New Research Explores Teens' Use of Social Media in 2018

New Research Explores Teens' Use of Social Media in 2018

Common Sense today published a new research report, Social Media, Social Life: Teens Reveal Their Experiences.

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Highlights include:

  • Teens are on social media for much of the day. Seventy percent of teens use social media multiple times a day (up from 34 percent in 2012) with 16 percent saying they use it "almost constantly" and a total of 38 percent saying they use it multiple times an hour.
  • Social media distracts them from some important stuff. Fifty-seven percent agree that social media often distracts them when they should be doing homework, and 54 percent of teens say that using social media "often distracts me when I should be paying attention to the people I'm with."
  • Exposure to hate speech is on the rise, while cyberbullying is less common.All told, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of teen social media users in 2018 say they "often" or "sometimes" come across racist, sexist, homophobic, or religious-based hate content in social media. Thirteen percent of teens report "ever" being cyberbullied, and more than one in five teens (23 percent) has tried to help someone who has been cyberbullied.

For a summary of key findings and to download the full report, visit.www.commonsensemedia.org.

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