University of Michigan Health experts, with the help of MyVoice data, have launched an easy-to-follow and free “Social Media Mini Course,” which walks social media users through key settings on different social media platforms that people can change to make their experience more positive, and less risky.
The mini course is available through the Instagram account @socialmediaminicourse, or directly, as an interactive webpage.
“We’re thrilled that data gathered through the MyVoice Nationwide Poll of Youth is being used to help young people think about their use of social media and how it may be affecting their overall well-being,” said Tammy Chang, MD, MPH, MS, MyVoice director and associate professor of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan.
“Young people said they want tools to control what they see, and prefer not to see, on social media,” she added. “We’re glad that our work is helping to make it that much easier for all people to control their settings on social media.”
A link in the Instagram account’s bio leads to a page of even more information and free tools, as well as to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
The settings featured in the mini course – from disabling ‘like’ counts on Instagram to refreshing the ‘For You’ feed on TikTok – disrupt some potentially harmful properties of the platforms for young minds.
The toolkit also walks users through scenarios of how social media use can affect mood, self-image, sleep patterns, and more. It also asks them to reflect on their own use and what they might want to change.
The team tested the mini course with young people. They also included in the course quotes of advice from participants in the MyVoice study of youth, which has done text-message-based polling on social media and many other topics in teens and young adults since it was established in 2019.
U-M C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital child and adolescent psychiatrist Jane Harness, D.O., helped lead the mini course development and testing.
“We are all certainly constrained by the settings offered and the design of the platforms themselves,” she said. “We have been able to introduce new information to young people about turning off the like counts, refreshing the For You or Explore pages, setting time limits and changing the content they are presented with on social media, but so much more could be done.”
Discussions about social media use between parents and young people, or among young people, are crucial, she said.
“Some young people use these features and settings, as we showed in our study several years ago, while others are not aware they exist,” said Harness, who is an adjunct faculty member in the U-M Medical School Department of Psychiatry.
“A growing concern also includes AI chatbots,” she said, which may play a role in suicidal thoughts or the onset of signs of psychosis.
The team behind the mini course acknowledges that social media can have positive effects for young people if used in moderation and with safety settings on – for example, connecting them with friends, family and a wider world of information and views.
They hope their mini course will help families, young people and any social media user navigate the online world more safely.
In addition to Harness, the social media mini course was created by clinical child psychologist Sarah E. Domoff, Ph.D., of the University at Albany; child psychiatrist Heide Rollings, M.D. and Amy Mancuso, LMSW of Michigan State University and Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services in Grand Rapids, Mich.; and clinical psychologist Jessica Schleider, Ph.D., of Northwestern University.
Mini course evaluation was funded by the University of Michigan Medical School Research Scouts program and the Todd Ouida Clinical Scholars Award from the U-M Eisenberg Family Depression Center.
If you or someone you know is having a mental health crisis, including thoughts of suicide, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via phone, text and webchat. Call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org.
Read the original story on the Michigan Medicine Health Lab blog.
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