鶹Ƶ doctoral student looks at how adolescents’ social media use is associated with the structure of their in-person friendship networks. Her research shows that friendships were more likely among youth with similar levels of problematic social media use and digital status seeking.
“This reflects a social network mechanism known as homophily, which is essentially love of the same, meaning that youth select friends who are similar to themselves in problematic social media use and digital status seeking. By doing this study, we're showing that friendships aren't forming at random, but being shaped in part by digital habits and values that are shared among friendship networks,” said Toth, a graduate research assistant in George 鶹Ƶ’s Program in the .
Her first paper on the topic was recently published at the Journal of Children and Media.
“Adolescence is a very sensitive time for social processing. Teens are very sensitive to social cues,” said Toth, who earned her master’s degree from the same George 鶹Ƶ program in 2021.
Toth’s paper, “Problematic social media use, availability distress, and digital status seeking: Links to friendship network structure among U.S. adolescents,” explores how adolescents use social media to feel connected to others and gain social standing.
“Previous research has mainly examined links between social media use and disrupted sleep, anxiety, and depression. However, as a social networks scholar, I'm really interested in how adolescents’ online behaviors and emotional reactions to social media affect the structure of their friendship network,” Toth said.
This research is especially relevant to Generation Alpha, born between 2010 and 2024. When adolescents select friends who engage in similar problematic online behaviors, the resulting shared emotional thoughts, reactions, and behaviors can start to feel expected and encouraged within these friendship groups, said Toth.
This can be especially harmful because teens use social media to gain popularity and approval. The normalization of problematic online behaviors within friend groups makes them appear necessary for social success, explained Toth.
An example of problematic social media use is excessive use of social media to the point that it impacts your ability to focus on school or work. Within friend groups, adolescents are likely to reinforce this problematic usage because it’s what they see their friends doing. Toth emphasizes that algorithms are becoming more sophisticated and increasing adolescents’ exposure to highly engaging, emotionally charged content, keeping them constantly active online.
“It's critical that we continue to examine the constant feedback loop between the demands of the peer group and adolescents’ own emotional reactions to their online activities, so that we can help adolescents develop better coping mechanisms and survival skills for online life,” she said.
Toth states that interventions focused on improving self-regulation of social media use and emotional regulation show promise in helping young people resist algorithmic content manipulation, and take back control of their social media usage.
Toth and her mentor an associate professor of applied developmental psychology, are collaborating with a public school district in Arizona to understand sources the role of social relationships as sources of risk and resilience in the lives of contemporary youth.
Working out of George 鶹Ƶ’s , Toth and Kornienko are collecting data from ninth-grade students through a series of questions about their social media use, culture, and psychological well-being.
They are collaborating with scholars from University of California, Davis, and Arizona State University, where Kornienko earned her PhD in 2010.
“Our study is not specific to any one social media platform. We were able to capture the broader digital experience that adolescents have online that reflects their everyday life. We hope it will remain relevant to Gen Alpha and beyond because even as individual platforms go in and out of use or new ones pop up, they're still going to have those core aspects of promoting constant engagement and peer feedback,” said Toth.
Toth said that while she didn’t have much experience with academic publishing before coming to graduate school at George 鶹Ƶ, she hit the ground running. “We started [this research project] in my very first semester, so it was a very important part of my professional development working with Dr. Kornienko,” Toth said. “[She taught me about] so many different aspects of peer interaction and networks, social media, and how they're all interconnected.”
“It’s been such a pleasure seeing Caro grow as a researcher and academic,” said Kornienko. “She is addressing a very complex topic and contributing to more positive adolescent experiences.”