Leaving traces behind: Using social media digital trace data to study adolescent wellbeing

Abstract

Adolescents spend a significant amount of time on social media and there is a great public worry, from parents to policy makers, about the effect of social media on healthy development. Public interest has fuelled ample research on the impact of social media use and wellbeing during adolescence, yet, numerous reviews and meta-analyses report mixed findings that are nested in myriad limitations. One key limitation is an overreliance on high-level measures, such as screen time, as a proxy for the multi-dimensional set of experiences that constitute social media use. In line with a trend moving away from simple but crude measures, we argue that a more nuanced approach that captures the breadth of each individual's behaviours and experience of social media (i.e., their digital phenotype) could benefit the field. In this review, we synthesise what we have learned about the relationship between social media use and adolescent wellbeing and identify outstanding challenges. We then highlight the richness of social media digital trace data and discuss concrete solutions for making optimal use of this data within a structuring framework for future research. Finally, with the particular vulnerability of adolescents in mind, we discuss practical and ethical challenges and limitations of this new approach.

Keywords

• Adolescence
• Wellbeing
• Digital trace data
• Social media
• Engagement
• Screen time