While the 'belief' plot draws attention, the core message of the final, deliberative consensus statements is that evidence linking smartphone and social media use to negative outcomes is limited, mixed, context-dependent, insufficient to support causal claims, and better research is needed. - ThreadSky

dougaparry.bsky.social • 15 days ago

While the 'belief' plot draws attention, the core message of the final, deliberative consensus statements is that evidence linking smartphone and social media use to negative outcomes is limited, mixed, context-dependent, insufficient to support causal claims, and better research is needed.

Reposted from Jay Van Bavel, PhD

Are #smartphones and #socialmedia harming a generation?

This is a hotly debated and often polarizing debate. So we surveyed over 120 experts on the topic to see where there was genuine consensus (or not), like experts have previous done for climate change.

See our paper: osf.io/preprints/ps...

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janellebelle.bsky.social•15 days ago

You will frequently see people post graphs showing timelines of increased incidence of mental health/anxiety in youth with timelines of the introduction of smartphones & social media implying causation. But the introduction of helicopter parenting also fits this timeline very nicely.The contribution

janellebelle.bsky.social•15 days ago

of this parenting approach that prevents children from learning resilience through being allowed to fail & learn from their own mistakes unsurprisingly can also cause anxiety & mental health issues. It’s overly simplistic to blame screens & social media for everything.

aliciagilbert.bsky.social•15 days ago

and not to forget the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 which extended mental health screenings in adolescents in the US

dougaparry.bsky.social•15 days ago

Yes, there's an almost endless list of diagnostic, methodological, environmental, individual, and social factors that contribute–positively or negatively–to mental health and our understanding of it.

dougaparry.bsky.social•15 days ago

100% @cjsewall9.bsky.social and I demonstrate this here https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/abn0000950

aliciagilbert.bsky.social•15 days ago

any reason for the weird girl focus in a lot of the claims? because the debate often focuses on internalizing symptoms?

dougaparry.bsky.social•15 days ago

The lead authors chose to base the set of claims on Haidt's book (societal impact etc etc.). Also means Western bias and many other relevant topics untouched...

gidmk.bsky.social•15 days ago

Yes, it's a bit confusing. The belief plot doesn't really show belief in the key question, and the consensus statements make it clear that most of the discussion around the core issue - do smartphones harm health - is uncertain.

neurofrogg.bsky.social•14 days ago

Main issues with this: title and plots are misleading, and I can bet a lot of citations would be completely uninformed of the core message, transforming this article into something difficult to control.

dougaparry.bsky.social•15 days ago

This plot misses the main point. The snap beliefs from a potentially biased sample of experts are one thing, but the deliberative outcomes of the consensus process tell a different, contradictory story about what we actually know.

aeden.bsky.social•15 days ago

Thanks for your take here. My read of the results was similar to yours and I was disappointed - but not surprised - to see it boiled down to the same talking points again.

mindimager.bsky.social•15 days ago

Exactly!

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