What is the #So.Me study?
#So.Me is a three year study (February 2023 - January 2026) that will work with young people aged 11-22. We will develop a new questionnaire to measure social media experience, including how this relates to mental health.
#So.Me will:
Champion young people throughout the study as both co-researchers and research participants
Draw on the views of experts in social media and mental health to design the measure
Measure development drawing on a range of data including novel smart phone data
Make the measure freely available for other national and international researchers to use
Why is the #So.Me study needed?
The increased use of social media amongst young people has attracted lots of attention - from the public, media and government. This has led to growing concerns about its impact on young people’s mental health. However, we don’t really have any strong evidence to support this.
One of the biggest problems is that researchers are using different approaches to find out about young people’s experiences of using social media, and these approaches are not satisfactory. A ‘measure’*, or questionnaire, is often used to capture young people’s experiences. However, different questionnaires are being used, and they have often been poorly designed.
*a measure is a questionnaire that includes a number of questions that participants answer by indicating their agreement using a range of scores, for example 0-5, where 0 means “I disagree” and 5 means “I agree”.
What’s the problem?
We looked at questionnaires that researchers use and found three key issues:
1.Missing youth voice
Most measures were developed without asking young people what their views and experiences are. This means that social media measures are being developed without young people having an input. How can we be sure we are asking the right things if we do not consider their views?
2.Based on addiction measures
Many measures focus on “addictive social media”, but we do not yet know if social media is “addictive”. The questions used in these measures are based on nicotine dependence and gambling addiction. Assuming these things are the same can lead to misleading conclusions.
3.Lack of rigorous testing
Most measures were not developed in a way that is rigorous. researchers have failed to thoroughly test the measure to make sure that they work as they should, and that they actually measure young people’s experiences.
How will we improve these issues?
#So.Me is happening in five phases. Each phase includes a number of ‘mini studies’ to collect data that will inform the development of the measure.
The data collected in the individual phases will enable us to create a measure of social media experience with young people, for young people, and based on their experiences. It will be robustly validated to ensure that what we learn through the measure can be useful to help us understand how young people experience social media, and what aspects are potentially problematic, risky or beneficial.
Who is conducting the #So.Me study?
#So.Me is being led by a team at Manchester Institute of Education at the University of Manchester (UoM). It is funded by UK Research and Innovation.
The UoM is teaming up with the University of Bath, who bring expertise in digital assessment, digital tracking and machine learning.
The study is collaborating with Common Room, a consultancy organisation that engage young people as partners in research, policy and service improvement around mental health. Through Common Room, #So.Me has the benefit of three Young Advisors on the study team who directly input into all study stages and overall project governance.
Childnet International are partners in the study, providing advice and guidance, and supporting the translation of the research findings into guidelines and advice on social media use.
The study will also convene an Advisory Group who will meet twice a year, made up of individuals with expertise and interest in the project outputs. You can find out more about the members of the Advisory Group here.
