Heavy use of social media leads to lower school marks for teenagers

Social media use during adolescence may affect academic performance: according to a study published in *Nature Human Behaviour* and conducted on 5,227 Italian pupils, young people who set up a social media account before reaching adolescence appear to achieve poorer results in Invalsi tests in subsequent school years. The study was carried out by the Universities of Milan-Bicocca and Brescia, in collaboration with the Studi Socialis centre and the Sloworking association.

The hypothesis put forward by the experts is that it is the pervasiveness of smartphones that affects academic performance: ‘Of all the possible explanations tested in our study, the most plausible is that academic performance is affected by the impact, throughout the day, of constantly checking social media, resulting in overstimulation and prolonged distraction,’ explains lead author Marco Gui. Social media use is widespread among teenagers, and most young people create their first account at around 10 or 11 years of age.

 The team analysed the sample group’s social media habits – such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok – alongside the results of standardised tests in Italian, English and mathematics at four stages of their school career.

It has emerged that, compared with pupils who opened a social media account in the third year of lower secondary school or later, those who opened one in the first year of lower secondary school achieved lower average scores in the national standardised tests for Italian and mathematics; the reduction in scores is roughly equivalent to six months’ less education.

In the second year of upper secondary school (aged 15–16), the gap in test scores is similar in Italian, but is actually slightly wider in mathematics. Furthermore, the likelihood of having opened a social media account at a younger age was found to be higher amongst pupils who reported checking their smartphones more frequently.