For Gen Alpha, social girlhood no longer takes place only in school or on the playground. It plays out online, through social media and online trends that will be the topics of discussion with friends the next day.
To better understand how girls feel about and use digital platforms, the Girl Scouts of the USA commissioned a survey of 1,000 Black and Hispanic girls last summer. The results shed light on why girls spend time online and how they feel about the digital spaces they occupy.
The discourse comes at a time when schools across the country are rolling out cellphone bans in hopes of ensuring students focus on classwork, and federal lawmakers are discussing outright banning children under 13 from using social media.
“Ultimately, the takeaway isn’t that devices are inherently good or bad — it’s that intentional use, and intentional disconnection, matter,” Danielle Shockey, Girls Scouts of the USA’s chief experience officer, told EdSurge via email.
A recent report from France’s health agency adds to evidence that girls are more vulnerable than boys to the negative effects of social media: bullying, gender shaming and social pressure.
“Social networks contribute to adolescent socialization and social construction, they provide continuity with the world offline, encompassing both its good points and its flaws,” Thomas Bayeux, a socio-economic project manager with the agency, told the Conversation France. “There is no watertight barrier between what happens offline and what happens on social media”
Shockey says it’s normal for kids and teens to feel they’re missing out when they’re not online, but grown-ups can help them learn to unplug and manage those feelings confidently.
“As girls become more socially aware, they naturally want to stay connected and included. But when that fear of missing out is constant, it can deepen feelings of loneliness — something we know is already prevalent among girls, based on our 2024 research,” she says. “When adults normalize FOMO and help girls practice re-engaging, we reduce the power social media has to make them feel left behind.”
Pressure to Be Online
Nearly all the girls who were surveyed said they spend time online, with about 60 percent of girls ages 5 to 7 logging online daily. Among girls ages 8 to 13, 43 percent said they’re online three or more hours per day.
A large proportion — 46 percent — of girls said they felt pressure to be online even when they didn’t feel like it for fear of missing out on what their friends were talking about. Girls 11 to 13 felt that pressure the most strongly.
Alongside social pressure, older girls especially were likely to also say they went online to stay connected to friends and family and to learn or improve on activities they enjoy. Like adults, girls go online to stay on top of trends that interest their age group.
The Girl Scouts survey took a creative route to gauge girls’ attachment to their devices and feelings about disconnecting: by asking how they would feel going on vacation to a place with no internet. About 40 percent of girls of all ages said they would rather skip vacation than go somewhere without online access.
Shockey says it’s normal for kids to feel a little conflicted about vacations, which means being away from friends.
“What’s changed is that, with phones and social media, kids rarely have to actually be disconnected. A vacation without Wi-Fi is now a genuinely unfamiliar experience for many of them, and our data reflects that,” she says. “We included this question to understand how attached kids are to their devices, and how the prospect of being disconnected — or missing out — shapes their emotions, expectations, and decision-making.”
Considering the Consequences
The Girl Scouts’ report authors worried that messages are not reaching girls about how what they post online now could affect them in life later.
Nearly 80 percent of girls ages 11 to 13 said they understand that what they post online now can affect them later in life. That figure drops to 52 percent and below for younger age groups.
Shockey says that it’s important for girls to understand that while what they post online may seem harmless, their digital footprint can be tough to erase. A negative comment about a school, company or person could matter if the girl applies for a job, internship or leadership opportunity down the road.
“That content may resurface years later and shape how they’re perceived as students, employees, or community members,” Shockey says. “These findings reinforce the importance of early guidance — both from parents and trusted adults — and the role of digital literacy education. By helping girls think critically about what they share and why, and by giving them tools to navigate online spaces safely and confidently, we can empower them to protect themselves now and set themselves up for future success.”
Learning to Unplug
Girls say they’re not the only ones who are habitual scrollers. Roughly half of girls said they have trouble getting their parents’ attention because the adults in the house are distracted by their own phones.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than half of girls go online to combat boredom.
Recent research found that while screen time alone doesn’t appear to have a negative effect on teens’ mental health, adults shouldn’t ignore how young people are experiencing interactions like “hurtful messages, online pressures and extreme content.” It echoes the Girl Scouts report’s point that parents have the greatest power to influence how girls interact with and think about their relationships with digital platforms.
“Rather than blaming technology itself, we need to pay attention to what young people are doing online, who they’re connecting with and how supported they feel in their daily lives,” Neil Humphrey, a University of Manchester professor and study co-author, told the Guardian.
Shockey hopes that adults can use the report’s findings to help girls build healthier online habits and encourage in-person connection.
“We want parents to use this research as a starting point to check in with their girls about how screen time fits into their lives, and how it makes them feel,” she says. “Many of us — adults included — can relate to being online without really enjoying it, mindlessly scrolling and wondering where the time went.”
