Heads up, parents: New study with important information about the online life of teens

Let’s face it: most parents have no clue what their teens are doing online. According to a new study, even the parents who think they know what’s going on are missing most of it. For the study, CNN partnered with two researchers — Marion Underwood of the University of Texas and Robert Faris of the University of California, Davis — to study the social media lives of 216 eighth graders from eight middle schools in Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Virginia. The researchers installed software that monitored what the teens did online for six months (with their permission) and had the teens and their parents fill out questionnaires at the beginning and end. Here are some important highlights of the study that all parents of teens should know: 13-year-olds are “intensely engaged with social media.” This isn’t a big surprise to anyone who has hung out with a 13-year-old recently. About 63% of the youth in the study were on Instagram, 34% were on Twitter, and 20% were on Facebook. On average, they post about four times a week. They also spend much more time online than on social media; most of the time they spend is watching and reading what others are doing online. FOMO (fear of missing out) is a big reason for being online. Teens see social media as a way to connect with their peers and see what they are doing, and are frequently checking social media. One in five teens checks to be sure that no one is saying anything mean about them, which is sad —...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Parenting cyberbullying social media teenagers Source Type: news