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Social Media Use in Adolescents: Bans, Benefits, and Emotion Regulation Behaviors
Kelsey McAlister;
Clare Beatty;
Jacqueline Smith-Caswell;
Jacqlyn Yourell;
Jennifer Huberty
ABSTRACT
Social media is an integral part of adolescent’s daily lives, but the significant time adolescents invest in social media has raised concern about the effect on their mental health. Bans on social media use are quickly emerging as an attempt to regulate social media use, however evidence supporting their effectiveness is limited, and adolescents experience several benefits from social media. Rather than enforcing bans, emotion regulation should be leveraged to help adolescents navigate the online social environment. This viewpoint paper proposes a nuanced approach towards regulating adolescent social media use by 1) discontinuing the use of ineffective bans, 2) recognizing the benefits social media use can have, and 3) fostering emotion regulation skills in adolescents to encourage the development of self-regulation.