Previously published in Psychology Today "Positively Media." When you see the headlines about social media addiction, take a deep breath. Exhale. I know this sounds radical, but don’t go by the news articles. Find the actual study and read it. Don't just read the results; see how the researchers define what they are measuring. This is important because 1) sometimes studies just don’t make sense, 2) sometimes things that are only correlated get reported as being a 'cause', and, 3) the people writing the articles don’t always read the actual studies before they write—even whey they are real journalists. Psychologists, parents, educators and politicians frequently talk about how important it is to teach kids media literacy so they can critically use, produce and evaluate media. Evidence suggests that this is not a skill that should be reserved for the young. There has been a little flurry of news articles and blogs recently about social media addiction. First of all, it … [Read more...]
