Teen girls more affected by social media than boys: study

The inception of social media only saw praises for it in the beginning – it helped us connect with our long lost dear ones or just made communications with each other easy. But the rising popularity of it has lead to its own set of repercussions. A study conducted at University College London observed the impact of social media on teenagers.

Published in the EClinicalMedicine journal, the study stated that there was a connection between social media use and depressive symptoms in 14-year-olds. Additionally, it also observed the same symptoms were more severe for girls than boys.

The study said that the teenagers who used social media for more than five hours a day showed a 50% increase in depressive symptoms in girls. But similar symptoms were seen in boys with only a 35% increase when compared to their 3 hours of social media usage.

“There’s an alarming difference. We were quite surprised when we saw the figures and we saw those raw percentages: the fact that the magnitude of association was so much larger for girls than for boys,” said Yvonne Kelly, first author of the study.

However, the study only showed an association between social media use and symptoms of depression, which can include feelings of unhappiness, restlessness or loneliness.

The study concluded that other factors like lack of sleep and cyberbullying that could help substantiate this association at a higher level greater.