Is the harmful aspect of social networks among young people just wind? A Dutch study shows that teens on Instagram appear much happier than they appear. To reach this conclusion, the School of Communication Research at the University of Amsterdam analyzed more than 210,000 private messages sent by one hundred fourth and third grade students, explains the Fast Company website.
The goal was to find out if the exchanges expressed positive or negative sentiment. At the same time, the children had to fill out questionnaires for a month and a half. Twice a week, they were asked if they had felt happy in the last seven days.
Use instead of exposure time
Thus, the study showed that four out of five times, messages expressing happiness were shared by adolescents between the ages of 13 and 15. Likewise, this research indicates that there is no relationship between the emotions expressed in private messages and the emotions declared. A surprise given the internal investigation of Meta, the owner of Instagram. Even the British justice had questioned Instagram after the suicide of a girl.
According to him, these results are notable because they take into account the actual use that young people make of the platforms. Unlike other research on the subject, Tim Verbeij insists on the content found on social networks rather than the time spent on it to deduce a link with a person’s well-being and happiness.
A very useful tool to express joy and sadness.
The University of Amsterdam study began in November 2019, thus covering the repercussions of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Given the confinements put in place by the different governments, it is through social networks that contacts have been made with friends. Tim Verbeij thus considers that Instagram is very useful so that the youngest can “express their happiness or sadness with their friends”.
Furthermore, this research is causing a sensation in the scientific body because it dives into the non-public part of social networks. “This is important work in large part because it focuses on private messaging through the donation of data from teens’ personal files, which opens a significant window into the non-public spaces of youth networks,” said Tama Leaver, an Australian professor specializing in the Internet.
Source: BFM TV
