By Jaya Carrier
I hope everyone is well. With Enrichment Day this term focusing on supporting students to become excellent internet citizens, I was interested in a new piece of research from the University of Oxford on looking at connections between the use of technology and adolescent mental health. Objectives: To understand what impact the use of technology and the internet has on adolescent mental health Summary: The key overall themes are:
- Despite some anecdotal and populist evidence, the research evidence base suggesting a negative impact on the use of technology on teenage mental health is actually very thin - this study contends that there is no conclusive evidence between technology use and poor adolescent mental health
- It does not appear that over time the relationship between use of technology and poor teenage mental health has worsened either
- There is a small rise in social media use and emotional problems
Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:
- Interestingly, a study from the Prince’s Trust and the Education Policy Institute in January 2021 came to very different conclusions. What do we think about this?
- How can we equip our students to interact more positively with social media if there is a correlation with emotional problems?
A fascinating area and one in which it can be especially tricky to establish clear correlations! For anyone interested in this topic, I recommend "Disconnected" by Carrie James. It's already outdated (2014) in some regards but is fascinating and slightly depressing reading. However, her concept of "conscientious connectivity" can give some grounds for hope!
ReplyDeleteSounds great Paul! I enjoyed this TEDx talk from the perspective of a teacher pre-Covid is interesting given the context of the new experiences we've had in the past year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IbN1LxXevM
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