Encouraging positive social media interactions would be a more effective strategy for promoting emotional well-being and reducing suicidal ideation. For parents trying to shield their children from online threats, limiting screen time is a common tactic. Less time scrolling, the rationale goes, means less exposure to the psychological dangers posed by social media.
But research from Rutgers University-New Brunswick upends this assumption. Writing in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Jessica L. Hamilton, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the School of Arts and Sciences, reports that screen time has no effect on whether adolescents contemplated suicidal thoughts. Instead, it’s the content they engage with and the experiences they have that makes all the difference.
“The amount of time a teenager spends on social media appears to be a poor predictor of suicidal ideation,” Hamilton said. “Given that, we should be paying more attention to how social media makes users feel.”
Hamilton said that given these findings, parents, policymakers and technology companies should rethink their approaches to keeping kids safe online. For instance, parents can have conversations about how their teenager experiences social media, while lawmakers and policymakers should work to enhance features that promote connectedness. To read the full story.