Beyond Screen Time: Identity Development in the Digital Age

Abstract

We are in the midst of a global transition in which digital "screens" are no longer simply entertainment devices and distractions; rather, adolescents are currently living in a hybrid reality that links digital spaces to offline contexts. Yet, psychological scientists studying the mental health impact of digital experiences largely focus on correlations with "screen time," leading to oversimplified and atheoretical conclusions. We propose an alternative, functional approach to studying adolescent mental health in the digital age, one that examines why and how digital media affect adolescent development. Specifically, we suggest that understanding identity development-the core developmental task of adolescence-can help pinpoint the digital experiences that contribute to healthy versus problematic mental health outcomes. We have four objectives: (1) integrate principles from clinical and personality psychology with developmental theory to present a theoretical framework for investigating narrative identity; (2) show how this framework provides a useful lens for evaluating the impact of digital media on adolescents; (3) suggest a set of novel hypotheses that specify what kinds of digital contexts and experiences lead to healthy versus problematic mental health outcomes; and (4) propose a detailed research agenda that tests these hypotheses.

The Perfect Storm: A Developmental–Sociocultural Framework for the Role of Social Media in Adolescent Girls’ Body Image Concerns and Mental Health

“…In the decades since these theories above were introduced, SM has become a primary source through which young women receive and transmit information about beauty standards and engage in self-objectification and social comparison. Theoretical perspectives on SM have increasingly moved away from considerations of specific sites or platforms, and instead have emphasized an "affordances" approach-i.e., considering specific facets of SM that impact individuals' experiences (boyd, 2010;Granic et al, 2020;Moreno & Uhls, 2019). The idea that the features of online environments shape individuals' experiences and behaviors has a long tradition in computer-mediated communication (CMC) theories, which rely on the assumption that individual communication patterns are "mediated" by the technological context in which they occur (see Walther, 2011).…”

“…However, the framework does not explicitly address all of the conceptual and empirical complexities inherent to understanding SM's influence on body image, depression, and disordered eating. For example, there are likely to be numerous benefits of SM for adolescent girls' mental health-including opportunities for social connection, creative expression, and identity exploration (Granic et al, 2020;Rideout & Robb, 2018).…”

“…An emerging body of work has documented associations between adolescents' use of SM and heightened body image concerns (e.g., de Vries et al, 2016;Fardouly et al, 2020;Marengo et al, 2018;Rodgers et al, 2020), and has found higher levels of SM-related appearance and body image concerns among girls compared to boys (e.g., Fardouly et al, 2020;Nesi et al, in press;Rodgers et al, 2020;Zimmer-Gembeck et al, 2021). Yet this work is often strikingly absent from prevailing atheoretical and oversimplified "screen time" debates (see Granic et al, 2020). Thus, the field has lacked a unifying theoretical framework for understanding the exacerbation of body image concerns as a potential mechanism underlying associations between adolescent girls' SM use and mental health.…”

“…Second, these outcomes have received extensive research attention in the context of adolescent girls' and young women's SM use (e.g., Saunders & Eaton, 2018;Twenge & Farley, 2020;Wilksch et al, 2020), although rarely while examining the mechanistic role of body image concerns. Notably, there may be important ways in which SM use positively influences adolescent girls' body image and mental health (see, for example, Granic et al, 2020;Rideout & Robb, 2018). Our goal in this paper is not to argue that the effects of SM on mental health are exclusively negative.…”

Can a Commercial Video Game Prevent Depression? Null Results and Whole Sample Action Mechanisms in a Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Narrative identity — a person’s life story that provides them with meaning and coherence — has been theorized to be essential for mental health ( McAdams and McLean, 2013 ). Research on narrative development has shown that those who ascribe more redemptive meaning to suffering in their narrative identity (i.e., negative events are redeemed by causing or being followed by a positive event) have greater mental health and those finding more examples of personal agency over the course of treatment had greater mental health improvements ( McAdams et al, 2001 ; Adler, 2012 ; Adler et al, 2015 ; Granic et al, 2020 ). Relatedly, hope and optimism are negatively associated with depressive symptoms ( Alarcon et al, 2013 ) and Irving et al (2004) showed that increases in hope positively predicted symptom improvement early in treatment.…”