Children today are ‘just as sociable’ as previous generations despite spending hours on social media and glued to smartphone screens
- Experts studied assessments of children aged five to 11 by parents and teachers
- The study compared children starting school in 1998 with those starting in 2010
- They found that screen time and social media had no impact on their social skills
Despite spending hours glued to a smartphone or on social media, children born today are just as sociable as the generations that came before them, a study has found.
Researchers from Ohio State University looked at evaluations of children who turned five in 1996 and those who reached that age in 2010.
They used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study featuring evaluations of more than 25,000 children written by both parents and teachers.
The Ohio team looked through the evaluations and found that time spent on screens had little to no impact on a child’s social skills despite an increase in screen time.
Despite spending hours glued to a smartphone or on social media, children born today are just as sociable as the generations that came before them, a study finds. Stock image
The study featured children who started school in 1998 – six years before Facebook launched – and those who began school in 2010, when the first iPad debuted.
Lead author Professor Douglas Downey said every comparison between the two groups saw social skills remain the same or actually improve for the later group.
‘There’s very little evidence that screen exposure was problematic for the growth of social skills,’ Downey said.
Children were assessed by teachers six times between the start of kindergarten and the end of fifth grade with three assessments from their parents.
They found that children’s social skills did not decline between 1998 and 2010 groups and were rated similarly on interpersonal skills, such as the ability to form and maintain friendships and get along with people who are different.
Surprisingly, they also found children’s interpersonal skills and self-control tended to be slightly higher for those in the 2010 group than those in the 1998.
They were also rated similarly on self-control, such as the ability to regulate their temper.
Children within the two groups who used the screens for longer periods showed similar development in social skills compared to those with little screen time.
Interestingly, kids who accessed online gaming and social networking sites several times had slightly lower social skills – but this was a very small effect.
‘Overall, we found very little evidence that the time spent on screens was hurting social skills for most children,’ said Downey.
He said there was a tendency for older people in every generation to have concerns about the younger groups.
Two groups were compared as part of the study – the first group were born in 1998, six years before Facebook launched at the same time Windows 98 was the dominant operating system
The second group were born in 2010 the same year the first iPad was debuted by Steve Jobs and when Uber had only been going for a year
Downey described this as ‘an old story’ involving ‘moral panic’ over new types of technology and its impact on the youth of the day.
‘The introduction of telephones, automobiles, radio all led to moral panic among adults of the time because the technology allowed children to enjoy more autonomy.
‘Fears over screen-based technology likely represent the most recent panic in response to technological change,’ said Downey.
If anything, new generations are learning that having good social relationships means being able to communicate successfully both face-to-face and online, Downey said.
‘You have to know how to communicate by email, on Facebook and Twitter, as well as face-to-face,’ the lead author added.
‘We just looked at face-to-face social skills in this study, but future studies should look at digital social skills as well.’
The research has been published in the American Journal of Sociology.