Earlier social media use in pre-teens might lead to worse academic performance later in life, according to a new study published Monday in Nature.
Based on a survey of more than 5,000 Italian teenagers, researchers from the University of Milano-Bicocca concluded that there is a correlation between how early a student opened a social media account and how much worse they performed academically four years later.
The researchers began by picking a set of students statistically equal in their 5th-grade performance who were not on social media at the time. According to the findings, students who then opened a social media account in the 6th grade, aka when they were 11-12 years old, scored worse than later social media adopters in standardized maths and Italian exams that they took in the 10th grade, when they were 15-16 years old. The difference in grade results was roughly equivalent to 6 months of schooling, the researchers write.
The grade impact was “smaller but still meaningful” when students opened a social media account in the 7th grade as well, and it became very little to non-significant when students joined social media in the 8th grade. The probability of repeating a grade was also higher for students who opened social media profiles in the 6th or 7th grade.
“Students who created a personal social media account in 6th or 7th grade consistently exhibit poorer outcomes across nearly every school-related dimension available in our dataset,” the study concludes.
The researchers think earlier adoption of social media leads to more excessive engagement and attentional disruption, leading to a dent in academic performance that grows worse over time.
The researchers observed that the negative impact on grades intensifies over time, meaning that students who opened social media accounts in the sixth grade get worse grades in math than other peers by grade 8 and even worse by grade 10, even though by that point basically everyone else is also on social media.
The findings come as governments around the world race to implement digital age restrictions. Australia was the first to enact a landmark social media ban for minors back in December, and last month, France became the first European Union member to ban social media for teens, with the entire bloc likely not far behind. The age at which children will be allowed on social media differs with each ban: both the United Kingdom and Australia ban social media use for under-16s, France bans it for under-15s, while the European Union is debating an under-13 ban. But each current and proposed ban argues that early exposure to the addictive design features on social media platforms can lead to excessive usage that some studies link with disorders like depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorders, body image issues and worse sleep quality.
While the United States government is not considering a ban, the issue has become a legal headache for social media companies. Following a landmark verdict in March, social media platform operators like Meta, ByteDance, and Google have been plagued with thousands of lawsuits, each saying that the deliberate addictive design choices, such as infinite scroll and autoplay on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, get young users hooked from an early age, intensifying the negative impact of the content on these platforms. Meta has been sued by states as well, and said last month that it could have to cough up $1.4 trillion in damages if a social media addiction claim brought by California, New Jersey, Colorado and Kentucky is granted by the court. The financial hit would be existential for the company, whose market valuation as of Monday is $1.5 trillion.
The researchers do agree that “policies that delay social media access until children are cognitively mature enough to manage its potential distractions could be beneficial,” but caution against jumping to conclusions about the specific impact of social media.
“Given the sensitivity of the topic and the intense, polarized debate that has emerged in recent years, these findings must be interpreted with the utmost care and responsibility,” the study says.
The researchers say that existing research on the impact early social media use has on children’s mental health has not produced as clear results as the current study focusing on academic results, so it’s unknown if the culprit behind the results is harmful social media content or simply the amount of time that young kids consume on social media.
Also, social media use might not be completely terrible for kids. The researchers found that the grade drop that students suffered in Italian and math exams did not translate to English, theorizing that since the bulk of the content consumed online is in English, social media was providing informal practice for students learning the language.
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