Narrative Matters: Young people, social media and body image
Social media is a ubiquitous element of young people's lives. It was recently reported that for 12to 15 year olds in the UK, 83% have their own smartphone, 99% go online for over 20 hours per week, and 69% have a social media profile (Ofcom, 2018) Many young people do not experience the online/offline binary that characterises the lives of older generations. Social media is a key resource in young people's lives for the development of identities and relationships, as well as emotional regulation, self expression, learning and much more (Third, Bellerose, Oliveira, Lala, Theakstone, 2017) Disconnecting from social media is likely to be a challenge and unthinkable for many contemporary young people. The digital lives of contemporary young people greatly differ from many adults. This has inevitably created challenges for many teachers, parents and clinicians who have a responsibility for young people's health and well being. There is already evidence that many adults feel helpless as they watch youth engaging with the tsunami of digital content and, as a result, they are tending to cede control to technology and social media companies (Goodyear Armour, 2019) All of this suggests that teachers, parents and clinicians require access to the latest evidence based guidance to help protect young people from risk and to embrace the opportunities on offer.
Child and adolescent mental health