there are more potential problems with reckless use. The more secret the access, the more potential for bad choices.

5. Keep a sharp eye on the clock; they will not. Do you know how much time your child spends on social media a day? Be aware of this, and reduce the amount of time your child is on social media across all platforms. The average teen spends nine hours a day connected to social media. Instead, set one time each day for three days a week for your child to check their social media. Do they benefit from more time than that?

6. Plan face-to-face time with their friends. Remember that they don't need 842 friends; four-to-six close friends are enough for healthy social development. Help them learn how to plan real, in-person, social get-togethers such as a leave-phones-at-the-door party, a home movie night, bowling, board games, cooking pizza, or hosting a bonfire. They crave these social gatherings so encourage them to invite friends over and help them (as needed) to organize the event.

7. Spend more real non-tech time together. Teens who are strongly attached to their parents and family show more overall happiness and success in life. They still need us now more than ever. It is easy to detach from them: Teens can be annoying! But attaching to family allows them to detach from the social media drama. Your child needs to feel like they can come home and leave the drama of their social world behind for a few hours. They want you to help them say no to social media and yes to more time with the family. They are craving those moments to disconnect, so make plans and encourage this at home.

Don't give that smartphone all the power in your home; help tweens choose healthier forms of entertainment. They have the rest of their life to be entertained by social media, but only a limited time with you. Go to ScreenStrong.com to learn more.

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Why Social Media Is Not Smart for Middle School Kids

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Tweens' brains are simply too immature to use social media appropriately.

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Social Media Moderation by Tech Creators

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Social Media Moderation by Tech Creators

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Disruptions

While some tech parents assign limits based on time, others are much stricter about what their children are allowed to do with screens. Credit... Jonathan Nackstrand/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

When Steve Jobs was running Apple, he was known to call journalists to either pat them on the back for a recent article or, more often than not, explain how they got it wrong. I was on the receiving end of a few of those calls. But nothing shocked me more than something Mr. Jobs said to me in late 2010 after he had finished chewing me out for something I had written about an iPad shortcoming.

"So, your kids must love the iPad?" I asked Mr. Jobs, trying to change the subject. The company's first tablet was just hitting the shelves. "They haven't used it," he told me. "We limit how much technology our kids use at home."

I'm sure I responded with a gasp and dumbfounded silence. I had imagined the Jobs's household was like a nerd's paradise: that the walls were giant touch screens, the dining table was made from tiles of iPads and that iPods were handed out to guests like chocolates on a pillow.

Nope, Mr. Jobs told me, not even close.

Since then, I've met a number of technology chief executives and venture capitalists who say similar things: they strictly limit their children's screen time, often banning all gadgets on school nights, and allocating ascetic time limits on weekends.

I was perplexed by this parenting style. After all, most parents seem to take the opposite approach, letting their children bathe in the glow of tablets, smartphones and computers, day and night.

Yet these tech C.E.O.'s seem to know something that the rest of us don't.

Chris Anderson, the former editor of Wired and now chief executive of 3D Robotics, a drone maker, has instituted time limits and parental controls on every device in his home. "My kids accuse me and my wife of being fascists and overly concerned about tech, and they say that none of their friends have the same rules," he said of his five children, 6 to 17. "That's because we have seen the dangers of technology firsthand. I've seen it in myself, I don't want to see that happen to my kids."

The dangers he is referring to include exposure to harmful content like pornography, bullying from other kids, and perhaps worse of all, becoming addicted to their devices, just like their parents.

Alex Constantinople, the chief executive of the OutCast Agency, a tech-focused communications and marketing firm, said her youngest son, who is 5, is never allowed to use gadgets during the week, and her older children, 10 to 13, are allowed only 30 minutes a day on school nights.

Evan Williams, a founder of Blogger, Twitter and Medium, and his wife, Sara Williams, said that in lieu of iPads, their two young boys have hundreds of books (yes, physical ones) that they can pick up and read anytime.

So how do tech moms and dads determine the proper boundary for their children? In general, it is set by age.

Children under 10 seem to be most susceptible to becoming addicted, so these parents draw the line at not allowing any gadgets during the week. On weekends, there are limits of 30 minutes to two hours on iPad and smartphone use. And 10- to 14-year-olds are allowed to use computers on school nights, but only for homework.

"We have a strict no screen time during the week rule for our kids," said Lesley Gold, founder and chief executive of the SutherlandGold Group, a tech media relations and analytics company. "But you have to make allowances as they get older and need a computer for school."

Some parents also forbid teenagers from using social networks, except for services like Snapchat, which deletes messages after they have been sent. This way they don't have to worry about saying something online that will haunt them later in life, one executive told me.

Although some non-tech parents I know give smartphones to children as young as 8, many who work in tech wait until their child is 14. While these teenagers can make calls and text, they are not given a data plan until 16. But there is one rule that is universal among the tech parents I polled.

"This is rule No. 1: There are no screens in the bedroom. Period. Ever," Mr. Anderson said.

While some tech parents assign limits based on time, others are much stricter about what their children are allowed to do with screens.

Ali Partovi, a founder of iLike and adviser to Facebook, Dropbox and Zappos, said there should be a strong distinction between time spent "consuming," like watching YouTube or playing video games, and time spent "creating" on screens.

"Just as I wouldn't dream of limiting how much time a kid can spend with her paintbrushes, or playing her piano, or writing, I think it's absurd to limit her time spent creating computer art, editing video, or computer programming," he said.

Others said that outright bans could backfire and create a digital monster.

Dick Costolo, chief executive of Twitter, told me he and his wife approved of unlimited gadget use as long as their two teenage children were in the living room. They believe that too many time limits could have adverse effects on their children.

"When I was at the University of Michigan, there was this guy who lived in the dorm next to me and he had cases and cases of Coca-Cola and other sodas in his room," Mr. Costolo said. "I later found out that it was because his parents had never let him have soda when he was growing up. If you don't let your kids have some exposure to this stuff, what problems does it cause later?"

I never asked Mr. Jobs what his children did instead of using the gadgets he built, so I reached out to Walter Isaacson, the author of "Steve Jobs," who spent a lot of time at their home.

"Every evening Steve made a point of having dinner at the big long table in their kitchen, discussing books and history and a variety of things," he said. "No one ever pulled out an iPad or computer. The kids did not seem addicted at all to devices."

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Steve Jobs Was a Low-Tech Parent (Published 2014)

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Disruptions When Steve Jobs was running Apple, he was known to call journalists to either pat them on the back for a recent article or, more often than not, explain how they got it wrong. I was on the receiving end of a few of those calls.

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In search of the ‘we’ of social media activism: introduction to the special issue on social media and protest identities

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Published in Information, Communication & Society (Vol. 18, No. 8, 2015)

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How it applies to all ages

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"Pet lovers were outraged. Last May, a news article appeared online that said three states had passed laws limiting the number of pets each household could have to only two. Anyone with three or more pets would be forced to decide which ones to give up. The news spread quickly, as many people shared the article on Facebook and other social media sites. But pet owners had nothing to worry about—the article was made-up. It was another example of the growing trend of fake news. "

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"Made-up stories are taking over the internet. Are tech companies doing enough to stop the spread?"

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How Online Social Movements Translate to Offline Results

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How Online Social Movements Translate to Offline Results

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"In recent years, social media has played a key role in organizing and getting protesters into the streets in the U.S. and around the world. Though these tools can help rally people to action, a new book, "Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest," argues they also have limits. Zeynep Tufekci, the book’s author, joins Hari Sreenivasan for more on technology and protest" (8:25)

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How online social movements translate to offline results

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"In this TEDx Talk, Amiri Tulloch explores how black activism has thrived on the social media platform Twitter. Examining the topic from a local to international lens, Tulloch details three factors of black activism’s success on Twitter: its protest power, educational opportunities, and global influence.

Amiri Tulloch is a junior at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA" (6:05).

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Black Activism on Twitter | Amiri Tulloch | TEDxPhillipsAcademyAndover

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"Social media can boost teens’ self-esteem — or foster depression"

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Teens sneak a peek at the internet every chance they get. In fact, the average U.S. teenager spends almost nine hours a day on digital devices. Much of that time is on social media, such as Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. The sites have become important places for students to interact. But sometimes these connections lead to disconnections.

Using social media to connect with others is kind of like having a private conversation in a public place. But there's a difference. Even when you're chatting with a friend in the middle of a physical crowd, most other people can't hear what you say. On social media, your conversations can be read by anyone with access. Indeed, posts on some sites are publicly available to anyone who looks for them. Elsewhere, people can limit who has access by adjusting their privacy settings. (But even many private profiles are fairly public.)

