Makama Funom Theophilus, Attah James Stephanie, Makama Esther Funom
Human Rights & Global Ethics, School of History, Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
Public Health (International) Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development, Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
Cogent Soc Sci. 2025 Jun 13;11(1):2518437. doi: 10.1080/23311886.2025.2518437. eCollection 2025.
On average, 6 hours 58 minutes are spent on social media everyday by each user, and 98% of young people from ages 15 to 24 use the internet of which 96% are social media users. If used inappropriately, a social media user is at risk of poor mental health and behavioural problems. Also, Problematic social media users are vulnerable to several side effects and are more exposed to social media threats than any other user. Therefore, this study attempts to develop a preventive strategy by firstly, analysing the various approaches that address problematic social media use such as the legal, education and technology strategies. By assessing their strengths and weaknesses, the most effective approach- Social Media Literacy was identified. The second objective of this study is to address the weaknesses of all the approaches analysed, and by using public relations mechanisms, social media literacy was enhanced into a new approach called the Intrinsic Social Media Literacy, ISML. This new approach is not developed to stop other preventive approaches from addressing this issue. It is developed as the main approach in the prevention, and to some degree, the solving of problematic social media use among the young generation globally.
每位用户平均每天花在社交媒体上的时间为6小时58分钟，15至24岁的年轻人中有98%使用互联网，其中96%是社交媒体用户。如果使用不当，社交媒体用户有心理健康不佳和行为问题的风险。此外，有问题的社交媒体用户容易受到多种副作用的影响，并且比其他任何用户更容易受到社交媒体威胁。因此，本研究试图首先通过分析解决有问题的社交媒体使用的各种方法，如法律、教育和技术策略，来制定一种预防策略。通过评估它们的优缺点，确定了最有效的方法——社交媒体素养。本研究的第二个目标是解决所分析的所有方法的弱点，并通过使用公共关系机制，将社交媒体素养提升为一种新的方法，称为内在社交媒体素养（ISML）。开发这种新方法并不是为了阻止其他预防方法解决这个问题。它被开发为预防以及在一定程度上解决全球年轻一代中有问题的社交媒体使用的主要方法。
