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By guest author Sarah Mirsky.
Adolescents’ social world is an important context for their development. Across generations, peer interactions facilitate the exploration of important adolescent issues such as identity formation, expanding autonomy from caregivers, and striving for emotional maturity. However, the modern social landscape is being transformed by digital media, defined as technology-based platforms that enable social interaction and personalized broadcasting of content, such as social media, texting apps, and online gaming platforms (Steele et al., 2020).
Digital media are qualitatively different from face-to-face interactions in many ways, including asynchrony, promoting near-constant availability, and lack or ambiguity of nonverbal social-emotional cues (Nesi et al., 2018).
Psychologists, parents, and adolescents themselves have widely expressed concerns about how digital media relates to adolescent well-being. Of particular interest to our research team is that adolescence is characterized by the onset of peak anxiety symptoms (i.e., one in three teens experience distressing and disabling levels by age 18). experience anxiety). However, research findings on the association between digital media use and anxiety are mixed, highlighting the importance of examining nuances of individual vulnerability and patterns of online and offline social behavior. .
Our research team has recently focused on: how and why Teens use digital media, but it’s not just how often they use it. Specifically, we ask teens about their preferences for communicating using technology. in contrast to Face-to-face interaction. For example, we ask teens whether they prefer sharing their feelings or catching up with friends. We found that some teens strongly prefer using digital media over in-person opportunities. This preference may be driven by the fact that online platforms offer more control than face-to-face interactions. That means it’s easier to plan what you’ll say, and you have time to consider your reactions and adjust how you present yourself to others.
Importantly, people who have difficulty regulating their emotions may find these features of digital media particularly appealing. Emotion regulation refers to a variety of abilities, including how to detect emotional cues, the extent to which we can flexibly increase or decrease the intensity of emotions, and choosing when and how to express emotions. Decades of research have shown that difficulties in regulating emotions underlie increased anxiety in young people, and that the brain’s ability to regulate emotions also deeply develops during adolescence. Our ability to regulate emotions is shaped and improved through practice, through habitual social interactions in which we express our thoughts and feelings. Therefore, too little face-to-face experience may hinder one’s ability to better regulate their emotions.
Recent research in adolescents (12 to 15 years old) examines the relationship between social interaction preferences and adolescents’ emotions, regulation, and anxiety. We use electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate brain areas involved in emotion regulation, specifically the “emotion control” areas of the brain cortex, as well as those deeper in the brain, below the cortex, or “subcortex.” Captures connectivity between “emotion generation” regions. ” found that a greater preference for digital media in social-emotional communication predicted elevated social anxiety symptoms when teens’ patterns of brain activity indicated “overregulation” of emotions. . When it comes to the neural control of emotions, one might think that more is better. However, this is not always the case in our study or in other studies (e.g. Poole et al., 2020). Among “digital-minded” teens, this increased connectivity may reflect a nervous rigidity that may result in an increased need for control in unpredictable social situations. It is thought that there is a sex. In fact, intolerance of uncertainty and avoidance of new situations and people are characteristics of social anxiety.
In summary, our study provides an interpretation that difficulty regulating emotions may put some teens at risk for the downsides of digital media use. Teens who habitually prefer digital media may miss opportunities to hone their social skills and practice managing their emotions in real-time interactions. Building on this recent ongoing research, we aim to inform healthy technology use for youth and their parents, and our efforts highlight the recommendations put forth by her APA. I am.
First, we need to encourage a balance between the use of digital media and face-to-face interactions. We use the term “balance” rather than the more severe “restrictions” because teens’ involvement in their online lives has become a mainstay of young people’s social circles. High levels of restriction can increase stress and anxiety and increase the social impact of not being able to be a supportive and supportive friend. More practical and helpful would be to give teens the tools to deal with their anxiety about disappointing their friends and the social skills to set and maintain boundaries that they are comfortable with. These are all components of “digital literacy.” Second, face-to-face interaction may not be possible. In such cases, it may be best to choose a form of digital communication that includes real-time social cues (such as voice calls or FaceTime). This is because it more closely resembles a face-to-face interaction. .
Finally, our evidence highlights the pivotal role of emotion regulation, so we encourage researchers to engage in activities such as talking through emotions, journal writing, artistic expression, and/or to strengthen emotion regulation through everyday activities such as speaking through emotions, journal writing, artistic expression, and/or You can explore ways to practice emotion regulation through interventions specifically designed for (e.g., Menin and Fresco, 2014). An important part of emotion regulation is being aware of your emotions, and to this end, you can track your mood before and after using digital media and understand how digital media use is effecting you. Some people may find it helpful to consider.
About the guest author: Sarah Myruski is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and associate research director of the Emotional Development Institute at Penn State University. Her ongoing research examines how adolescents use digital media and investigates why certain usage patterns are beneficial or harmful to particular adolescents. Families interested in participating in this study are encouraged to find more information on the laboratory’s website.
References
Nesi, J., Choukas-Bradley, S., and Prinstein, M. J. (2018). Transforming adolescents’ peer relationships in the context of social media: Part 1 – Theoretical framework and application to dyadic relationships. Review of Clinical Child and Family Psychology, twenty one267-294.
R. G. Steele, J. A. Hall, J. L. Kristofferson (2020). Conceptualizing digital stress in adolescents and young adults: Toward developing an empirically based model. Review of Clinical Child and Family Psychology, twenty three15-26.
Menin, DS, and Fresco, DM (2014). Emotion regulation therapy. Emotion Regulation Handbook, 2469-490.
KL Poole, B. Anaya, and KE Pérez-Edgar (2020). Behavioral inhibition and EEG delta-beta correlations in early childhood: A comparison of between-subject and within-subject approaches. biological psychology, 149107785.
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