[Reading level: B2 – Upper Intermediate]
Study shows using Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp can have an adverse effect on self-esteem.
Perhaps Facebook should carry a health warning. A study has revealed that the children who spend more time on online social networks feel less happy in almost all aspects of their lives.
The research by a team of economists at the University of Sheffield, to be presented at this week’s Royal Economic Society annual conference in Bristol, shows that the more time children spend chatting on Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp and Instagram, the less happy they feel about their school work, the school they attend, their appearance, their family and their life overall. However, they do feel happier about their friendships.
Economists found that spending just one hour a day on social networks reduces the probability of a child being completely happy with his or her life overall by around 14%. They found that this was three times as high as the estimated adverse effect on well-being of being in a single-parent household – and larger than the effect of playing truant.
The findings are likely to stoke the debate about the upsides and downsides of social media.
More than 90% of 16- to 24-year-olds use online social networks and while most sites stipulate a minimum user age of 13, few apply any checks. A BBC survey found that more than three-quarters of 10- to 12-year-olds have social media accounts. A report by the media watchdog Ofcom found that more than half of children aged as young as three and four use a tablet while one in seven has their own device.
The amount of time that children between 8 and 11 and those aged 12-15 spend online has more than doubled in a decade, the Ofcom report found. Teenagers now spend nearly three and a half more hours a week online than they do watching television.
Social networking has altered childhood dramatically in the past decade and is becoming a concern for politicians and organisations responsible for safeguarding children. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) cited social media as a major cause of the dramatic increase in the numbers of children admitted to hospital after self-harming. The new research, which asked 4,000 10- to 15-year-olds to rate from one to seven how happy they were with different aspects of their lives, reveals that girls are more adversely affected than boys, as online social networking makes them feel less happy about specific areas of their life, in particular about their appearance and the school they attend. Boys were less happy with their friendships.
The research suggests that going online makes children more likely to make negative social comparisons with others.
“The problem with making comparisons in online media is that people tend to portray themselves in an idealised state,” said Philip Powell, one of the economists who conducted the research. “There is evidence that people think other people are happier than them after interacting with them online because we tend to post videos and chat that presents this positive image.”
Powell and his team split the data so that they could compare the effects of going online on children with low and high self-esteem. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, they found the effects were worse for those who lacked confidence.
Powell said cyberbullying could be another explanation for links between unhappiness and children’s use of social media. “There’s evidence the longer young people spend online the more likely they are to be victims of bullying,” he said.
However, the economists were surprised to find nothing to support the popular theory that time spent on social networks had an adverse effect on children because it left them less time to do other, potentially more rewarding, activities.
“Our findings show that social media use can be detrimental on average to young people and this is consistent with a number of findings in previous studies,” Powell said. “We can’t say any social media is bad but we can say that the more social media children use, the higher the likelihood that they will be dissatisfied with different domains of their life and their life overall.”
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/09/social-networks–children-chat-feel-less-happy-facebook-instagram-whatsapp
WORD BANK:
adverse /ˈæd.vɜːs/ [C2] (adj): xấu, tiêu cực
self-esteem /ˌself.ɪˈstiːm/ [C1] (n): lòng tự trọng
reveal /rɪˈviːl/ [B2] (v): chỉ ra, tiết lộ, cho thấy
aspect /ˈæs.pekt/ [B2] (n): khía cạnh
well-being /ˌwelˈbiː.ɪŋ/ [C1] (n): hạnh phúc
play truant /pleɪ ˈtruː.ənt/ (v – informal): trốn học
stoke /stəʊk/ (v): làm tăng thêm cảm xúc tiêu cực, thêm dầu vào lửa
stipulate /ˈstɪp.jə.leɪt/ (v): quy định
watchdog /ˈwɒtʃ.dɒɡ/ (n): cơ quan giám sát
alter /ˈɒl.tər/ [B2] (v): làm thay đổi
portray /pɔːˈtreɪ/ [C2] (v): phác họa
idealise /aɪˈdɪə.laɪz/ (v): lý tưởng hóa
cyberbullying /ˈsaɪ.bəˌbʊl.i.ɪŋ/ (n): (tạm dịch) bắt nạt ảo – hành vi đe dọa người khác trên mạng
rewarding /rɪˈwɔː.dɪŋ/ (adj): bổ ích
detrimental /ˌdet.rɪˈmen.təl/ [C2] (adj): có hại
consistent /kənˈsɪs.tənt/ [C2] (adj): đồng nhất
domain /dəˈmeɪn/ [C1] (n): khía cạnh, lĩnh vực
ỦNG HỘ TÀI CHÍNH READ TO LEAD!
Chào bạn! Có thể bạn chưa biết, Read to Lead là một trang giáo dục phi lợi nhuận với mục đích góp phần phát triển cộng đồng người học tiếng Anh tại Việt Nam. Chúng tôi không yêu cầu người đọc phải trả bất kỳ chi phí nào để sử dụng các sản phẩm chất lượng của mình để mọi người đều có cơ hội học tập tốt hơn. Tuy nhiên, nếu bạn có thể, chúng tôi mong nhận được sự hỗ trợ tài chính từ bạn để duy trì hoạt động của trang và phát triển các sản phẩm mới.
Bạn có thể ủng hộ chúng tôi qua 1 trong 2 cách dưới đây.
– Cách 1: Chuyển tiền qua tài khoản Momo.
Số điện thoại 0886.630.599 (Chủ tài khoản: Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo)
Nội dung chuyển tiền: Ủng hộ Read to Lead
hoặc
– Cách 2: Chuyển tiền qua tài khoản ngân hàng.
Ngân hàng VIB chi nhánh Hải Phòng
Số tài khoản: 071704060005623 (Chủ tài khoản: Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo)
Nội dung chuyển tiền: Ủng hộ Read to Lead