社交媒体和青年：时间花得好吗？还是浪费时间？|俄亥俄州立大学护理学院

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帕特·福特-罗格纳

每一代的年轻人都在努力迷惑他们的成年同行，让他们蒙在鼓里。前几代人用猪拉丁、锁日记、握手、漫画书、说唱音乐、倒放唱片；你的名字。今天最引人注目的是全球营利性科技行业，他们定期创建新的交流平台，以迷惑老年人并吸引青少年和年轻人。

关于社交媒体工具对青少年和二十出头的心理健康是否有积极或消极影响的争论非常激烈。疫情只是火上浇油。社交媒体平台不会去任何地方；到 2021 年底，全球社交媒体每月活跃用户达30 亿，且活跃度持续增长。

皮尤研究中心自 2014 年以来一直在对美国青少年进行社交媒体和技术调查。2012 年，71% 的人使用智能手机；2018 年，这一比例增长到 95% 的青少年。45% 的人表示他们几乎一直在线。Facebook 曾经是主导平台；现在 YouTube、Instagram、Snapchat 和 TikTok 占据了相当大的空间。最近的外科医生咨询报告称，去年青少年在屏幕前进行非学校活动的时间从每天 3.8 小时增加到 7.7 小时，翻了一番。甚至还有一个首字母缩略词，部分是指不断检查被称为 FOMO（害怕错过）的智能手机。

“社交媒体成瘾”是众多研究的主题。梅奥诊所从积极的一面说，“社交媒体允许青少年创建在线身份、与他人交流并建立社交网络……但是，社交媒体也会对他们产生负面影响，分散他们的注意力，扰乱他们的睡眠，让他们受到欺凌，谣言传播[和] 对其他人生活的不切实际的看法。” 去年的国会听证会探讨了社交媒体对青少年心理健康的影响，房间里的大象是监管改革的潜力，可能会导致社会责任的名义发生变化。

2021 年 12 月 6 日，美国外科医生 Vivek Murphy 医学博士发布了一项新建议，强调迫切需要解决因对抗 COVID-19 及其 Omicron 变体所需的限制而加剧的青少年心理健康问题。六项主要建议包括：

• 增加及时的数据收集和研究，以更快地识别和响应青少年心理健康需求。这包括更多关于技术与青少年心理健康之间关系的研究，并且技术公司应该对数据和算法流程更加透明，以支持这项研究。（重点补充）

关于社交媒体对年轻人整体健康和福祉的影响的辩论现在是人口健康领导人的首要和中心。外科医生的建议呼吁科技公司“加强并承担责任，为儿童和青少年创造一个安全的数字环境”，并且随着研究工作的继续，“允许广泛的研究人员访问数据和以前的研究，而不是证明接触少数特权阶层。”

包括美国外科医生总署、梅奥诊所、今日心理学、美国儿科学会、社区芝麻街和鸽子公司在内的不同实体就如何处理社交媒体对他们生活的影响向成人和青少年提供建议。青少年图书馆服务协会等团体提供在线安全课程，建议教育您周围的成年人进行真正的对话。联邦药物滥用和心理健康服务管理局 (SAMSHA) 为家庭和青少年提供了几个应用程序来解决欺凌、自杀念头和成瘾的方法。

康奈尔大学社交媒体实验室青年 ACT 评估和研究主任阿曼达·普林顿 (Amanda Purington) 说：“我认为关键是帮助青年人在最大限度地减少风险的同时最大限度地受益，我们可以通过教育青年人如何使用社交媒体来做到这一点。以积极、安全和亲社会的方式。” 家庭、医疗保健提供者和青年之间的沟通仍然至关重要——“如何”仍然是关键。

俄亥俄州立大学护理学院正在以不同的创新方式探索技术“如何”。副教授和压力科学实验室主任 Jodi Ford 博士，注册护士共同领导一个研究小组，测试与无家可归青年的阿片类药物预防服务相关的住房优先干预。分配给每个青年的研究生导师提供 24/7 全天候的交流和指导。年轻人正在利用与他们的导师保持联系的机会，他们是成功的并且更接近他们的年龄组。

助理教授 Lisa Militello 博士、公共卫生硕士、注册护士继续探索认知行为疗法和技术如何用于促进健康行为的改变。她与软件公司合作，开发通过短信向有超重和肥胖儿童的家庭提供简单触发的方法。Militello 希望找到优化儿科临床护理和健康信息技术之间互动的方法。在即将发表在《家庭实践护理进展》上的一篇文章中，她和她的同事强调了针对该主题的父母和研究人员的几个关键点和资源。

扩大我们对技术和社交媒体如何影响青年心理健康的理解——以及干预、再教育和赋权机会存在的地方——将帮助年轻人和老年人管理这些平台的影响，并围绕如何最有效地使用它们而达成一致。大流行使 FOMO 对许多年轻人来说非常真实，恕我直言（以我的拙见），在这个问题上我们不能只是 SMH（摇头）。我们需要成为 HTH（在这里提供帮助）以便它是 NBD（没什么大不了的），然后我们知道我们已经采取了 FTW（为了胜利）。

Pat Ford-Roegner, RN, MSW, FAAN 曾担任美国卫生与公众服务部第四区主任、美国护理学院首席执行官和 Amplify Public Affairs 卫生政策专家。

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Each generation’s youth strives to confound their adult counterparts, keeping them in the dark. Previous generations used pig Latin, locked diaries, handshakes, comic books, rap music, playing records backwards; you name it. What stands out today is the worldwide for-profit tech industry engaged in creating new communication platforms with regularity to confound older people and entice teens and young adults.

