Study claims social media is impacting child intelligence

Story by Patrick Brischetto

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YouTube continues to push for exemption to social media ban

YouTube continues to push for exemption to social media ban© Nine

Children who use social media more often are likely to have lower cognitive function than their peers, a new US study has claimed.

The study, published in the JAMA network¹ found children who increased their social media use between the ages of nine and 13 performed worse than their kids with less social media usage. When Can Australians With $750k+ Retire?

When Can Australians With $750k+ Retire?

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Thousands of kids were categorised into groups based on their social media usage, and then tasked with completing a range of memory, reading and vocabulary tests to chart whether social media usage impacted cognitive abilities.

Kids who used social media more often performed poorer in memory, reading and comprehension tests.© Getty

For example, children with zero or low social media usage scored an average of 103.5 in an oral reading recognition test, whilst kids with low increasing usage and high increasing usage scored 99.4 and 96.7, respectively.

The study found social media usage remains low at the age of nine, but increases dramatically as kids turn 12 years old and enter high school. Build Your Medieval Empire Now

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“This analysis found that both low and high increases in social media use throughout early adolescence were significantly associated with lower performance in specific aspects of cognitive function,” the authors of the study wrote.

“The finding that even low levels of early adolescent social media exposure were linked to poorer cognitive performance may suggest support for stricter age restrictions.”

The findings come as Australia prepares to implement its world-first social media ban on children under the age of 16.

Communications Minister Anika Wells fronted media today to launch an advertising campaign ahead of the ban being enforced from December 10.

Wells claimed it was important for kids impacted by the ban to watch the campaign to get a greater understanding as to why it is going ahead.

Information Shall Be Free

..as Community Economist Publications Worldwide wrote and published in 1996 to the best of my recall (all business, technical and academic papers together with at least 400 titles, including several of my maternal grandfather Alexander Charles Lancaster Sanders, economist & humanities student and pioneer South Australian with his wife frmrly T Millie Swan on behalf of the Methodist Church’s books were stolen from the Blundell Orchards office and library at Lindner Ave Ashton SA 5137 effectively 17th April 1998, which marked the last occasion i was to so much as see my freehold home and approx 3.2k tree gardens for 14 years.

As now a ‘full-time’ economist, neurocognitive health, (ma²) thematics logic & internet reformer who (as the reader might be very well advised to read and gather from this document) is concerned to undertake the immediate marked post neoclassical academic ‘scholarship’ reform of the some 25,000 universities on Earth with the obvious attendant changes of attitude & practice at every stage of the education of the child and young person beginning essentially with the discarding of ludicrous & nonsensical pedagogic Silicon Valley USA supply-side gamegirl, gameboy or @Google & @Wikipedia OR ANY OTHER EXISTING GATES-JOBS ERA APP Search garbage-in-garbage-out figurative “knuckle-drag & chest-beat” power-over relations woman-splaining & mansplaining where there is not even consultation let alone listening out of basic and fundamentally non-coercive non humiliating and non mental-illness inducing (literally maddening) respect for 12 to 17 year-olds’ “demand-side” – uses, processes, learning, healing, growth and mental development (socially healthy maturation).

John Blundell

South Australia

¹AI Overview

A study published in JAMA Network found that children who significantly increased their social media use between the ages of nine and 13 generally performed worse academically compared to those who used social media less, suggesting a potential negative correlation between increased social media usage during this developmental period and academic performance.

Key points about the study:

Focus on age group: The study specifically looked at children between the ages of nine and 13, a crucial period for social and academic development.
Increased social media use: The study found that children who increased their social media usage over time showed a decline in academic performance compared to those who did not increase their use as much.
Potential negative impact: The findings suggest that excessive social media use during this developmental stage may negatively impact academic outcomes.

Important considerations:

Correlation not causation: While the study shows an association between increased social media use and lower academic performance, it does not prove a direct causal relationship. Other factors could be contributing to the observed trend.
Individual differences: Not all children will experience negative effects from social media use, as individual responses can vary depending on personality and usage patterns.

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Social Media and Mental Health in Children and TeensThe advisory indicates that frequent social media use could be associated with changes in parts of the brain related to emotions a…Johns Hopkins Medicine
Social Media and Youth Mental Health – NCBIMore research is needed to fully understand the impact of social media; however, the current body of evidence indicates that while…National Institutes of Health (NIH) | (.gov)
Dangerous effects of social media and smartphones on Aussie kids5 days ago — The report showed social media in particular fuels daily stress, with almost a third of Gen Z reporting negative impacts…News.com.au