How Facebook And Social Media Affect The Minds Of Generation Next

When it comes to teens and their social media habits, there's some great news and some not-so-great news. It can make your child a fast learner, but it is also associated with a host of psychological disorders.

The findings, part of a presentation on the effects of social media at the American Psychological Association's annual convention, were all culled from recent research by Larry D. Rosen, Ph.D., psychology professor at California State University.

For teens, social networking is much like "training wheels for life," Rosen told The Huffington Post. They post information and see how others react to it, learning as they go. One major benefit of this is that social networking can help shy teens become more comfortable and outgoing.

"Everybody knows that what you write is public, but because there's a screen in front of you, you feel somewhat anonymous," Rosen said.

Facebook can also have a positive impact on young adults' lives by helping them be more empathetic, Rosen says. His research shows people who engage in more Facebook activities -- more status updates, more photo uploads, more "likes" -- also display more virtual empathy. If someone posts he had a difficult day, and you post a comment saying, "Call me if you need anything," you've just displayed virtual empathy. Even better, Rosen's preliminary research suggests this could also translate into empathy in the real world.

Of course, it's not all positive news. Among other findings, Rosen discovered a relationship between heavy Facebook use and narcissism in teens. In another of Rosen's studies, students who frequently checked Facebook during study sessions also reported lower grades.

In order to minimize the negative effects, he emphasizes that parents talk to their kids about technology use at an early age and developed the acronym T.A.L.K. to help parents get that conversation started.

How early is early? Perhaps when they're still in diapers. "If you're going to give a 1-year-old an iPad to play with, you talk at that developmental level, about playing with a computer vs. playing with a toy. You try to continue this discussion at every developmental phase."

Rosen details more of his research in his forthcoming book, set for a 2012 release.

"Facebook is seven years old. We're not talking about an established media form ... we're talking about something that's very new," Rosen said. "People are starting to investigate how people use these technologies for good and bad."

How Does Social Networking Affect Our Kids?

1 of 6

Narcissism

1 of 7

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

Though Facebook use doesn't necessarily cause narcissism, Rosen said it can exacerbate already-existing symptoms. "It provides the opportunity to say what you want with no one seeing you." For example, if someone prone to narcissistic behavior posts a status, and 20 people respond with their comments, the problem is perpetuated. Photo credit (All Photos): Thinkstock

Fitness Quotes

Fix Your Form

Exercises That Help You Live Longer

12 Things We Learned From The Harvard Sleep Summit

8 Celebrity Quotes About Stress

Foods That Lower Stroke Risk

Though Facebook use doesn't necessarily cause narcissism, Rosen said it can exacerbate already-existing symptoms. "It provides the opportunity to say what you want with no one seeing you."

For example, if someone prone to narcissistic behavior posts a status, and 20 people respond with their comments, the problem is perpetuated.

Photo credit (All Photos): Thinkstock

comments(21)

Total comments: 21 | Post a Comment

1 of 7

Slide

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

I'm not surprised I didn't know that!

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Slides

loading...

Slides

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

Comments

[MarketingFan69]

04:37 PM on 09/27/2011

You might want to look at the social skills of those who use Facebook the most... it's plummeting. Social media actually makes people more shy and less outgoing.

I say let's get back to the way we used to talk - person to person... this site shows people how to be outgoing:

http://www.howtobeoutgoing.com

[pkirby]

10:17 AM on 08/11/2011

PJ, it is ALSO possible that the family that did, in fact, have a warm, bonded relationship and on this occasion the couple simply wanted to have a nice night out when they could talk together while have the children along.

In other words, as you know from your profession, we can't always generalize from single observations.

[PJ Adams]

06:02 PM on 08/10/2011

As a psychotherapist, one of the most disturbing electronic activities I've seen recently was a couple with two little girls (about aged 2 and 5) at a public restaurant. The parents had positioned the two children with their own movie-playing devices alongside their dinner plates. The parents appeared to me to have almost completely ignored the two children during 90% of the dinner with the movies serving as "virtual nannies." This is troubling because the parents missed an opportunity to bond with their children. The children, instead, "bonded" with their devices. This kind of human detachment sometimes leads to personality disorders in teens and adults, which then can lead to anxiety, depression, social alienation and other dynamics like crime. Additionally, unlike ten years ago, I now have dozens of teenaged patients with face-to-face social anxiety. They can twitter and Facebook to each other, but they have difficulty relating in the flesh.

[billsowlesforjohnmccain]

02:19 PM on 08/10/2011

Why is is that so-called experts just can't let kid be kids. Sooon enough they, the kids, will be adults and slaves like the rest of us.

[tarzan322]

11:58 AM on 08/10/2011

I agree that Facebook isn't the leading cause of all these symptoms they described, but it is a major contributor to them all. I think the leading cause of narcissism is caused by the lack of emotional support from parents. I'm no doctor, but parents who push their kids aside for their own selfish reasons, or who literately don't have the time like single parents or divorced parents leave their kids to figure out emotions and the world for themselves. This makes them less empathetic to others, and more instinctive, like animals. And that's just how they behave, like animals. They search to gain things in life instinctively with no rearguard or care for others as they would if man still lived in a natural sense. It also explains the large outcry for more freedoms. Living in a structured society with laws and rules hampers their freedom. That's why we need morals in this country, whether or not religion is involved. This is heading the wrong way in the Evolutionary sense.

[rjaxone]

12:56 AM on 08/10/2011

Facebook makes shy persons more outgoing and sociable.

Really? Does that mean that when an otherwise shy person sees a computer screen on the streets he/she will walk right up to it and introduce herself/himself..

[purplemaize]

06:41 PM on 08/09/2011

First it was MySpace and all the mess on that, then it was youtube, now it is Facebook. I remember when we did not have computers, they use to blame the parents when we ran away and called us drug addicts when we did not even use drugs. We just could not stand our parents arguing all the time.

[stape45]

05:00 PM on 08/09/2011

Let me get this straight; First came Facebook; THEN came narcissism.

[MartinEden]

03:59 PM on 08/09/2011

Is Facebook making teens [even more] narcissistic? Does the Pope wear a funny hat?

[karen lyons kalmenson]

03:29 PM on 08/09/2011

This has been planet me me me me for a long time, social media has given all the me's a sense of we's

[NickTAZ]

03:26 PM on 08/09/2011

Hahahaha-- yeah, it's technology to blame for the levels of teenage narcissism...

Try God/Human nature for the cause.

[gregory57]

03:26 PM on 08/09/2011

Do teens need Facebook to make them narcissistic?

[Lisa Frederiksen]

03:22 PM on 08/09/2011

This program, PBS "Digital Nation," adds a great deal to this discussion.

[Itsmyland2]

03:20 PM on 08/09/2011

This assumes teens weren't already Narcissists?

[bluelyne]

03:09 PM on 08/09/2011

What I see, and I see it much more in young women than in young men, is the need to tell the world everything about their life. Not only is it a bore to read for the rest of us, it smacks of extreme narcissism. I work with alot of people in their 20's and they are on Facebook all the time. Telling us things like "I'm going to work" etc. I think it's a real problem. Some things you should just keep personal about yourself, and you are really full of yourself if you think people care about your every waking moment. Reality shows also to me only make this worse. It seems like it's a whole generation of me, me, me and behavior that would really have been frowned on when I grew up. If these are the future mothers of America - ugh.