Structural effects of social networks on academic performance and youth: an analysis from the age of emptiness

Vásquez M.S.M.; Garay N.J.S.; Champi M.N.P.; Mañaccasa E.M.R. · Encuentros (Maracaibo) (2026) · DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20940440

Resumen

A significant body of literature, both scientific and popular, describes the harmful role of inappropriate social media use among young people. The problems identified are associated with seven effects: anxiety and depression, sleep disturbances, social isolation, poor concentration, cyberbullying, grooming, exposure to morally inappropriate content/disinformation, and a platform for sexual exploitation and abuse. Since the variable of time spent on social media underlies all these factors, this literature often refers to problems as “addiction” or “dependence.” Combining both approaches, it is proposed that the harmful effect of social media does not have a purely technological cause, but rather stems from the cultural shift experienced by post-war generations, known until now as the postmodern era, or the era of emptiness—a shift that predates both the existence and the boom of social media. Thus, this research suggests that technology is not the cause of the rise of the seven problems, but rather that the overlooked factor is postmodern cultural change, amplified by the desires of the users themselves. To contextualize the proposal, the use of social networks and academic performance in students of the Faculty of Education at the Federico Villarreal National University were related using a probabilistic statistical method, concluding that both variables are interrelated, but also related to the expansive fields of meaning of the era of emptiness, as a model of human being and society.

Instituciones: Universidad de San Martín de Porres; Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal