Social Media Useful tool? Unavoidable habit?

1. Social Media Useful tool? Unavoidable habit? Beth Doll bdoll2@unl.edu University of Nebraska Lincoln

4. Dual Factor Model of School Mental Health Suldo & Doll, in press

5. FLOURISHING

6. Social Media Technologies that allow youth to create and share content as well as applications that allow youth to actively participate in social networking.

7. Social media isn’t going away

9. RISKS

10. BENEFITS

11. Social media & mental health • Youth with lower life satisfaction are heavier media users • Youth who use social media more than twice daily report more mental health problems • Compulsive internet use predicts youth mental health problems • Seeking but not receiving online support worsens depressive symptoms • Social media induced sleep disruptions predicted subsequent depressive symptoms • Approx. 4% of high school students are involved in compulsive internet use (ADHD and Autism Spectrum disorders at greatest risk) • Youth who visited a social media platform at least 58 times/week were 3X more likely to feel socially isolated

12. Toxic content • Pro-anorexia websites offer ‘advice’ on how to purge or restrict food intake • Exposure to sexual content in media is associated with increased risky sexual behavior • Exposure to instructions in self-harm, drug taking, suicide content • Violent media models aggression; and combines with anonymity to diminish self-control • Cyberbullying follows you everywhere

13. The research:a chicken and egg problem • Some small & significant correlations between psychopathology and social media use • Quality of social media use more important than frequency • Much of the research used outdated technology (Facebook)

14. Youth & Social Media • Youth use digital media an average of 7.5 hours/day • Nearly all use text messaging • 92% access the internet daily • Approx. 4% of high school students are involved in compulsive internet use • Ubiquitous access to smartphones • 31% youth report mostly positive effect; 45% neither positive nor negative

15. Which media? (July 2016; Aug 2018)

16. We need to create a generation of critical consumers of social media • Black out or usage limits have NOT worked What is effective • Parental supervision and communication re: media • Parental rules about internet usage • Training about social media risks and what to do

17. Mental health professionals must be fluent in social media

18. https://psyberguide.org • PFA mobile • CALM • Smiling mind • Go noodle

19. Beth Dollbdoll2@unl.edu