Mar 31: Social media has become a vital part of contemporary GEN. ME human society. The world pandemic and the following lock down, shut downs and isolation has made the situation even more worrisome. Youth and kids have become crazy about the gadgets, online games and social media platforms. However, the excessive use of aforesaid platforms do have an impact on the health of the youth and especially on girls at different ages.
Studies and research articles of psychologists found that girls who spent more time on social media between the ages of 11 and 13 were less satisfied with their lives a year later. At the same time, this effect of social media in boys was between 14 and 15 years. The researchers found no association between the effects of social media on other ages. However, at the age of 19, there was a decline in the satisfaction of boys and girls. Dr. Holly Scott, a psychologist at the University of Glasgow, new research evidences shows that boys and girls had different ages of social media exposure. He said that social media has more impact on girls than boys.
The research of Dr. Amy Orben of Cambridge University, also shows that social media can seriously affect mental health problems in teens, both boys and girls. According to the charity Young Minds, the number of children aged 5 to 16 with mental health problems increased by 50% between 2017 and 2021. According to this, about 5 children in every class are now affected by this problem.
Dr. Amy Orben and her colleagues analyzed data from 84,000 British people aged 10 to 80. This showed that their mental health was affected by the use of social media. The research, published in Nature Communications, does not prove that social media harms health, but researchers suspect that it may affect boys and girls at different ages to some extent. Scientist Professor Yvonne Kelly says that the results of the research have shown that the problem of depression in girls was increased due to spending more time on social media also sleeplessness. However, it is difficult to know how much time spent on social media can have a bad effect on youth.
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, a co-author of the research and professor of psychology at Cambridge University, says that when children use social media, it is easier for them to make rules so that their sleep is not disturbed. For this, it is necessary to make children aware about social media from an early age.
