BC Council for Families

by Pilar Onatra
Program Coordinator

It's fast becoming one of the biggest cliches of 21st century parenting:  parents worried that their kids spend too much time online.  We hear about it a lot, but that's because for many parents texting, online chatting and other social media activities are huge concerns. How much time online is too much? Are social media activities healthy for kids' emotional and social development?  Does it prevent them from establishing face-to-face relationships successfully?

For adults worried about the effects of online activities on teens, a recent study published by the American Psychological Association may help.  Researchers found that blogging may have psychological benefits for teens suffering from social anxiety, improving their self-esteem and helping them relate better to their friends.

Previous research has shown that young people can benefit from writing which involves an element of emotional venting and problem solving. Writing a journal, or other forms of creative writing, offers the writer a chance to release emotional distress. Blogging and other on-line activities can add to this effect by allowing the users to establish a social connection where their feelings and thoughts can be acknowledged by others.

In the study, teens with an identified level of social anxiety or distress were asked to blog about their feelings twice a week for ten weeks, while others were asked to keep private diaries, or to do nothing. The researchers assessed the teens' self-esteem, everyday social activities and behaviors before, immediately after and two months after the 10-week experiment.  Among their findings::

• Self-esteem, social anxiety, emotional distress and the number of positive social behaviors improved significantly for the bloggers when compared to the teens who did nothing and those who wrote private diaries.
• Bloggers who were instructed to write specifically about their difficulties and whose blogs were open to comments improved the most. All of these results were consistent at the two-month follow-up.  
• Although cyber bullying and online abuse are a reality, researchers noted that almost all responses to the participants' blog messages were supportive and positive.

"Research has shown that writing a personal diary and other forms of expressive writing are a great way to release emotional distress and just feel better," lead author Meyran Boniel-Nissim, of the University of Haifa, said in a news release on the study. "Teens are online anyway, so blogging enables free expression and easy communication with others."