Social Media Usage by Teens at an All-time High, According to 2018 Survey
By Jeremiah Ford
What is one thing that has become normalized as we walk into a restaurant, a store or a line at the movies? Everybody is looking down at their phones. In restaurants you can occasionally see an entire family sitting together, and all are focused on their devices, rather than each other. In the line at the grocery store; despite being a short line, that doesn’t stop people from making a quick glance at their social media feed. If you have worked in a school, how many times have you had to ask students to put their phone away?
This constant connection doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon for our youth as a new study points out. According to recent surveys, 95% of teens have access to a smart phone, and 45% say they are connected all the time. The only difference in 2018 as compared to a few years ago is that most youth are choosing Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube over Facebook.
Within this same survey (put on by the Pew Research Center), youth were asked about the consensus teens have about the impact of social media. Twenty-four (24%) percent of the teens surveyed indicated social media had a negative impact on their lives while 45% expressed that these social media outlets haven’t had any impact at all . The remaining 31% expressed that the impacts of social media were mostly positive.
Of the 31% that expressed a positive effect, these teens say that the main reasons social media has a positive effect is that you can connect with friends and family, find information, meet others with similar interests, entertainment value, self-expression, support from others, and learning new things .
For the 24% of survey respondents who believed social media had a negative effect, their main reasons were bullying, lack of in-person contact, unrealistic views of other people’s lives, distractions, addictions, peer pressure, mental health issues, drama, and other .
Other results determined by the study by the Pew Center showcase that the amount of teens being “constantly connected” has increased from 24% in 2014 to 45% in 2018. When looking at household income, as the medium household income increases, so does the amount of electronic devices being available in the home. Almost all homes showed similar cellphone use and availability (93% or higher) despite income, gender, and race. As the parents’ level of education increased, so did the amount of devices in the home (such as computers or laptops).
With almost half our teens being “constantly connected”, and 93% or more households having access to smartphones, it becomes apparent that social media usage among teens is on the rise and that we must be aware that almost half (45%)of these teens are unsure whether these outlets are having a positive or negative impact on their lives.
Source: “Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018” - Pew Research Center
http://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Teens-Social-Media-Technology-2018-PEW.pdf
