15/07/2026
Bretar gerðu eigindalega rannsókn/könnun á áhrifum mismunandi samfélagsmiðlabanna. Þar var m.a. talað við minnihlutahópa og þar kom fram að sumir nota samfélagsmiðla á annan hátt en meðal barnið - Surprise!
Neurodivergence, mental health needs, and other individual circumstances
For some participants, individual needs and circumstances appeared to shape how manageable the restrictions felt. Several families pointed to neurodivergence, mental health needs, or unusual social circumstances, for example homeschooling or recent school transitions, as factors that made standard restriction designs harder to sustain without modification.
In these accounts, phones and social media sometimes served functions beyond entertainment, including emotional regulation, distraction, routine, or social connection on manageable terms. Where this was the case, restrictions could feel more difficult, more distressing, or less proportionate than for other participants.
“I struggle a lot with my mental health and having my phone, to me, that’s a means of escape from… the reality of… my mind, if that makes sense. And my mind’s more so active at night. So having my means of escape basically taken away from me, it, it was just completely unfair because I didn’t really have… a way to distract myself.” – Child, Age 17, Intervention 2: Overnight Curfew
Differences by intervention type were again visible. In Intervention 2 (overnight curfew), evening restrictions could feel especially difficult where participants relied on phones at night for distraction or emotional management. In Intervention 3 [þar voru samfélagsmiðlaöpp fjarlægð], more comprehensive removal of access could feel particularly abrupt where social media formed part of routine, coping, or controlled social contact. In Intervention 1 (daily limit), although the restriction was less absolute, repeated moments of cut-off could still be experienced as disruptive where participants depended on continuity of contact.
These cases were not consistent across the whole sample, but they suggest that individual needs could shape both the emotional impact of the interventions and how proportionate or manageable they felt.
Fyrir þá sem hafa áhuga á því að kynna sér þessa rannsókn þá er hún hér
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