Depending on whether people notice your posts - and how positively they respond - your online interactions may be quite positive. Or not. Social media can make some teens feel depressed and isolated. They can feel cut out of social interactions. They may feel judged. In fact, people who visit social media sites to feel connected to friends may end up caught in online drama, or even cyber-bullying.

But being glued to your phone or engrossed in a Snapchat story isn't all bad. Social media provides an important place for people to connect. The feedback that users get from their peers can boost self-esteem. And social media can even boost relationships among family members.

A filtered view

The average teen has about 300 online friends. When people post to their social media account, they're speaking to that large audience - even if their posts aren't publicly available. That same audience can see the responses other people provide through comments or "likes."

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Those likes and comments influence the kinds of posts teens put up - and leave up. A 2015 study by researchers at Pennsylvania State University in University Park found that teens were more likely than adults to remove Instagram posts within 12 hours of posting. They took down posts that had few likes or comments. This suggests that teens try to make themselves look good by only keeping up popular posts.

Peer feedback plays a big role in how teens view themselves and each other, note Jacqueline Nesi and Mitchell Prinstein. These psychologists at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill study how teens use social media.

More than adults do, teens present idealized versions of themselves online, the researchers find. Teens may only share photos that show them having fun with friends, for example. This filtered view of their lives makes others believe all is well - even when it's not.

All teens compare themselves to others. That's an important part of figuring out who you are as you grow up. But social media makes this experience more extreme. You can actually measure how popular a person or a photo is, for example. And those carefully crafted profiles can make it feel like everyone else is living a better life than you are.

Students' use of social media "may form distorted perceptions of their peers," Nesi says. Teens compare their own messy lives to the highlight reels that their peers present. This can make life feel unfair.

Such comparisons can be a problem, especially for unpopular people.

In a 2015 study of eighth- and ninth-graders, Nesi and Prinstein found that many teens who used social media experienced symptoms of depression. That was particularly true for those who were unpopular. Nesi speculates that unpopular teens may be more likely than popular kids to make "upward" comparisons. Those are comparisons with someone who seems better in some way - more popular, for example, or wealthier.

Those findings fit with previous studies that found unpopular teens get less positive feedback on their posts. That may happen because they simply have fewer real-life friends - and therefore fewer online connections. Or it may have to do with the types of things those teens post. Other researchers have found that unpopular teens write more negative posts than their peers. These people are more likely to post about unhappy events (such as having a phone stolen) than happy ones. Together, these factors can lead to low self-esteem and symptoms of depression.
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More popular teens, however, don't tend to become depressed or lose self-esteem. "They are more likely to make 'downward' comparisons with others, feeling superior to those whose profiles they review," Prinstein says. "Fair or not, they tend to have more online friends and more activity on their feeds, making them feel popular online too."

Prinstein urges teens to get help for friends who seem depressed. "Teens who seem to be sad or irritable for a period of two weeks or more may be experiencing depression," he says. This is especially true if they've also lost interest in activities that used to be fun, or if their sleeping or eating habits also have changed.

It's important for students who notice a friend acting this way to encourage that friend to get help. "One of five girls and young women will experience a major depressive episode by the age of 25," Prinstein says. "Almost one in 10 will seriously consider suicide before they graduate high school," he adds.

A place to connect

Social media sites are important places to socialize, observe Alice Marwick and danah boyd. Marwick is a culture and communications researcher at Fordham University in New York City. boyd is a social media researcher at Microsoft Research, also in New York.

The two interviewed hundreds of teens from across the United States. Since teens spend so much of each day connecting online, many adults worry that kids no longer know how to communicate in person. In fact, boyd and Marwick found the opposite was true.

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Teens want to hang out together, boyd says. Social networks let them do that, even when their lives are too busy - or too restricted - to meet up in person. Even teens who have the time and freedom to hang out with their friends may have a hard time finding places to do so. Teens used to head to malls, movie theaters or parks. But many of these places discourage kids from hanging out. Changes like these make it much harder for teens to keep up with each others' lives. Social media can help to fill that gap.

But, the researchers add, there are important differences between hanging out on social media and spending time together in person.

Unlike a face-to-face conversation, online interactions can stick around. Once you post something, it's out there for the long term. Even posts you delete aren't always gone for good. (Think you're in the clear with Snapchat, where every post disappears after 10 seconds? Not necessarily. Those temporary posts may stick around if someone takes a screenshot before they vanish.)

