How does social media impact an individual's long-term wellbeing? This is what the Life in Media Survey conducted by the University of South Florida (USF) hopes to address as a team of researchers aspire to gain greater understanding of social media ranging from childhood into adulthood with the study aimed to span several decades. This study holds the potential to help scientists, teachers, parents, and the public better understand the long-term ramifications of digital media, including smartphones and social media, on an individual’s physical and mental health.
"Experiences during childhood and adolescence can influence health outcomes later in life,” said Dr. Chighaf Bakour, MD, PhD, who is an associate professor of epidemiology at USF. “This study will help us understand the impact of digital media use on sleep quality and mental health in adolescents, ultimately informing interventions to mitigate any harmful effects.”
For the study, the researchers will spend the next 25 years conducting interviews with thousands of adolescents aged 11 to 13 years of age in intervals of six months and continue to track these same individuals over the 25-year period. The study will analyze the subjects’ responses to how they cope with a myriad of factors, including cyberbullying, artificial intelligence, social media use, and streaming services, just to name a few. Baseline data will be comprised of 1,500 Florida adolescents, followed by the researchers conducting the long-term study comprised of approximately 9,000 Florida adolescents that will take part over the 25-year period.
“The 11 to 13-year-old range is typically, for now, when children acquire their own personal smartphone but are still pretty new to the world of digital media,” said Dr. Stephen Song, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism & Digital Communication at USF. “This is a good age to begin to track behavior changes that occur over time.”
How will the Life in Media Survey help better understand how social media impacts an individual's long-term health in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: EurekAlert!, University of South Florida
