Early social media use may harm academic performance, Italian study suggests

Children who create social media accounts at the beginning of adolescence, specifically between ages 11 and 12, appear to achieve lower scores in Italian and mathematics tests compared to those who wait until age 14 or later. This finding emerges from a study involving 5,227 Italian students, published in Nature Human Behaviour.

The research, led by the University of Milan-Bicocca, analyzed survey data on social media habits across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, collected between 2023 and 2024. This data was correlated with standardized test results in Italian, English, and mathematics for students in northern Italy. The study found that the performance gap in Italian and math for early adopters was equivalent to about six months of schooling by the time students reached ages 15 and 16.

Interestingly, the study did not find similar differences in English language test scores. However, students who reported checking their phones more frequently were more likely to have opened social media accounts earlier. These students also tended to have less parental supervision regarding their social media use.

While the study is observational and cannot establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship, the researchers propose that excessive social media use and the resulting distractions could be responsible for the observed differences in academic performance. The authors stress that these findings, given the sensitive and polarized nature of the topic, should be interpreted with care and responsibility.