The debate rages as to whether social media tools have a positive or negative effect on the mental health of adolescents and early twenty-somethings. The pandemic has only added fuel to the fire. Social media platforms aren’t going anywhere; by the end of 2021, there were three billion active monthly users of social media around the world, and activity continues to grow.

The Pew Research Center has been surveying U.S. teens on social media and technology since 2014. In 2012, 71% had access to a smartphone; that grew to 95% of teens in 2018. And 45% say they are online almost constantly. Facebook was once the dominant platform; now YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok occupy sizable chunks of the space. The recent Surgeon General advisory reports teenagers’ time in front of the screen for non-school activities doubled from 3.8 hours to 7.7 hours per day in the last year. There is even an acronym referring in part to constantly checking the smartphone known as FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

“Social media addiction” is the subject of numerous studies. The Mayo Clinic says on the positive side, “social media allows teens to create online identities, communicate with others and build social networks … However, social media can also negatively affect, distracting them, disrupting their sleep and exposing them to bullying, rumor spreading [and] unrealistic views of other people’s lives.” Congressional hearings last year explored the impact of social media on youth mental health, with the elephant in the room being the potential for regulatory reforms that could lead to changes in the name of social responsibility.

On December 6, 2021, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murphy, MD issued a new advisory to highlight the urgent need to address youth mental health exacerbated by the restrictions needed to fight COVID-19 and its Omicron variant. Six major recommendations included the following:

• Increase timely data collection and research to identify and respond to youth mental health needs more rapidly. This includes more research on the relationship between technology and youth mental health, and technology companies should be more transparent with data and algorithmic processes to enable this research. (emphasis added)

The debate regarding the impact of social media on the general health and well-being of young people is now front and center in the minds of population health leaders. The Surgeon General’s advisory calls on technology companies “to step up and take responsibility for creating a safe digital environment for children and youth” and, as research efforts continue, to “allow a broad range of researchers to access data and previous research instead of proving access to a privileged few.”

Diverse entities including the U.S. Surgeon General, Mayo Clinic, Psychology Today, American Academy of Pediatrics, Sesame Street in Communities and the Dove Company offer suggestions to adults and teenagers on how to handle social media’s impact on their lives. Groups such as the Young Adult Library Services Association offer online safety courses that suggest educating the adults around you to engage in real conversation. The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) offers families and youth several apps to address ways to handle bullying, suicidal thinking and addiction.

Amanda Purington, director of evaluation and research for ACT for Youth at Cornell’s Social Media Lab, says: “I believe the key is to help youth maximize the benefits while minimizing risks, and we can do this by educating youth about how to use social media in ways that are positive, safe and pro-social.” Communication between families, health providers and youth remains critical – it is the “how” that remains key.

The Ohio State University College of Nursing is exploring that technological “how” in different and innovative ways. Associate professor and Stress Science Lab director Jodi Ford, PhD, RN co-leads a team of research investigators testing a housing-first intervention linked to opioid prevention services for homeless youth. Graduate student mentors assigned to each youth provide 24/7 access for communication and guidance. The young people are taking advantage of being in touch with their mentors, who are successful and closer to their age group.

Assistant professor Lisa Militello, PhD, MPH, RN continues to explore how cognitive-behavioral therapy and technology can be used to promote health behavior change. She worked with software companies to develop ways to deliver simple triggers through text messaging to families with overweight and obese children. Militello wants to find ways to optimize the interaction between pediatric clinical care and health information technology. In a soon-to-be-published article in Advances in Family Practice Nursing, she and her colleague highlight several key points and resources for parents and researchers on the topic.

Expanding our understanding of how technology and social media impact youth mental health – and where opportunities for intervention, re-education and empowerment exist – will help young and old manage both the influence of these platforms and alignment around how they can be most effectively used. The pandemic made FOMO very real for many young people, and IMHO (in my humble opinion), we can’t just SMH (shake my head) at this issue. We need to be HTH (here to help) so that it’s NBD (no big deal), and then we know we’ve acted FTW (for the win).

Pat Ford-Roegner, RN, MSW, FAAN has previously served as Region IV director at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, chief executive officer at the American Academy of Nursing and health policy expert for Amplify Public Affairs.

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