According to research, social media may affect the wellbeing of girls and boys at different ages.
The psychologists found that girls who increased their time on social media between the ages of 11 and 13 were less satisfied with their lives one year later.
There was no correlation between social media use and wellbeing at other ages, except for 19 years old, when life satisfaction for both sexes dropped.
Dr Amy Orben, an experimental psychologist and first author on the study at the University of Cambridge, said there are certain ages which differ between the sexes.
The aim of the work was to shed light on whether the rise of social media has played a role in increasing levels of mental health problems in young people. The number of children aged five to 16 with a suspected mental health problem has risen by 50% over the last two years, suggesting that about five children in every classroom are now affected.
Orben and her colleagues analysed data from 84,000 people who were between the ages of 10 and 80 years old. Information on people's mental health and wellbeing and their reported use of social media were captured.
The researchers found that social media use was linked to a drop in life satisfaction a year on, while low life satisfaction was linked to greater social media use the year after. The findings can't be used to predict how someone will respond to social media.
The study doesn't prove that social media harms wellbeing, but the researchers think there may be windows of vulnerability for boys and girls. It may take some time to nail down the mechanisms for the broad and complex changes that occur in adolescence.
Prof Yvonne Kelly, who was not involved in the study, said the findings confirmed what she and others had shown, including that higher rates of depression among girls were linked to more time on social media.
It isn't possible to know what is going on for young people when they are online, which is one of the challenges with using information about the amount of time spent on social media.
We need more detailed, nuanced data about people's online experiences to make changes to improve young people's wellbeing. This kind of information, held by social media companies, will help us better understand any processes that are at play.
The co-author of the study and a psychologist at the University of Cambridge said it is helpful to set rules on when children use social media so that it does not interfere with their sleep. She said it was important to educate them about the range of issues they might encounter, such as not being invited to parties, social pressure, and images that might upset them.
The study showed that girls are more sensitive to the impact of social than boys.
Important next steps are to understand from the adolescent perspective what benefits and challenges social media offers, so that we can build on this evidence that measures social media in hours per day, to develop a well-rounded view of the opportunities and barriers that today.
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