A study published in Nature Human Behaviour indicates an association between early social media use and lower standardised test scores in Italian schoolchildren. The research suggests that young people who registered for their first personal social media account at an earlier age tended to have worse academic outcomes.
Dr Simon R. White, Assistant Research Professor at the University of Cambridge, noted that the paper presents a robust analysis adding substantive evidence for this claim. However, he highlighted limitations within the methodology, particularly regarding how social media use might change over time and the consideration of statistical multiple comparisons.
Professor Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics at The Open University, urged caution in interpreting the findings. He stated that while it is possible that starting social media earlier causes worse school performance, other explanations cannot be entirely ruled out, as the study is observational rather than a randomised experiment.
The study found that the earlier children opened social media accounts, the worse their performance in standardised school testing at grades 8 (ages 13-14) and 10 (ages 15-16).