The Internet is...good for you?

Plus: preventing injuries in our kids, and new data on teens and video games

Hello sapiens! It’s time for this month’s research roundup, where I sum up my favorite new studies on parenting, tech, and mental health. Before we get into it, some brief housekeeping updates:

First, it’s Social Media Wellness month! I loved contributing to this toolkit for parents, put together by Zigazoo. It’s filled with expert advice on helping kids navigate social media safely, and you can check it out here!

Second, I am devastated to report that our Reservoir High School Gators lost in a closely-contested battle in the MPSSAA high school baseball 4A state championship last weekend (final score: 5-3). We were robbed! [But, more importantly, congrats to all the players and their parents on a successful season.]

And now, onto the research. Today, we’re diving into:

• That study on Internet use and worldwide well-being that’s been all over the news

• How to effectively warn our kids about physical risks (I’ll be using this one for our next trip to the playground)

• The data we’ve been waiting for on teens and video games

1. The Internet is…good for you?

Much of the research on technology’s effects on wellbeing occurs in a few, mostly Western countries. But what happens when we zoom out to the rest of the world? This study makes a truly valiant effort to find out. 

Researchers examined survey data from 2,414,294 people (!), ages 15 to 65+, across 168 countries, using tens of thousands of different analyses. They looked at whether people reported having access to, and using, the Internet. Then, they tested whether those reports were associated with self-reports of wellbeing (e.g., life satisfaction, social relationships). In the vast majority of analyses (84.9%), they found positive associations between Internet use and well-being. In a very small number of analyses (0.4%), associations were negative—interestingly, these tended to be among young (15- to 24-year-old) women.

Associations between Internet use and areas of well-being, by age and sex. In case you’re curious, that squiggly purple line in the box in the third row, second from the right, shows a negative effect for women ages 15 to 24.

My take: This is an incredibly impressive study in size (2 million+ participants!) and statistical methods, and I appreciate the authors’ very measured take on its strengths and limitations (e.g., “we further highlight the tentative-at-most nature of our results with respect to causal effects of internet access and use on individuals’ well-being.”)

Of course, this study has been all over the recent news cycle, with breathless coverage highlighting a shocking new study suggesting the Internet can be good for you! Call me a cynic, but should we be that surprised to learn that, on average, across the world, people who have access to the Internet also report greater wellbeing? I’m very glad this study exists, but I’m not sure it offers much new information on specific questions like, for example, how social media impacts teens’ mental health. Technology, Mind, and Behavior.

2. How do we prevent injuries in our kids?

How do we encourage our kids to be safe? Prior research shows that kids are more likely to take risks when they are in a good mood (…parenting is impossible, I know). So, this study set out to figure out whether and how we can counteract risk-taking without, you know, *killing the mood.*