PISA and social media use
PISA is the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment involving around 86 countries and 700,000 participating students to compare educational systems. It measures 15-year-olds’ ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges, not school curricula mastery. The assessment consists of a 2-hour computer-based test with open-ended and multiple-choice questions. It has been held every three years, but after PISA 2025 it will change to every four years. Singapore came top in all three categories in PISA 2022.
It is very common these days to hear that social media usage is bad for young people. It is interesting to reflect on whether there is actually any good evidence to inform the debate. In addition to the 2-hour computer-based test, PISA also conducts a survey on the students’ background. In PISA 2022, the survey, conducted in 47 countries, asked over 270,000 15- to 16-year-olds how many hours a day they spent using social media and how satisfied they were with their lives. Among girls, mean life satisfaction was highest among light users of social media (less than an hour a day) and declined with further hours of use. Among boys, this pattern held only in Western Europe and English-speaking countries. In other words, perhaps a little bit of social media usage is good but not too much.
