Does Early Access to Social Media Harm Later Learning? New Evidence from Italy

— Jon and ZachDoes Early Access to Social Media Harm Later Learning? New Evidence from ItalyBy Marco Gui and Giovanni Maria AbbiatiOne of the most contentious questions in the debate over children and social media is surprisingly simple: does it matter when young people first join social media? There is evidence that early access to smartphones and social media is associated with poor mental health outcomes, but what about academic outcomes? This means that our estimates capture the effects of early social media access through a personal smartphone, as the two phenomena are now largely inseparable for these cohorts. Future research will be able to tell whether this is one of the main mechanisms through which early social media use affects learning.