Social Media Usage Tips For Teens

The American Psychological Association has issued recommendations for directing social teenager’s social media usage for the first time in a recent advisory aimed at teens, parents, and policy makers.

The advisory lists 10 recommendations stating potential beneficial and harmful effects social media usage can have with teens' social, psychological and neurological development.

One recommendation includes adult monitoring of social media usage of adolescents ages 10-14, due to the brain regions associated with a desire for attention, feedback, and reinforcement from peers becoming insensitive during these years and are not fully developed until adulthood. Preliminary research suggests a combination of social media boundaries and adult-child coaching around social media use leads to better outcomes for adolescents.

Adolescents should be screened for when social media usage becomes an issue- meaning when it impairs their ability to engage in daily roles and routines, lying or deceptive behavior or social media, or spending more time on it than is intended.

Research suggests that using social media for social comparisons related to physical appearance as well as attention-seeking behaviors to photos posted can be related to depression, disordered eating and a poor body image.

There is a “Digital Citizenship” skills course offered to grades K-12 that can help students be more social media safe, and emerging science offers support for the efficacy of it to increase the frequency of positive interactions online.