Does more social media use make it more likely that adolescents will be cyberbullied? Well, both yes and no, according to new research from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Habib Niyaraq Nobakht, a postdoc at NTNU's Department of Psychology has analyzed data from 781 adolescents from Trondheim. He worked with Lars Wichstrøm and Silje Steinsbekk, both professors at the same department.

The adolescents were interviewed every two years from age 12 to 18 about their social media use and experiences of cyberbullying.

The researchers measured two types of social media use: Self-oriented use, which captures posting updates and photos on one’s own profile; and Other-oriented use, which captures liking and commenting on others’ posts.

“Postaholics” at higher risk

The researchers found that adolescents who, on average, post updates and photos more than their peers report more cyberbullying victimization.

But they also found that when a particular adolescent increased their own usual level of posting updates and photos, this did not mean that they would be more likely to be cyberbullied two years later.

Liking and commenting on others’ posts was not significantly related to victimization, however

In sum, adolescents who are “online oversharers” or “postaholics” are overall at higher risk of being bullied online.

But an adolescent who increases their usual level of posting is not necessarily at increased risk of being cyberbullied in the following years.

Practical implications

So, what are the practical implications of these findings?

“Simply telling adolescents to reduce their social media use is unlikely to prevent cyberbullying. Prevention should focus beyond reducing individual social media posting and move toward structural and social interventions at the platform, policy, and school levels,” Nobakht said.

He said this could include moderation of harmful content and bullying behaviour on social media platforms, government policies regarding use of social media such as age limits, and teaching adolescents about digital wellbeing as well as promoting healthy peer dynamics.