Exploring the impact of social media short-form videos on adolescents’ psychological and psychosocial well-being

Steinhardt, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, United States

^* Corresponding author: ww1423@nyu.edu

Abstract

This research paper examines the positive and negative impacts of social media short-form videos on adolescents’ psychological and psychosocial well-being. In most circumstances, parents and schoolteachers would equal the usage of social media with bad influences and results to their children and students. However, with the rapid development of social media, it is easily accessible to everyone, including adolescents as one of the major user groups. They choose to use social media to meet their certain needs and gratifications. So, there should be some positive impacts that go along with the usage of social media, particularly the short-form videos. Incorporating responses from interviews, this study demonstrates that the short-form videos on social media have both positive and negative impacts. Positive impacts play an important role on the usage of social media, which includes improving recognition level, enhancing social interactive skills, relieving stress level, etc. The adolescents’ social media dependency is not as heavy as most of the adults assume. This paper puts forward several suggestions to allow adolescents to use social media, especially short-form videos, benefiting their psychological and psychosocial well-being to the most and prevent short-form video addiction.