A Youth Perspective on Navigating the Digital World

Authored by Pritika

Member of Digital Wellness Lab 2023-24 Student Advisory Council

Digital media — from social media to advertisements to video games to Generative AI, is everywhere, including our schools, offices, and homes. It affects stakeholders worldwide simply because it has become an ingrained part of our everyday lives, especially for young people. Being a part of the online landscape is equivalent to engaging in a “complex environment” — almost like a world of its own, with both negative and positive elements. A recent survey about young people’s social media experiences (Digital Wellness Lab, 2023) corroborates that media can be a double-edged sword. For instance, while messaging can improve social relationships, it can also perpetuate bullying, harassment, unsolicited messages or spam; and while short social media reels can be stress relievers, they can also display disturbing content.

Parents want to ensure the safety of their kids as they engage with media, educators want students to use media ethically, companies want to continue expanding their horizons and innovating in the media space. Among these different stakeholders, there is the common question: How can media be used to enhance the user’s life rather than harm the user? The even more persistent question remains: How can the wellbeing of the next generation, who is at the forefront of media usage, be ensured online?

However, one key stakeholder seems to often be missing from this conversation surrounding digital media and wellness: young people. Young people are often left on the sidelines due to their age and perceived lack of experience, but their lived experiences can be a potent tool for making youth experiences with the online world more positive and meaningful. As youth activists, advocates, and scholars, we can use our passion and sense of purpose to work towards building the future we envision through active intervention.

I seek to add a youth voice to the conversation surrounding actions, policies, and recommendations regarding digital media (and advocacy/policy as a whole), specifically widely-used social media platforms, to ensure well being in the online ecosystem for young people and all stakeholders alike. While the recommendations are not all-encompassing, the purpose is to propose initiatives where young people are active agents of shaping online experiences and advocating for positive change. The ultimate goal is for youth to continue amplifying their voices in such discourse and for the proliferation of such initiatives. These policy recommendations can be used across different settings, from media-use policies at home, to school curriculum, to personal guidelines for young people to adopt in their digital media usage, to business policies, to government policies and more.

Consequences of Social Media Use

As shown in the graphs below, social media usage over the years has skyrocketed. But what are some consequences that have come with the rise of social media?

Privacy and Safety Concerns

Social media is an open world for everyone to access. While immensely beneficial in connecting people, social media can compromise the privacy and safety of young users because information like name, location, age, and gender is available to the general public and to individuals (like hackers and spammers) who can misuse this data.

Inferiority Complexes

Mainstream media often focuses on certain types of idealized images and selves as being preferable (Digital Wellness Lab, 2024). For instance more photo/video manipulation through editing has been associated with mental health and body image concerns among adolescents. However, with current trends to be more inclusive and promote things like body diversity, there is hope for the future.

Decrease in Mindfulness/Situational Awareness

In 2023 there was a popular story in the news about how a kid was called a “hero” because he ran to the front of his bus and controlled the wheels so the vehicle didn’t swerve off the path (CBS Evening News, 2023). He had realized that his bus driver had a medical emergency and so he ran to the rescue. But why did no other kid on the bus do this action? All other kids reported being on their screens and hence digital media usage has shown to correlate with a lack of situational awareness of what is going around the user.

Similarly, there is a lack of mindfulness and awareness of the present moment, an example would be when using phones while eating. This can have negative repercussions on youth wellbeing in the long-run. Why? Because without mindfulness and awareness of how long they are online, adolescents can let time fly by and this can sacrifice their own health. In fact, once a friend shared her experiences with me: “I [went to bed late] last night because I didn’t realize I was on [social media] for so long”. In the long run, such actions can be detrimental to young users’ health.

Brain Rot

Many youth use screens for an excessive amount of time and afterwards feel a great sense of lethargy and mental cloudiness. A friend, for instance, shared being online for a “10 hour binge-watching session” and feeling extremely “drained of energy” afterwards. This feeling of brain rot could transform into an urge for repetitive access to online content and subsequent excessive media use. In a New York Times article, Dr Michael Rich, founder and director of the Digital Wellness Lab, says how people often “joke about [brain rot], self-aware enough to understand that obsessive internet usage affects them, but not enough to stop it” (Roy, 2024). Additionally, he says “brain rot isn’t as much an addiction to the internet as it is a coping mechanism for people who may have other underlying disorders that may lead them to numb themselves with mindless scrolling or overlong gaming sessions.”

