Hot warning when students live more in virtual life than in real life

TPO - Every day, many high school students spend 2 to 4 hours surfing social networks, some even spend up to 8 hours online. Behind the status lines, short clips or likes are a series of consequences: declining academic performance, narrowing real-life communication, even falling into a state of loneliness and depression. Experts warn that when "virtual living" becomes a habit, many young people are gradually losing skills and emotions in real life.

Báo Tiền Phong•22/10/2025

High school students use social media for 2-4 hours a day. Experts warn that people who are “addicted” to social media face many risks, including neglecting their personal lives, being scammed, and even experiencing symptoms of depression.

According to DataReportal, as of January 2024, Vietnam is estimated to have 72.70 million social network "user accounts", equivalent to 73.3% of the population, of which the number of students using social networks accounts for a large number.

Students spend a lot of time every day using social networks. A survey by lecturers of the Faculty of Psychology - Education , Hanoi National University of Education on the behavior of expressing themselves on social networks of high school students in Hanoi has just been published, showing that more than 30% of students spend 2-4 hours/day surfing social networks; nearly 21% of students use 1-2 hours/day. In particular, some students use social networks from 6-8 hours/day.

Of which, 73.2% of secondary school students use Tiktok, 66.4% use Facebook and 67.7% use Youtube.

Students spending too much time using phones and social networks will affect their concentration in studying.

In particular, the trend of high school students spending time on social networks is increasing. They use their real names, real photos, and even reveal information about their date of birth, personal phone number, school, address, etc., leading to risks to the safety of young people.

Young people face many risks

Lecturer Nguyen Quang Anh - Expert from the Faculty of Psychology and Education - Hanoi National University of Education warns that many students use social networks to communicate and "live virtually" rather than practice real-life skills.

From there, common negative issues arise in the online environment such as: online bullying, creating chat groups to boycott friends, over-expressing oneself, provocation between individuals and groups, and scheduling conflicts to be resolved with "fists"...

According to the survey, students who are "addicted" to social networks show signs of not caring about their personal lives, have mood swings, are depressed, and their academic performance is affected...

Another survey conducted at the University of Labor and Social Affairs also showed that many students have the habit of using social networks regularly, daily and more on weekends.

Specifically, on weekdays, the majority of students use social networks 4-5 hours/day (accounting for 62.5%), followed by 2-3 hours/day (accounting for more than 30%). The group using social networks less than 30 minutes/day accounts for a low percentage, only 1.6%.

In particular, on weekends, when asked, up to 38% of students said they use social networks an average of 5 hours/day.

According to experts, when students use unsafe or excessive social networking sites, it will lead to neglect of studies, work, lack of responsibility towards family, and disruption of social relationships.

Colonel Nguyen Hong Quan, Director of the Training Center - Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention ( Ministry of Public Security ) shared at the campaign "Not alone - Together online safety" that minors using social networks face many risks of bullying, threats, and malicious comments.

He warned that parents should not underestimate the risks in cyberspace. Children are exposed to bad information or are approached by bad people, sent obscene messages, shared sensitive videos , and controlled online...