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Behind the Scroll: How Teens’ Specific Social Media Behaviors May Impact Their Adjustment

Girl with focus on her hands holding her phone and scrolling


There is widespread attention from parents, teachers, practitioners, and policymakers regarding how teenagers use social media and how it affects their well-being. Much of this attention has focused on the amount of time spent on social media, rather than considering what teenagers are spending that time actually doing. The internet is vast, and teens use it for everything from shopping to playing games to chatting with peers to maybe even doing some homework. My research explores some of the different ways teenagers use social media, with the idea that the type of behavior they are using may have a greater impact on their well-being than simply considering the amount of time they spend. Below, I summarized the findings from a recent paper which explored four specific social media behaviors (self-disclosure, self-presentation, lurking, and social monitoring) and their association with different facets of adolescent adjustment (Swirsky et al., 2021).

  1. Self-disclosure: “sharing personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences” (Valkenburg et al. 2011, p. 253). This may involve posting status updates or leaving comments on a peers’ page or picture. We found that engaging in self-disclosure was associated with higher levels of support from peers, suggesting that posting on social media may be a way for teens to connect, share, and validate each others’ experiences. However, disclosing online is not without risks: girls who self-disclosed at higher rates reported more peer victimization than those who disclosed less. While sharing can lead people to reach out to lend support, it may also leave teens vulnerable to criticism from their peers.
  2. Self-presentation: “selectively presenting aspects of one’s self to others” (Valkenburg & Peter 2011, p. 122). This involves the images and content we post on our pages, essentially it describes the carefully curated image we choose to share with the world via social media. Our findings showed that higher rates of self-presentation were associated with more internalizing (e.g., loneliness) behaviors, perhaps because lots of image curation can lead to looking “fake”. While there were some age and gender differences in this relationship, the overall gist is that trying too hard to get that perfect picture or that perfect image may actually work against you.
  3. Lurking: “randomly scrolling through, reading, or browsing newsfeeds” (Swirsky et al., 2021, p. 2; Underwood & Ehrenreich, 2017). The key word here is “randomly”, lurking is when we scroll through social media with no purpose, just to see what we see. Lurking was actually the most commonly endorsed social media behavior, unsurprisingly, teens are lurking at relatively high rates. While lurking is “typical” to some extent, too much lurking may leave teens vulnerable to comparing themselves against their peers or other people online (e.g., celebrities, influencers). This comparison to idealized images on social media can lead teens to feel lonely or depressed, as they often end up seeing themselves in a negative light compared to others.
  4. Social monitoring: “checking one’s own social media pages for peer attention or monitoring what others have posted with a specific purpose” (Swirsky et al., 2021, p. 2). Unlike lurking (which is random), we use social monitoring when we have a specific goal, such as checking to see if a post received any likes, or looking at a peers’ page to see what they are up to. Social monitoring was not associated with any adjustment outcomes - either positive or negative. Perhaps when a teenager deliberately checks a friend’s page to see if they were left out, there may be some degree of mental preparation for what they might find. This preparation may then help protect them from feeling as hurt as if they had stumbled across the exclusion by accident.

The main thing to remember is that how teens use social media probably matters more than just how much time they spend on it. To be clear, I am not saying we should ignore screen time all together. Problems like lost sleep, weight gain from being sedentary, and blue light from screens are real and important. But in the end, it is crucial for parents, teachers, and mental health professionals to understand the different ways teens interact online so they can help them reap the benefits while hopefully avoiding the downsides.

References

Swirsky, J. M., Rosie, M., & Xie, H. (2021). Adjustment correlates of social media engagement among early adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50(12), 2265-2278. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01421-3 

Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2011). Online communication among adolescents: an integrated model of its attraction, opportunities, and risks. Journal of Adolescent Health, 48(2), 121–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2010.08.020

Underwood, M. K., & Ehrenreich, S. E. (2017). The power and the pain of adolescents’ digital communication: Cyber victimization and the perils of lurking. American Psychologist, 72(2), 144. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0040429

Jill Swirsky
Assistant Professor

Psychology | School of Arts & Sciences

Headshot of professor Jill Swirsky

Dr. Jill Swirsky is a psychologist with a diverse array of experiences and interests. She earned dual undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Gender Studies from Drew University, but always knew she wanted to pursue advanced study in Psychology. After working in the field for a few years as a BCaBA and research assistant, she earned her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Temple University.

Dr. Swirsky is currently pursuing a few distinct lines of research: 1) adolescent social development (e.g., bullying, victimization, social media, popularity); 2) feminism and gender roles (e.g., women's marital name choices); and 3) using popular culture to teach about psychology. She teaches several of the department's developmental courses (e.g., Child Development, Adolescent Development, Family Violence), as well as other courses in the major (e.g., the Psychology of Popular Culture, Introduction to Psychology, and Senior Seminar). She enjoys getting involved with student life, including advising clubs, mentoring honors students, and attending events on campus. 

In her (admittedly limited!) free time, Dr. Swirsky loves binge watching Netflix with her partner, Mike; reading fantasy novels; baking muffins; and swimming with otters.