In one striking example, a worried mother writes in an Ask the Experts resource, “My son spends 4 hours or more at a time binge watching videos and scrolling through Tik Tok. He is doing okay in school, but he often spends time on his computer and phone after school instead of hanging out with friends and stays up into the morning hours nearly every night, including school nights. I am worried that this isn’t normal. What should I do?” (Digital Wellness Lab, 2022). This reflects the concerns surrounding brain rot and how it can have negative impacts, like reducing social connections.

Greater Misinformation

Not everything online is true, and unfortunately, not only has there been an increase of overly trustworthy looking online content but there has also been a greater spread of inaccurate content.

Increase in Polarization

Young people are in a very malleable phase of our lives where we start developing ideologies and habits that can remain for long periods of time. Social media algorithms can accentuate users’ preconceived beliefs or create new ones to a very extreme degree. For example, if a young person were to start off with a slight proclivity towards a certain topic and search for content related to that topic just once or twice, then AI-driven social media would start delivering content cementing a more one-sided and polarized view of that person. This polarization can pull young people apart and make them less accepting and more oblivious of diverse opinions if they are very attached to one side of an issue.

Doom Scrolling

Many young people are spending excessive amounts of time consuming negative information, which can have adverse repercussions on their wellbeing and mental health. Why? Because for young minds challenging topics (that can cause an increase in negative emotions, such as fear, anger, anxiety, etc.) such as global conflicts, murder news and news of high death rates can be overwhelming. This information overload can take a toll on media users’ health.

Misuse of Artificial Intelligence

AI, which is now incorporated into social media, can be used for unethical purposes such as plagiarism, infringement of intellectual property rights, and/or impersonation of celebrities like musicians and influencers.

Addictions to Social Media

If not used in balance, people of any age, but especially adolescents, can spend unhealthy amounts of time online.

Actions

While the phenomena described above reveal the negative potential of social media, it would be unfair to say social media only does bad for the world. Through social media, young people can launch campaigns, reach an endless audience, promote advocacy/activism for various social issues, and simply use it for recreational purposes, assuming that we balance this use with other activities (like school, sleep, hobbies/interests, family time, etc). While it is us, as users, who determine how social media influences our lives, we cannot embark on this journey of digital wellness alone — there is a need for there to be certain actions, policies, and guidelines in place that support and uplift young people from all walks of life. Next, I delve deeper into such powerful measures that can revolutionize the online world for the better for everyone, specifically youth.

Action 1: Foster More Digital Media Literacy

What is digital media literacy? Simply, having more knowledge, awareness, and tools about how to navigate the digital landscape, which is critical for young people in the developmental phases of our lives.

In one meeting of the Digital Wellness Lab Student Advisory Board, which consists of a diverse cohort of young people across the nation, many young people expressed how media literacy for them was limited to knowledge of how to avoid plagiarism or how to vet out reliable sources, rather than focusing on current issues around advertisements, misinformation, and other digital-specific spaces. In fact, one young person mentioned how they did have social-media education but it was focused on cyberbullying and presented in a very unrealistic way, invoking fear rather than fostering education.

Recommendations for Schools

Creating a separate class for media literacy may be less feasible, so it may be more feasible to incorporate media literacy throughout classes, such as AI literacy in computer science class, assessing potential bias in social media posts regarding political events in history class. Learning is often strongest when it is linked to multiple contexts.
One focus of digital media literacy should be understanding other perspectives and not being misled by polarized views or sensationalism. Other critical focus points of digital media literacy include:
- Learning how to identify misinformation and bias and not spread them
- Being aware that picture perfect images on social media can be filtered and when people post they may have a personal brand they want to present
- Being careful of clickbait
- Avoiding excessive amounts of time online
- Sharing “preserving privacy” tips

Research has found that young women can develop body image inferiority complexes due to social media; however, through media literacy programs when young women were made aware that images on social media may be edited, they were less likely to be negatively affected, revealing the immense potential of digital media literacy on increasing young people’s wellbeing (Vendemia & DeAndrea, 2018).
It can be beneficial to introduce this concept of “digital breaks” or “digital detoxes” because taking periodic breaks from the online world can boost wellbeing — in fact, for myself and many youth I have spoken to, it can be beneficial to detach from screens periodically. However, it is important to note that the specific duration or type of break depends on the user and their needs.
Digital media literacy should be balanced, focusing on giving young people a comprehensive, nuanced education on the digital ecosystem, such as emphasizing how digital media can be used positively, for example to follow activism accounts or learn about new opportunities/initiatives.
Most importantly, young people should be taught to be mindful consumers of content — actively noticing how certain content affects their wellbeing and health, so that they can choose to engage with beneficial content. Even when addressing the shortcomings of digital media, the primary focus should be change, reform, and/or awareness rather than fear and panic.
The findings below from a nationwide survey conducted by Media Literacy Now sum up the importance of digital media literacy in schools.

