Adapted from BMJ 21-28 Feb 2026
The relation between social media use and adolescent wellbeing may not be as simple and linear as many people believe.
In a large Australian cohort followed over three years, moderate after school social media use was associated with better wellbeing than either heavy use or none at all.
(JAMA Pediatr doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.5619).
Although heavy users were more likely to report low wellbeing in early adolescence, non-users had worse outcomes later on. The patterns varied by sex and age.
My comment: I understand that Australia is planning to ban smart phone use in schools and that some schools in the UK want this or are already doing this now.
Smart phones are little personalised computers that can be used as blood glucose monitors, with the right equipment, calculators, dictionaries, fact checkers, spelling checkers, payment systems, foreign language tutors, game consoles, alarm clocks, fitness checkers, social media hubs, weather forecasters, newspaper sources, bus and train timetables and purchases, and can enable family to keep in touch with their child and vice versa. I can easily see why they could be of real use to everyone and a loss to schoolchildren, particularly type one diabetics, who use them responsibly.
Unfortunately they can also be a source of harm, particularly regarding mental health, when online bullying occurs.
My children are now adults and small mobile phones were around when they were teenagers but since neither myself or my husband had smart phones we never considered getting them for our children. The iphone came out in the USA in 2007 and cost $495-$595 dollars. The only children who had smart phones were those children who came from disadvantaged homes, who were paid £30 a week to attend school. The more affluent working and middle class kids didn’t have them. The Freestyle Libre hadn’t yet been invented and wouldn’t be for a considerable time.
I can see that a blanket ban on smartphones would have disadvantages. If I had had one as a teenager, I can see that it would have been marvellous for all school work, homework, getting to school and even getting up in the morning. The single subject that it would have boosted enormously was language learning. Struggling with a difficult mathematical or science topic? Calculus springs to mind. You tube video could probably explain it much better than some teachers. Although I think blanket bans go too far, I’m not sure what rules would need to be put in place to prevent misuse of social media and how these could be enforced. It’s a problem that I avoided but something that at least some of you will need to decide now or in the future.
Diabetes Diet 