THE potential for being judged online could be affecting the ability of adolescents to concentrate on everyday tasks, a study by UNSW Sydney researchers has found.
The researchers of the study published in the Scientific Reports constructed a situation that mimicked the threat of being assessed or judged by peers online, a feeling that often follows posting or interacting on social media.
Dr Susanne Schweizer, a psychologist from UNSW Sydney and her team asked participants prior to completing an online learning task to record an audio clip introducing themselves.
Participants were then told that their audio clips would be listened to and evaluated by others online.
During the online learning task, there was a 'views and comments tracker' at the end of the screen.
Dr Schweizer explained that "participants didn't know what recordings were being viewed or commented on, nor did they know whether the comments were positive or negative.
"This was to make it analogue to what it's like in real life - when you have to do a task, you can't track what's happening online, but you know there will be a level of evaluation," Dr Schweizer said.
The study was completed by 225 people, aged 10-24 years, who were also asked to rate their anxiety and stress levels at various points throughout the process.
Results revealed that all the participants documented a greater increase in negative mood following social evaluative threat compared to the control condition.
The threat of social evaluation also led to reduced accuracy in completing the online task.
"There's been a 52% increase in time spent online by young people during the pandemic.
"It's important now, more than ever, to assess how it impacts learning and wellbeing," said Dr Schweizer.
"Our research showed that when young people thought that others might be evaluating them, they felt upset and their ability to perform a basic cognitive task was impaired.
"Assuming these findings reflect the impact of online social evaluation, then these results are concerning."
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