Teens in landmark trial to quit social media admit they are 'scared'

For 14-year-old Imogen, spending seven hours a day scrolling through social media is just normal. She is online with her friends every day before and after school, and admits it feels like she is "always on her phone". For the next six weeks, however, her digital life is about to be drastically altered. She is one of over 200 pupils at Appleton Academy in Wyke who are taking part in a landmark research project that will see them dramatically limit their time on popular apps. The trial, named IRL (In Real Life), is set to provide crucial insights into how these platforms truly affect young people's minds.

A landmark study

The IRL trial, which has been organised by the Bradford Centre for Health Data Science, is believed to be the first major scientific study of its kind. It will explore the impact on young people of regularly using apps like Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube and X, formerly known as Twitter. Researchers will closely monitor levels of anxiety, depression, and sleep quality among the participants. The study will also measure impacts on real-world issues like bullying and the amount of quality time spent with friends and family away from screens. The initial research involves more than 200 pupils, with a much larger project involving about 4,000 children planned for later this year. To manage the experiment, the teenagers have downloaded a special app onto their phones, which enforces a range of time limits and a strict nighttime curfew.

'It's such a big part of my life'

While Imogen says she would like to cut down on her screen time, she admits she is feeling "scared" at the prospect of being limited to just two hours a day. Her classmate, Aisha, shares her anxiety, saying she thinks the trial will be "really hard". Her comment highlights a growing trend among her generation. "The only way I talk to my friends outside of school is on my phone, I don't go and meet them," she says. This experience is reflected in wider data, which shows that between 2003 and 2022, in-person socialising among teenagers dropped by over 45 per cent.

The shift towards digitally-based friendships has created new challenges. Lucia, 15, who normally spends four hours a day on social media, is preparing to adjust to a limit of just one hour. "It's such a big part of my life at the minute," she explains. The trial has already forced her to confront the nature of her modern friendships. "I was thinking about ways to reduce my screen time and realised that I don't actually have the phone numbers of some of my friends. I only have them on Snapchat or Instagram. So, it was a challenge to then say to these people, can I actually have your phone number so we can still like talk?"

The rules of the trial

The experiment has different rules for different age groups to allow for comparison. Pupils in Year 10, aged 14-15, face the strictest limits, being asked to use social media for just one hour a day. Those in Year 9, aged 13-14, will be limited to two hours a day. All participants in these groups must adhere to a "digital curfew," with no social media use permitted between 21:00 and 07:00. To provide a control group for the study, pupils in Year 8, aged 12-13, will be asked to continue with their normal, unrestricted use. Declan, another participant, noted how the one-hour restriction will even affect his schoolwork. "When I'm at home, for my revision, I just go straight to TikTok, because I know I can find it on there. Really, it's everyday life now, for everyone," he says.

A wider social concern

Dr John Pickavance, the lead scientist on the trial, says the reaction from students has been deeply divided. "We've had it all. We've had whooping and hollering, with some really excited about participating in world first research," he says. "But then, naturally, we've had a lot of uncertainty and anxiety." He acknowledges that these apps are "at the centre of young people's lives" and that changing these deep-rooted habits will be "incredibly challenging". The study comes as the government itself is consulting on an outright ban on under-16s using social media and has already moved to introduce a legal ban on smartphones in schools in England. Experts are increasingly concerned about a "loneliness epidemic," with a World Health Organization report identifying 13 to 17-year-olds as the loneliest age group, despite being more connected online than ever before.

Dr Pickavance insists the study is not too late to inform policy. As governments consider blanket measures, he says "it's important we understand, not at the individual level, but at the population level, what those effects would be."