Digital Engagement and Academic Functioning

Abstract

Abstract. Since the turn of the millennium, the digital revolution has opened a new layer of opportunities for adolescents to participate, create and learn. Simultaneously there has been growth in both debate and worries regarding how the intensive engagement with digital media affects students’ academic performance, engagement, and school-related well-being, that is, academic functioning. Students’ continuously evolving digital practices are not always in congruence with the more traditional ways of schoolwork. Students flourish and fulfill their potential when the informal and formal practices of learning reach congruence, but when this is not the case, frictions can emerge. Spending time with digital media can provide new avenues for learning and development, but it can equally well divert young people from their studies or increase the daily demands. In this narrative review, we address these continuities and discontinuities between engagement with digital media and academic functioning for school-aged children and young people, focusing on meta-analyses, reviews, and key studies. Following the examination of the current literature, we conclude that, in general, the field of “digital media effects” needs to move beyond screen time and utilize the research on the students’ multidimensional socio-digital engagement already conducted. Second, we conclude that the average effects of digital engagement on academic functioning are negligibly small but heterogeneous, further corroborating the claim to examine the qualitative differences in students’ digital engagement, the individual differences between students, as well as the contextual interplay.

Intraindividual associations between active social media use, exhaustion, and bedtime vary according to age—A longitudinal study across adolescence

“…These findings are important, as adolescents who develop unhealthy sleeping habits could be at risk of school burnout (May et al, 2020). To some extent and for some adolescents, social media use is associated with academic well‐being; however, the mechanism appears to be more complex than the common explanation that time spent on social media reduces time spent sleeping and thus increases psychological ill‐being (Hietajärvi et al, 2022).…”

“…Spending time on social media has become an integral part of life and does not necessarily constitute an additional daily activity that reduced the time spent on other tasks. On average, however, long and frequent checking of social media before bedtime can increase general cognitive arousal, which may interfere with the process of falling asleep (Alonzo et al, 2020); however, an individual's tendency to worrying, their ability to cope with social interactions, and their developmental stage should also be considered as relevant factors (Hietajärvi et al, 2022).…”

“…The results clearly indicated that active social media use did not appear to have a strong overall effect on exhaustion or bedtimes. However, the effects of social media use on psychological well‐being may be stronger for some adolescents; thus, further studies should focus on identifying the relevant moderators (Hietajärvi et al, 2022; Ito et al, 2020). The present study focused more on the lack of academic well‐being among adolescents; hence, future research should include the positive aspects.…”

“…It would be useful, for example, to consider social dimensions such as connectedness to peers and the school community. It would also be beneficial to investigate the many mechanisms and psychological aspects that potentially shed light on the extent to which screen‐based activities constitute an antecedent or a consequence of academic well‐being and sleeping habits; additional research should also investigate how the various contextual factors moderate any associations (Dickson et al, 2019; Hietajärvi et al, 2022). Future studies should also focus on precise research designs and measures and the advancement of data collection procedures.…”

Positive Effects of Digital Technology Use by Adolescents: A Scoping Review of the Literature

“…This literature review employs the term digital engagement to capture youth’s “quotidian digital and online activity” and “the digital world”. Like digital media, digital engagement is “a broad concept of digital participation, which is not dependent on a specific technological device, platform, or tool” [ 17 ] (p. 102). An important aspect of adolescents’ and young adults’ digital engagement is captured by the concept of socio-digital participation (SDP) [ 18 ], which refers to participation in socio-digital activities via socio-digital technologies, defined as “the integrated systems of novel technological tools, social media, and the internet that enable constant and intensive online interaction with information, people, and artifacts” [ 19 ] (p. 16).…”