Overall, self-regulation and active mediation (in other words, giving young people a sense of independence in monitoring their online usage) are shown to be the most effective when trying to make young users more media literate (Akter et al., 2022; Ghosh et al., 2020; Ko et al., 2015; Sangal et al., 2021).

Recommendations for Parents/Guardians

The focus of digital media literacy has usually been on incorporating it into school settings, but the same ideas apply to various other settings, including within the home. Based on youth experiences and scientific research, there has been more support for a less authoritarian approach from guardians/parents of young users when it comes to teaching them about the online space. In fact, research indicates that extreme parental restrictions, like through monitoring software, can elicit a negative response from young people, potentially making them more rebellious because they may feel they are not being trusted or that their privacy is being compromised (Alelyani et al., 2019; Ghosh et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2021). When one young acquaintance’s parents had such a monitoring application installed on her phone, she expressed feeling resentful and putting in additional effort to create a new phone profile just so her parents could not monitor her. This reveals that if young people are dealt with too extremely they may resist any restrictions put upon them.

Note: The given information is not to generalize all monitoring applications/other actions preventing excess media usage as having adverse/negative impacts, but rather to emphasize that if young people are taught how to use digital media in a very extreme way (e.g. without proper explanation, lack of clear communication, anger), there may be unintended negative consequences.

Talk to young people about both the benefits and the negative aspects of digital media (including how to keep the online world separate from the real physical world) so that young people perceive their guardians/parents to be less biased and more aware. Demonizing media can reduce trust between young people and adults in their life and create a fear of being judged/blamed among youth. Instead, the primary goal should be promoting healthy digital media usage.
If parents are setting certain boundaries for their kids and modeling good behavior, the kid will likely be more receptive if the parents themselves practice what they share. For example, If the parents don’t use phones on the dining table, then the kid will feel more inclined to do the same.
Support autonomy and collaboration, so that parents and children work together, reducing conflict and increasing self regulation. Self-regulation and active mediation (in other words, giving young people a sense of independence in monitoring their online usage) are shown to be the most effective when trying to make young users more media literate (Akter et al., 2022; Ghosh et al., 2020; Ko et al., 2015; Sangal et al., 2021).
Active communication between not just parents and their children, but also young people and their teachers, educators, colleagues, peers, etc. regarding digital media can help to establish clear parameters and set fair boundaries. A mutually agreed upon “media use agreement” can help establish clear parameters for appropriate times, locations, content type, and monitoring of screen use.

Recommendations for Youth

As I shared in a blog post on the Digital Wellness Lab website, another technique for any digital media user to manage their time wisely online would be what I call “walking in with a purpose”, or in other words going online with an end goal in mind to avoid the trap of aimlessly scrolling for hours and hours. This form of time boxing allows you to have control over your media usage time (Kharkwal, 2024).

Ultimately, increasing digital media literacy across various settings can immensely enhance wellness for young people navigating the digital ecosystem.

Action 2: Increase Media Companies’ Transparency

It is also imperative that there is more transparency promoted by businesses/media companies so all users can navigate the digital world with more awareness and knowledge.

Recommendations

Develop frameworks that provide a more robust online environment to ensure privacy of minors’ as well as intellectual rights of influencers and creators, and then share those frameworks with users by, for instance, having clear accessible guidebooks with such information and/or having feedback forms to take user input into account regarding their privacy.
Minimize data collection about youth unless needed (for instance to ensure minors’ safety) and increase transparency about the extent of data collection.
With the rise of Generative AI being embedded into social media and other digital media platforms (like WhatsApp, Netflix, etc.), there should be increased transparency regarding shortcomings of AI (such as misinformation, bias, stereotypes, and how it collects and uses data).
Include young people in the design process for new applications and/or policies (this will be further discussed in Action 3).

