It appears young New Zealanders may be more clued-up about the dangers of using social media than many first thought.
University of Otago politics and social anthropology PhD candidate Rachel Billington has been researching the impact social media is having on young people — particularly political identity formation in young people, and how that relates to their sense of belonging in online spaces.
She said many had pondered the impacts, but few had conducted research to find them.
Her latest research comes on the back of her masters which looked into social media, disinformation and the rise of the alt-right — a right-wing ideological movement which rejects mainstream politics and uses online media to disseminate provocative content.
"When I was doing that, I noticed there was this big gap.
"Just a lot of literature and stuff coming out about how social media can change people, change beliefs, change people’s minds and shape their political world views, but there’s really nothing on how that’s all impacting young people."
She grew up in the mid-2000s and used social media sites like MySpace and Bebo, those platforms did not have the same kind of engagement models that modern-day platforms did, she said.
Her research studies social media from that period through to the creation of present engagement algorithms, and how things have changed.
She surveyed 494 young people, aged between 16 and 19, and did further interviews with 21 of them.
"We just don’t know the effects that it has on young people at this point, because it’s so new.
"People have grown up so completely immersed, these digital natives, and I don’t think they’ve been given the space to share their own perspectives on it."
She said it was important to give young people the room to talk about what it had been like growing up online.
"They’re so smart, and they’re so on to it, and a lot of them really perceive that there are a lot of negative impacts in terms of mental health, in terms of attention space, focus and concentration — they really feel that."
The young people surveyed were also aware the social media companies prioritised making money over the wellbeing of their users, she said.
"So while young people get a lot out of social media, they also know it can be damaging, and are quite aware and critical of the situation they are in."
Many of them said they had seen a lot of content they did not give their consent to view, such as porn and gore — "really nasty stuff" that comes along into their feeds.
Those surveyed said they had social media and many of them talked about having used Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.
However, many refused to get TikTok because they knew it would be addictive and bad for them.
She said a few got rid of Instagram as well because they found it "really troubling" when soft-core pornography appeared in their feed.
One young man said he got rid of his smartphone completely because he wanted to live without social media in his pocket.
"He still used social media but he used it from his computer.
"He wanted it to be a more intentional, more purposeful thing, where if he wanted to engage with social media, he would sit down, make a choice and actually use it as a tool."
In getting it out of his pocket, he felt he could get a sense of control back over his life, she said.
