Teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to exhibit behaviors associated with addiction to social networks like Facebook and Instagram, an international study including a Montreal researcher shows.

For example, teens might cite discomfort in the absence of social media, unsuccessful attempts to reduce the time they spend on these apps, and reliance on social media to escape negative feelings.

The researchers felt that young people who described at least six behaviors associated with addiction might have had a problem.

The authors of the study interviewed nearly 180,000 young people in about forty countries, giving them an overall picture of the situation. In particular, this allowed them to see that the problem was particularly present in schools where the economic differences between students were more pronounced.

“We’re not talking about poverty in the absolute sense of the word,” said one of the study’s authors, Professor Frank Elgar of McGill University. We talk about what it’s like to be “the poor kid at school”, your relative position in relation to other students or the people around you.

We know that social media can reflect a glitzy and luxurious lifestyle, and the researchers wanted to know if this might have an impact on young people who are disadvantaged – or see themselves as disadvantaged.

They weren’t interested in metrics like the number of hours young people spend online each day, but how they feel when they can’t check their virtual status or read their messages.

“And we found that a more unequal environment and greater relative poverty seem to be more associated with this compulsive use [des réseaux sociaux]and that’s consistent with other work we’ve done on adolescent mental health,” Elgar said.

This compulsive use does not seem to have its roots in poverty as such, he said, but in the gap between rich and poor, in inequality between social classes.

And social media use isn’t the only worrisome aspect highlighted by this school survey that Canada and other countries conduct every four years: Virtually all aspects of health, behavior, emotional health, and social functioning appear to be linked to inequality. and in a way that is not positive, said Elgar.

“The further you go down the social level, the more you come across these issues, including social media use,” he said. Wherever there is a large gap between rich and poor, these problems are more common.”

Professor Elgar points out that teenagers are very concerned about their social position and the image they project, which could explain, or at least partly, why disadvantaged young people seem to be particularly vulnerable.

“Young people are often afraid of missing out,” he says. And in this case, the disadvantaged feel that they don’t have the same opportunities as others.

This then fuels anger, fear of the future and resentment that resonate online, Elgar said.

By being constantly bombarded with images of luxury and celebrity, he added, we inevitably end up looking at our own lives and feeling uncomfortable — or just wanting to scream.

“Social media is not a bad thing,” concluded Professor Elgar. You are neutral. But in the face of compulsive use, its benefits are becoming more difficult to perceive, and seem to be particularly intense among disadvantaged youth.

The results of this study were published by the scientific journal Information, communication and society.