Action 3: Other Policies and Recommendations

Lessen Polarizing Tendency of Algorithms, for Young Users in Particular

Our mindsets define who we are and shape our interactions with those around us. In our interconnected world, it is imperative for individuals, especially adolescents, to have an open mind. However, with the increased use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in social media (algorithms, Generative AI content, etc), it has become difficult for youth to develop a well-aware and open-minded view of the world because social media algorithms are often programmed to continue delivering content based on even a slight inclination towards a specific topic or viewpoint. As a result, their minor tendencies/inclinations escalate and evolve into a more rigid mentality. For example, if a young person were to start off with a slight proclivity towards the side that school uniforms should be mandatory and then searched up content related to that particular perspective just once or twice, then AI driven social media would start delivering content, potentially cementing a more one-sided and polarized view of that person. Therefore, media companies should work to reduce the tendency of social media feeds to deliver skewed information to young people. This will give people the big picture rather than elevating their biased narratives. Youth are at a fragile age where their interactions with the digital world shape them and their future mindset, so it is critical to foster awareness, acceptance and understanding of diverse perspectives.

Increase Collaboration and Representation in Technology Design

Increase the number of diverse contributors (including psychologists, policy experts, ethicists, educators, young people and/or other community stakeholders) in advisory boards of media companies to help with things like: designing media platforms’ features and/or creating media policies to increase accountability, prevent bias, and increase representation.
Establish global collaborations across various sectors (e.g. mental health practitioners, educators, security experts) to prevent things like cyberbullying, privacy risks and more. For example, Discord recently created a partnership with Crisis Text Line providing free mental health support and intervention 24/7 for users. Another potential collaboration could be with government affiliated copyright (IP) organizations to ensure intellectual rights of users are protected.
Increase representation for young people.
- Similar to the earlier discussion of how “body diversity” in the media is beneficial for users, we should continue to promote greater representation and diversity. For example, avoiding job stereotypes for people of certain ethnicities.
- Include young people from different walks of life (rural/urban youth, youth in poverty, youth of different ethnicities, etc.) in the conversations regarding digital media because our media experiences are unique to those of each other, and to adults. This can include inviting young people to digital media focused summits/conferences, youth advisory councils, focus groups, interviews, mass surveys and more. Examples of incorporating youth voices:

Snap’s Youth Advisory Council convened to hear young people’s voices on the digital world. Further adoption of such initiatives is imperative to promote digital wellbeing on a larger scale nationally and worldwide.
Discord’s Charter, which includes expectations that teens have of each other/of the Discord platform and hubs for safety, privacy, transparency and policy. Most notably, this Charter was “created with teens, for teens.”
As the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School works to bridge their research to real-world applications at tech companies and for healthcare providers, it takes youth voices into account through their Student Advisory Council.

Conclusion

Young people need a voice in discourse, policy/decision-making and the design process surrounding the digital world. I seek to direct future actions/policies of diverse stakeholders (including teachers, parents, educators, businesses, policymakers, ethicists, and young people) through the following recommendations:

Increase Digital Media Literacy in schools and at home to promote awareness among youth.
Foster digital media literacy on behalf of businesses and increased transparency.
Develop less extreme algorithms for young users especially given that the adolescent years can significantly mold young minds by shaping mindsets.
Design new features for young users, including establishment of global collaborations to promote wellbeing.
Promote diverse media representation.
Most crucially, bring diverse stakeholders to the tables in designing digital media platforms, features, and/or policies.

According to Brinleigh Murphy-Reuter, Program Administrator at the Digital Wellness Lab, who I recently interviewed on my podcast (episode will be coming out on November 2024):

“We are not going to change [online] outcomes for youth overnight” hence, it is beneficial to focus on digital media education via “interventions we can scale as a nation” that make a “difference on the ground now and would be able to make a difference as we move forward.””

Overall, a more moderate, nuanced, and comprehensive digital media literacy approach seems to be more beneficial than a more extreme fear-centered approach to appeal to a mass audience of diverse people, each with their own set of experiences online. Even when advocating for digital media reform, the goal shouldn’t be instilling fear among people — we want to be action- and solution- oriented.

To sum it up, youth need context surrounding the digital media world and they need to be able to trust those around them as said by danah boyd, a Microsoft Researcher and author, “Fear is not the solution; empathy is” (boyd, 2014).

I urge everyone reading this to continue amplifying youth voices so we can all work to positively and healthily navigate the digital world. Together.

The author of this article is a young person who has been engaging with the Digital Wellness Lab about topics of young people’s safety and wellbeing within digital environments. The opinions and ideas described here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions, research, or recommendations of the Digital Wellness Lab, Boston Children’s Hospital, or associates.