Depending on someone's privacy settings, certain social media posts can be visible to anyone who scrolls or clicks around enough. Sites such as Facebook are also searchable. Some users may be able to easily share a post you make, spreading it beyond your control. And teens (and adults) who connect with people from different areas of their lives might run into awkward moments - like when a friend leaves a joking comment on your post that your grandmother doesn't find funny at all.

Online 'drama'

Those features can lead to what teens might call "drama." Marwick and boyd define drama as conflict between people that is performed in front of an audience. Social media seems to turn up the drama. That's because others can watch the performance simply by hopping online. And they can encourage that drama by liking particular posts or comments.

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Online drama, and the attention it attracts, can be hurtful. But the teens that boyd and Marwick interviewed usually did not call these interactions "bullying."

"Drama is a word that teens use to encompass a lot of different behaviors," Marwick says. "Some of these behaviors might be what adults call bullying. But others are pranks, jokes, entertainment." Bullying, she notes, takes place over a long time and involves one teen exerting power over another.

Calling these behaviors drama "is a way for teens to avoid the language of bullying," she notes. Bullying creates victims and perpetrators. Teens don't want to be seen as either. Using the term "drama" removes those roles. It "allows them to save face even when drama is hurtful," Marwick says.

Such hurtful interactions can lead to depression, long-term mental-health problems or even suicide. Teens use the word "drama" to minimize serious behavior by their peers. So it's important for both adults and other teens to listen when teens talk about drama, Marwick says. Recognizing bullying - and stopping it - might just save a life.

Keeping it in the family

Social media is not just for teens, of course. People of all ages interact on Facebook, Snapchat and more. Indeed, many teens "friend" family members, including their parents, notes Sarah Coyne. She is a social scientist at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Such online relationships can actually improve family dynamics at home, she observes.

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In one 2013 study, Coyne and her colleagues interviewed families with at least one 12- to 17-year-old. Interviewers asked about each family member's social-media use. They asked how often family members communicated with each other on these sites and how connected each felt to the others. They also probed other behaviors. For instance, how likely were the participants to lie or cheat? Did they try to hurt people with whom they were angry? And how likely they were to make kind gestures online toward family members.

About half of these teens connected with their parents on social media, it turns out. Most didn't do so every day. But any social-media interaction made teens and parents feel more connected. This may be because families could respond to posts with likes or words of encouragement, Coyne says. Or perhaps social media gave parents a more in-depth look at their children's lives. That helped parents better understand their kids and what they were going through.

This sense of connection might have other benefits, too. Teens who connected with their parents online were more likely to help out family members. They were less likely to lash out at them when angry. And kids were less likely to feel depressed or to attempt to lie, cheat or steal.

The relationship between online connections and better behavior is a correlation, Coyne points out. That means she doesn't know what causes what. It's possible that friending their parents makes teens behave better. Or perhaps teens that friend their parents are already better-behaved.

Using social media can have real benefits, Prinstein says. It lets us connect with new friends and stay in touch with old ones. Both of these activities can make other people like us more, he says. And that "has been shown to have long-term benefits for our happiness and success."

Unfortunately, many people tend to get caught up in other aspects of social media. They focus on how many likes or shares they have, or how many people see their posts, Prinstein says. We use these numbers to measure our status. "Research shows that this kind of popularity leads to negative long-term outcomes," he says. Studies that measure changes in behavior over time suggest that people who are too focused on these measures of popularity can begin to drink or use drugs. They can become more aggressive. And they're unhappier in their relationships, he says.

It's easy to get dragged into the drama and other negative aspects of social media. But between strengthening family ties, boosting self-esteem and maintaining friendships, there's a lot to like about these online interactions.
Next: The power of 'like'

Power Words
More About Power Words

aggressive (n. aggressiveness) Quick to fight or argue, or forceful in making efforts to succeed or win.

behavior The way something, often a person or other organism, acts towards others, or conducts itself.

bullying (v. to bully) A group of repeated behaviors that are mean-spirited. They can include teasing, spreading rumors about someone, saying hurtful things to someone and intentionally leaving someone out of groups or activities. Sometimes bullying can include attacks using violence (such as hitting), threats of violence, yelling at someone or abusing someone with violent language. Much bullying takes place in person. But it also may occur online, through emails or via text messages. Newer examples including making fake profiles of people on websites or posting embarrassing photos or videos on social media.

