Think about your relationship with the internet. Do you think the online world makes your life better or worse? How about your students? Do you think their lives are better for having access to the web?
In a recent global study looking at internet use and wellbeing, researchers found that “having (mobile) internet access or actively using the internet predicted eight wellbeing outcomes”.
The sample covers more than 2.4 million people (from teenagers to older adults) across 168 countries, from 2006 to 2021, and the study explores their internet use and eight indicators of wellbeing: life satisfaction, daily negative and positive experiences, two indices of social wellbeing, physical wellbeing, community wellbeing and sense of purpose.
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It found that 84.9 per cent had positive associations between the internet and wellbeing, increasing to 96.4 per cent for life satisfaction.
“Across those eight different indicators, in the vast majority of the world’s countries, it is the case that people who have access to the internet report greater levels of wellbeing,” explains Matti Vuorre, one of the report’s authors and assistant professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
But this is not the message young people typically receive about the internet from adults, either at school or at home.
Instead, they are more likely to be told that the internet is a dangerous place that risks robbing them of their innocence, their focus and their social skills.
So, should we reconsider the way we speak about the online world to students?
Professor Vuorre says that he was surprised to find that, across the thousands of ways they analysed the data, results were consistently in favour of a positive relationship between internet use and access and wellbeing indicators.
A mixed picture
But other findings have been less positive. The 2018 Pisa results, for example, found that, on average, students who reported being “not satisfied” with life spent the most time on the internet outside of school.
It found that across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in 2018, the average 15-year-old student who reported being “not satisfied” with life spent 29 hours per week on the internet outside of school, while students who reported being at least “moderately satisfied” with life spent 26 hours per week (or less) on the internet.
That there is contrasting evidence of the impact of the internet is no surprise, as it is an incredibly tricky area to investigate, particularly around the difficulty of isolating internet usage from other variables.
“We have to recognise that young people live their lives seamlessly online and offline, unlike older generations, who see them as separate things,” says Dr Sophie King-Hill, associate professor in the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham.
And that brings complexity to young people’s feelings about their online experiences, particularly around social media. In a 2022 survey of social media use among 1,300 teens in the US, some 80 per cent said it makes them feel more connected to their friends, while 71 per cent found it to be a place to explore their creativity and 67 per cent felt it offered them support in tough times. But 38 per cent said that they feel overwhelmed by social media “drama”, while 23 per cent said it made them feel worse about their lives.
Exploring the nuance
But how far is this nuance reflected in the way schools are asked to talk about the internet? Teaching on the internet can be found in subjects such as relationships, sex and health education (RSE), citizenship and computing, as well as PSHE.
The Department for Education’s statutory guidance on RSE highlights that schools should teach what healthy and respectful online relationships look like; this is phrased with positive language but there is a clear focus on teaching young people to recognise the potential harms of connecting online.
Cerys Walker, digital provision leader at Turner Schools in Kent, explains that there are particular dangers - and, as such, necessary negative messages - around online communication that schools have a duty to cover, such as sexting and sending explicit images.
“Teenagers often live in the moment, so getting them to understand the ramifications of their current actions is an important part of their education for using the internet,” she says.
But educating parents is also important, she continues, including around how to have better conversations about internet use, as the majority of unsafe internet use takes place at home.
Megan Dixon, a doctoral student and associate lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, argues that more classroom time should be given to learning about the internet, noting that it is “remarkable that it is not a consistent feature of our curriculum, given the prevalence of usage and the role the internet now plays in all aspects of our society”.
She would like to see a greater focus for students on how to find and consume trustworthy online material, she says, along with a focus on teaching critical literacy skills.
Kate Hewson, director of school improvement at Consilium Academies, likewise proposes that the PSHE curriculum should equip students with essential internet skills to aid life satisfaction, such as finding information, booking appointments and registering to vote, while also teaching critical thinking, online security and screen time management to balance the benefits and risks of digital life.
For Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, such curriculum and safeguarding developments will require considerable input from young people themselves “to protect the positive aspects of technology that are highly valued, while also shaping meaningful guidelines to prevent harm”.
Katherine Tyler, safeguarding and welfare officer at Globeducate, agrees that staff must listen to young people’s experiences and views, as well as continue to “educate ourselves”.
So while internet teaching in schools is currently skewed to the negative, warning pupils of the adverse consequences and potential harms of using the internet, we also must not dismiss the potential positive impact it could have on their lives, too, including their wellbeing.
Eliza Frost is a freelance journalist
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