Big Data Dilemma: The Psychological Impact on Adolescents

Abstract

Big data, characterized by its vast volume, has revolutionized the landscape of information analytics across multiple domains. While recording digital footprints that users generate online, the big data learns the preferences of each user and thus can form precise user images, which helps marketing for major companies. By implementing content recommendation mechanism based on the big data, users, including a great number of adolescents, are constantly impacted by it. This research mainly investigates big data algorithms' influence on adolescent’s psychological state. By examining big data's impact on adolescent’s stress levels and cognitive growth, this study reveals both positive and negative effects on their psychological health, including increased engagement, improved social skill, alongside with potential risk of social media addiction, decreased self-confidence and higher level of anxiety. Improper usage can worsen psychological issues, while proper implementation allows early detection and intervention. This study integrates and summarizes current understanding big data and adolescent psychological health, discusses potential effects on adolescents and proposes future challenges with solutions.