colleague Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.

correlation A mutual relationship or connection between two variables. When there is a positive correlation, an increase in one variable is associated with an increase in the other. (For instance, scientists might correlate an increase in time spent watching TV with an increase in rates of obesity.) Where there is an inverse correlation, an increase in one value is associated with a drop in the other. (Scientists might correlate an increase in TV watching with a decrease in time spent exercising each week.) A correlation between two variables does not necessarily mean one is causing the other.

culture (n. in social science) The sum total of typical behaviors and social practices of a related group of people (such as a tribe or nation). Their culture includes their beliefs, values and the symbols that they accept and/or use. Culture is passed on from generation to generation through learning. Scientists once thought culture to be exclusive to humans. Now they recognize some other animals show signs of culture as well, including dolphins and primates.

cyber A prefix that refers to computers or to a type of system in which computerized or online communication occurs.

depression (in medicine) A mental illness characterized by persistent sadness and apathy. Although these feelings can be triggered by events, such as the death of a loved one or the move to a new city, that isn't typically considered an "illness" - unless the symptoms are prolonged and harm an individual's ability to perform normal daily tasks (such as working, sleeping or interacting with others). People suffering from depression often feel they lack the energy needed to get anything done. They may have difficulty concentrating on things or showing an interest in normal events. Many times, these feelings seem to be triggered by nothing; they can appear out of nowhere.

digital (in computer science and engineering) An adjective indicating that something has been developed numerically on a computer or on some other electronic device, based on a binary system (where all numbers are displayed using a series of only zeros and ones).

dynamic An adjective that signifies something is active, changing or moving. (noun) The change or range of variability seen or measured within something.

factor Something that plays a role in a particular condition or event; a contributor.

feedback A process or combination of processes that propel or exaggerate a change in some direction. For instance, as the cover of Arctic ice disappears with global warming, less of the sun's warming energy will be reflected back into space. This will serve to increase the rate of Earth's warming. That warming might trigger some feedback (like sea-ice melting) that fosters additional warming.

internet An electronic communications network. It allows computers anywhere in the world to link into other networks to find information, download files and share data (including pictures).

media (in the social sciences) A term for the ways information is delivered and shared within a society. It encompasses not only the traditional media - newspapers, magazines, radio and television - but also Internet- and smartphone-based outlets, such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook and more. The newer, digital media are sometimes referred to as social media. The singular form of this term is medium.

network A group of interconnected people or things. (v.) The act of connecting with other people who work in a given area or do similar thing (such as artists, business leaders or medical-support groups), often by going to gatherings where such people would be expected, and then chatting them up. (n. networking)

online (n.) On the internet. (adj.) A term for what can be found or accessed on the internet.

peer (noun) Someone who is an equal, based on age, education, status, training or some other features. (verb) To look into something, searching for details.

perception The state of being aware of something - or the process of becoming aware of something - through use of the senses.

physical (adj.) A term for things that exist in the real world, as opposed to in memories or the imagination. It can also refer to properties of materials that are due to their size and non-chemical interactions (such as when one block slams with force into another).

psychologist A scientist or mental-health professional who studies the human mind, especially in relation to actions and behaviors.

social (adj.) Relating to gatherings of people; a term for animals (or people) that prefer to exist in groups.

social media Internet-based media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, that allow people to connect with each other (often anonymously) and to share information.

social network Communities of people (or animals) that are interrelated owing to the way they relate to each other. In humans, this can involve sharing details of their life and interests on Twitter or Facebook, or perhaps belonging to the same sports team, religious group or school.

symptom A physical or mental indicator generally regarded to be characteristic of a disease. Sometimes a single symptom - especially a general one, such as fever or pain - can be a sign of any of many different types of injury or disease.

Alison Pearce Stevens is a former biologist and forever science geek who writes about science and nature for kids. She lives with her husband, their two kids and a small menagerie of cuddly (and not-so cuddly) critters.

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Teens sneak a peek at the internet every chance they get. In fact, the average U.S. teenager spends almost nine hours a day on digital devices. Much of that time is on social media, such as Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. The sites have become important places for students to interact.

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"Social media is dominating most of our attention throughout the day. Yet, is it truly changing our face-to-face relationships? Dr. Dan Siegel, clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine reveals how social media is actually physically rewiring our brains" (4:18).