BHUBANESWAR: The negative impact of social media is more profound on girls as per a new study on the subject. This calls for more attention of parents to the subject to check the worrying trend.
Researchers at University of Essex and UCL found an association between increased time spent on social media in early adolescence (age 10) and reduced wellbeing in later adolescence (age 10-15) – but only among girls.
Orissa Post interacted with a few young netizens of the capital to delve deeper into the subject.
On being inquired whether social media has a negative impact on girls, an employee Purnima Nayak said, “Yes. We girls are easily affected by a lot of things. Any negative event on Facebook brings feelings of worthlessness, anxiety and depression in many users. Petty things like seeing other people getting more likes can also result in depression in girls.”
Younger girls are more vulnerable of being affected by social media. Studies have shown that the time people spend on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram is directly proportional to their depression. However, everyone can agree on the fact that it is a great time killer.”
A young graduate said, “Many girls think that Facebook can be a huge source of motivation. Social media affects the personality of girls who are in their teens. Sometimes the feelings of ‘not being good enough’ or the ‘world being against me’ props up in their minds. This is not the right way to go about it as there are a whole lot of other things in your life besides social media.”
A guardian said, “Social media platforms can be highly useful as well as harmful. It is a rich source of latest information. Social media impacts both girls and boys. However, girls especially teenagers, take virtual events more seriously than boys. The proper usage of social media depends on what they want from these platforms. It helps youth to learn new skills. For example, earlier, if one wanted to learn a new musical instrument like guitar, he had to take classes for it. However, in the age of internet, one can do that at one’s own convenience from YouTube lessons.”
Corresponding author Cara Booker said, “Our findings suggest that it is important to monitor early interactions with social media, particularly in girls, as this could have an impact on wellbeing later in adolescence and perhaps throughout adulthood.”
In his search he found that adolescent girls used social media more than boys and social media interaction increased with age for both boys and girls. At age 13, about half of girls were interacting on social media for more than one hour per day, compared to just one third of boys. By age 15, both genders increased their social media use but girls continued to use social media more than boys, with 59% of girls and 46% of boys interacting on social media for one or more hours per day.
Nidhi Sinha, OP