“There are many concerns about the link between social media use and adolescent mental health. However, most research has studied adolescents from the general population, overlooking clinical groups..” Luisa Fassi, University of Cambridge PhD

Digital Wellbeing for Young people Conference key note speaker Luisa Fassi spoke about the correlation between social media use in adolescence, and depression. 

Whilst there is a perceived correlation, Luisa highlighted the difficulty in obtaining such statistics, as there are often other 'real world' events in adolescence that can also be the cause of depression and anxiety. She also spoke about the positive effects that social media can have for young people. For instance, young LGBTQ social media users report a feeling of acceptance online that they may not have experienced in real life.

Luisa also reminded delegates that throughout history, there have been concerns about all forms of media. Books, newspapers, radio and television have all had their share of fear mongering and moral panic among the masses and media, posing the question 'Is that what is happening with the use of social media?'. Luisa's talk asked a number of questions...

• Are we unnecessarily blaming social media for depression and suicide amongst young people?

• Have we considered the effects of real world events on young minds?

• Are we asking the right questions to get hard facts and statistics regarding this topic?

• Are we having enough conversations about the positive impacts of social media?

Revisit Luisa's insightful speech at the conference by signing up to the catch up webinar on May 14th.

www.icaw-cic.com/catchup

Read Luisa's research paper here https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373883339_Social_media_use_and_internalising_symptoms_in_clinical_and_community_adolescent_samples_A_systematic_review_and_meta-analysis

Watch Lucy's recent interview with Luisa, Social Media, Mental health and Teens, A research perspective

Listen to Lucy's interview as part of our podcast series "Safeguarding The Digital Generation" on Spotify

Revisit Luisa's insightful speech at the conference by signing up to the catch up webinar on May 14th.

www.icaw-cic.com/catchup