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social media use is hurting your child’s grades – and it doesn’t matter how much time they’re spending on devices each day, new research warns.
Doctors at UC San Francisco found that for students ages nine to 13, an hour spent on the app daily could reduce test scores by one or two points. in new research,
However, students who spent four hours a day on social media saw their tests drop by up to five points.
“It really tells us about the dose effect of these [apps],” psychologist Sherry Madigan, who wrote with editorial For the study, explained. “It’s really problematic at high use, but it’s also problematic in small doses.”
This is bad news for students who are already struggling with academic performance.
The pandemic and recent declines in reading and math scores across the country Arizona State University report found that the average American student is “less than halfway to full academic recovery.”
In the spring of 2023, the percentage of fourth grade students performing on grade level in math and reading was 13 percent decline And seven percent from 2019 respectively.
Psychologist Mitch Prinstein of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said it doesn’t take much to have a negative impact on academic standing. npr,
“The slight change in what they look like over a short period of time means they are now on a trajectory that is different from others,” he said. “That means that two, three, five years from now, we can be talking about some very significant differences between kids who may have been heavy users or kids who may not have been heavy users.”
Prinstein, who was not involved in the new study, said the research appears to confirm that “children are having difficulty concentrating because of the way social media has changed their ability to process information.”
Research in this area is still developing, but some international studies have Social media use linked to decreased attention span,
A 2019 National Institutes of Health The study showed that teens who spent more than two hours per day on their screens scored lower on tests.
Smartphones are an endless source of distraction, experts say.
The authors of the new study first found high levels of intoxication-like symptoms Children and teens between the ages of 10 and 14 who use smartphones.
“Half of the kids who had smartphones said they didn’t keep track of how much time they were using their phones,” UCSF pediatrician Jason Nagata told NPR. “And 11 percent say social media use has negatively impacted their school work.”