This Amount of Social Media Time for Adolescents Is 'Just Right'

If you’re a parent who bans your tween or teen from social media because you think it’s the devil incarnate, you’re certainly not alone. But a major new study looking at adolescent mental health and social usage may inspire you to relax your rules just a little.

The longitudinal cohort study, published Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics, looked at the social-use and wellbeing data of over 100,000 public school students between grades 4 and 12 over a three-year period—in Australia, by the way, which just became the first country in the world to ban social media for kids under 16.

Heavy use—defined by the researchers as more than two hours a day—was associated with lower wellbeing. But you know what else was? No social media usage at all, apparently because of the stress brought on by a lack of connection, or FOMO.

In fact, it was moderate social media use—anything less than two hours daily—that had the best effect on adolescents’ mental health overall.

There were exceptions based on age on gender, however. Data of the girls in fourth through sixth grade, for example, showed that staying off social media was indeed associated with a higher level of wellbeing; by seventh through 12th, however, moderate use was associated with an improvement in wellbeing, while high use appeared to have a negative impact.

For boys in fourth through sixth grade, meanwhile, there seemed to be no difference in wellbeing based on how much they used social. But as they got older, there was a decline in their wellbeing if they remained off social media altogether.

The findings suggest there may be a “just right” zone for kids consistent with a “Goldilocks hypothesis,” the study points out.  

Experts may very well disagree with the findings—particularly the Australian government itself and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, a strong proponent of keeping kids off social media until the age of 16 (and away from smartphones altogether until high school).

To make their assessment, researchers at the University of South Australia’s Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition, and Activity measured eight aspects of wellbeing: happiness, optimism, life satisfaction, worry, sadness, perseverance, emotional regulation, and cognitive engagement.

Because most findings in this area are overly reliant on cross-sectional studies—those that only examine a specific window of time—it’s left a gap in knowledge, argue the researchers, who wondered, “is social media driving poor well-being, or do young people who are struggling already turn to social media more?”

The current study has its own limitations, researchers note, including that the amount of social media use is self-reported, that the study only looked at after-school usage (not that of weekends), and that mental health diagnoses or socio-economic disadvantages were not considered.

Still, the findings, they conclude, highlight that “both abstinence and heavy use can be problematic and that the impact of social media is contingent on age and sex.” Public health recommendations, they believe, should “move beyond simple time-based limits to promote healthy, balanced, and purposeful digital engagement as part of a broader strategy to support adolescent well-being.”